The students in Ms. Smith’s class come in from recess having an argument. Ms. Smith asks the children about the
argument, and it soon becomes clear that the children can’t decide who is the biggest in the class. Why might the
children be confused about this question?
To settle the matter, Ms. Smith divides her class up into groups, and gives each group a different item to
use:
- One group gets a ball of yarn.
- One group gets a stack of math textbooks.
- One group gets an unsharpened pencil.
- One group gets a playground ball.
- One group gets a yard stick (a 3-foot ruler).
How could the children in each group use this item to help them answer the question? Be extremely specific.
Which item given to the groups is the most useful? Which item is the least useful?
Come up with at least one way that each item could be misused for answering this question.
In what other ways could the children in Ms. Smith’s class try to determine which child is the biggest?
2025-09-28 03:20:39