how tall is the school? - inquiry documentation.pdf

8/14/2019 How tall is the school? - inquiry documentation.pdf

1/17

CONNECTION & INVITATION

Connecting & Inviting: The Form of our classroom

Page 1

One day when we came back from music, Ms. Alison started talking

about some things shed noticed about our classroom:

Ms. Alison: I noticed that the lamp is taller than the iPad. I also noticedthat our upper-case letter Star Name is taller than our lower-case letter

Star Name.

She then unlocked our thinking with the form

concept key and asked us what we noticed.

Denzil: The books are bigger than the iPhone.

Ms. Alison: Is that true?

Everybody: Yes.

Ms. Alison: How do you know? Which way bigger? Taller? Longer?

Denzil:Taller.

Zoe: Taller AND longer!

Ms. Alison: What else do you notice about the form of the classroom?

Denzil: The rocking horse is bigger than the computer.

Ms. Alison: What do you mean by bigger?

Denzil: Like that! [arms go out lengthwise]

Ms. Alison: So then its longer. It stretches out more that way.Aziz: The fridge is bigger than the lamp.

Ms. Alison: What do you mean by bigger?

Aziz: Taller. Its like this big! [stretches arms out lengthwise]

Ms. Alison: Oh, so its also longer?

Emma: Its taller AND longer!

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2/17

Page 2

INVITATION TO TENSION

Feeling the Tension: What wereconfused about & want to know

Denzil: CIS [Denzils old school] is bigger than ISS because it has more

floors.

Ms. Alison: ISS has 3 floors. Do you know how many floors CIS has?

Denzil: 100

Ms. Alison: So, is ISS taller or shorter than CIS?

Denzil & Zoe: Shorter

Ms. Alison: Does everyone agree?

Everyone: Yes.

Ms. Alison: How tall do you think ISS is?

We showed each other our ideas using our words and bodies.

Ms. Alison: Great ideas.How do you think we could find out, though,

exactly how tall the school is?

Zoe: Maybe its as high as a rainbow.

Denzil: Maybe its as high as the fridge.

Daniel: Maybe its taller than the purple [face hanging in the classroom].

Aziz: Maybe its taller than the mailbox.

Denzil:Maybe its taller than cookie monster.

Ms. Alison: But how can we find out?

Zoe: Maybe its taller than a dragon!

Denzil: Maybe its as tall as a giraffe.

Emma:And that is as tall as a hippopotamus.

Zoe:And its also like a dinosaur! Rawrrr!

As tall as

me. (Denzil)

This tall! (Aziz) Like a

jump! (Daniel)

This tall! (Zoe)

Like this. (Lea) This. (Wilma)

Like this. (Emma) This. (Axel)


3/17

TENSION TO INVESTIGATION

Finding Out: The Big Road Block (Tension)

Page 3

A teachers analysis:As I listened to the conversation, I was looking for theories, misunderstandings,

key vocabulary words and concepts to emerge. I noticed that the children had a strong concept of

comparison in that they were using their knowledge of how tall other things in the world are to describe

the height of objects in our classroom. I also noticed that they knew the words tall and high, but often

relied on a vague word like bigger to describe different dimensions. The children relied on making

guesses and predictions, framed in the context of comparison, when asked about finding out the height

of the school. They did not seem to be aware of, or at least making the connection to, measurement

tools. They were not thinking about what action they could take to find out, but were determined that

they could already give the answer through comparison. Perhaps this indicated their lack of experience

with formal measurement or lack of awareness of measurement tools, or perhaps the school was just too

big an object to consider measuring. So I asked the same question about an object that was visible from

top to bottom and could feasibly be measured by the children if they wished to do so:

Ms. Alison: So, these are our theories. Our guesses using what we know right now. But how can we find out really and exactly how tall the schoolis? What can we do to find out?

Aziz: Maybe its as tall as the red face.

Denzil: Maybe its as tall as the screen up there pulled up.

Ms. Alison: Maybe. But how can we really know? What can we do to find out? Does anyone have any ideas about what materials we could use,what parts of our bodies, what activities we need to do?

Denzil: Maybe it is as tall as the red face.

Zoe: Or taller than a T-Rex!

Lea: Or taller than a tree!

Denzil: Maybe its as tall as you [Ms. Alison]!

Everyone: Or taller!!

Ms. Alison: If I wanted to find out how tall this lamp is what could I do?

Aziz & Denzil: Its this tall! [hop up and put their bodies next to it, raising hands to point to the top]

Ms. Alison: So youre showing us with your bodies. Can you show us how tall the school is using your bodies?

Daniel: We cant see right now because were inside the school!

So . . . we went outside!


4/17

INVESTIGATION

Becoming Scientists: The Investigation

Page 4

We went outside to the playground and looked up.

Ms. Alison: Do you know how tall the school is now?

Everyone: No, we cant see! [the mesh covering over the sandbox was

in our way]

Lea: Lets go somewhere else.

So we went to the other side of the school to see if we could figure it out

from a different perspective.

Ms. Alison: Do you know how tall the school is now?

Zoe: Its like a 12 story giant!Emma: You know my brothers school [the middle school] is taller than

this school.

Denzil: Maybe its as tall as the tree.

Emma: The school is bigger than the bus.

Denzil: Maybe its as tall as Bumblebee (the Transformer).

Ms. Alison: So we still want to know exactly how tall the school is. What

do we need to do?

Zoe: We need to climb up there!

Violett: Were so tiny and the school is bigger than us.

Lea: Yeah, exactly. We need to go up.

So we climbed up all of the stairs to the third floor of the school and

looked from another perspective: down!

A view from the bottom: looking up

A view from the top: looking down


5/17

INVESTIGATION

Theories Part 2: Sketching our Ideas for Finding Out

Page 5

Once wed taken two different perspectives and approaches to finding out how tall the school was it was time to brainstorm and engage with somemore ideas. We grabbed our Maths journals and made sketches representing some new approaches to finding out.

We can go up in the school

with a map. (Violett)

Make a pile of tissues and

climb up. (Daniel)

We can climb up the steps or

use a ladder. (Denzil)

Superman can fly up. (Axel)

Climb up a dinosaur. (Aziz) We need to go to the roof through a hole.

The grass makes you jump high. (Lea)

We can climb up a

ladder. (Zoe)

We go up the stairs so we can see the

school better. We can also go up in an

elevator. Emma


6/17

Page 6

INVESTIGATION

Researching our Theories Through Experimentation . . .. . . Climbing up a pile of tissuesMake a pile of tissues and

climb up. (Daniel)

Everyone got one tissue and we

piled them on top of each other. Then we tried to step on top.Zoe: Its too low!!

Daniel: We need bigger. These are very small tissues. We need lots of

tissues! We need one hundred. Ten hundred!

Ms. Alison: Thats a lot of tissues! I dont know if we have that many. Can

we use the tissues in a different way?

Zoe: We can make a ladder!

So we started to build ladders.

Zoe: Thats not a ladder! That is a toy ladder!

You need to stick it together like this.

Denzil: No I dont want to make a ladder. It

will fall. It will break.

Ms. Alison: So you dont think the tissues will be very useful then?

Denzil: Yeah they will but you need to tape them together.

Aziz: But they are still even coming apart like that!

Ms. Alison: Lets go outside

so we can compare how tall

our pile of tissues is to the

school.

Daniel: Its still not enough!

Maybe I can climb on all the

tissues in the roll. But its still

not tall!

We need more!

So we wrote a letter to Mr. Richard asking

for more tissues:

But there were not enoughtissues. So, we had to keep

searching for ways to

discover how tall the school

was. We went back to our

class chart which showed

our original theories.

#1


7/17

Page 7

INVESTIGATION

Researching our Theories Through Experimentation . . .. . . Going up the school with a mapWe can go up in the school

with a map. (Violett)

#2

Ms. Alison: Where can we get a map or how can we

make a map?

Lea: With paper.

Zoe: Maps are old and big. We can draw.

Lea: With pencils.

Denzil:And markers.

So we collected those materials and went to the table

to get started. Some of us started drawing right away

and some of us were stuck. Violett was the first to say

something:

Violett: Wait, I dont know how to draw a map!

Ms. Alison: Would you like to see some examples?

Everyone: YES!!

So Ms. Alison pulled out her map box and we explored some maps from around the

world. We then combined our prior knowledge and what we saw on the world maps to

create our own map to go up the school.

Our maps

showing how to

get up the school


8/17

Page 8

INVESTIGATION

Researching our Theories Through Experimentation . . .. . . Going up the school with a map

#2

...continued...Ms. Alison and Mrs. Mano photocopied the

maps we drew a made map books with all of our

ideas for each of us. We looked at our maps and

used the Think-Pair-Share thinking routine

to sort through our ideas individually, in groups

of two, and as a whole class.

Denzil: They look like scribble scrabble!

Ms. Alison: What do you mean?

Denzil:Some of these look like scribble

scrabble, like when you dont colour something

and you draw something messy.

Emma: I drew dots.

Ms. Alison: Lets turn to Emmas map in our

map booklets. Tell us about your map Emma.

In summary: What Our Maps Are

Telling Us & What We Need To Try

Emmas map:

Go around the school

Lea & Axels maps:

Go up the stairs

Zoes map: Go to a shop to get a ladder

Emma: The lines are for going to see how big the school is. If you go over here, then you go over here and then you go like this. We need to walk all

around the school.

Ms. Alison: Lea you also have dots on your map like Emma. Tell us about your map.

Lea: This is our classroom and we to go up, down, and around. And this is the top of the school. You just go outside and up like this.

Ms. Alison: How are we going up?

Lea: Were going up the stairs.

Ms. Alison: Thats an interesting idea because it connects to some of the other ideas we have. Lets look back at our theories.Two people said that we can go up the steps or climb the stairs.

Axel explained his map too. He also showed us going up the stairs! Then Zoe explained her map:

Zoe: We need to go out of the school and over to a shop and get a ladder.

Ms. Alison: Thats another interesting idea which is also connected to our first theories.

So Violetts idea of making a map has connected back to our other ideas of climbing up a ladder and climbing up the stairs!


9/17

Page 9

INVESTIGATION

Researching our Theories Through Experimentation . . .. . . Climbing up a ladder

#3We can . . . use a

ladder. (Denzil)

We can climb up a

ladder. (Zoe)

Zoe: We need to go to a store to get a ladder.

Ms. Alison: Where else could we get a ladder?

Denzil: Maybe at home.

Zoe:At the grocery store.Daniel: I know! We can make a ladder.

Ms. Alison: How can we make a ladder?

Lea: With cardboard.

Ms. Alison: Do you think there might be a ladder somewhere in the

school?

Everyone: No.

Denzil: I think we need a ladder that has a crank to make the ladder go

higher and higher and higher and higher!

We agreed to wait for a few days to see if anyone could see a ladder

around the school. Nobody saw one, except for Ms. Alison. She asked

Mrs. Mano if she could bring the ladder to our classroom:

Daniel: Make sure its very super tall!

Denzil:And it should even have a crank!

Zoe: This is not so tall, lets see.

Zoe & Emma: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7! [counting the steps of the ladder]

Someone else there were actually 8, so we counted all together and

found that if you include the top step of the ladder there are 8 steps of

the ladder.

Ms. Alison: Thats a really interesting strategy to use because you just

found out how many steps tall the ladder is! What strategy did they

use?

Denzil: Counting!

An Ah-ha! Moment

Emma and Zoe used counting as a strategy to find out

how tall the ladder was. This was the first time that

something other than comparison had been used to

describe height. After we pursued the ladder theory, I

would return to this strategy with the children.

Deciding

between twodifferent ladders:

one is shorter,

one is taller

When the

ladders

arrived . . .An opportunity to practice

our counting skills!


10/17

Page 10

INVESTIGATION

Researching our Theories ThroughExperimentation . . . Climbing up a ladder

#3

Daniel: This ladder is still too short though!

Ms. Alison: Should we take both ladders outside to see if they will help

us find out how tall the school is?

Everyone: YES!!

We went outside to the parking lot and each had a

chance to climb up the ladder. When each child was at

the top of the ladder, Ms. Alison asked:

Do you know how tall the school is now? Is this ladder

helping us?

Emma: This ladder is only about half [way up the

school] so we need a taller ladder.

Zoe: We still cant see the school up there so its not

helping us.

Denzil: Its very tall, but just not helping to know how

tall the school is.

Daniel: Its not tall enough!

Axel: Its like were climbing up in the sky!

So even though the ladder made us taller, it didnt tell us how tall the school is.

We could see a little bit better, but still couldnt really describe how

tall the school actually is in a way that everyone could understand.


11/17

Page 11

INVESTIGATION

Researching our Theories Through Experimentation . . .. . . The ones that just cant be tested

Superman can fly up. (Axel)

We need to go to the roof through a hole.The grass makes you jump high. (Lea)

Climb up a dinosaur. (Aziz)

Daniel: But theres no more dinosaurs.

And a dinosaur is too scary.

Denzil: Instead of dinosaurs Ill climb upa giant.

Aziz: My dad is a giant!

But when we went outside to look at the

school again, Aziz decided that his dad was

not giant enough to see the top of the school.

Some other children thought he might not want

all of us climbing on him either.

We kept track of our theories and whether they worked using a piece of

chart paper. We crossed out that ones that we had tried and didnt help us.

Lea:Actually we need a trampoline to do

that. The grass isnt jumpy.

Emma: We dont know him.

Denzil: That would mean magic.


12/17

Page 12

DEMONSTRATION

Demonstration: Some exposure to formal measurement

Free exploration of measurement tools: 2Watching videos about measurement & discussing

personal connections

3 Trash or Treasure?

1

We had time to freely explore measurement tools & demonstrate our

knowledge & theories about their different purposes.

We watched 3 videos about measurement that are stored on our Symbaloo

account. We were introduced to 2 big ideas:

1. Using different tools for different types of measurement

2. Using all sorts of different objects to measure height.

Now equipped with new

knowledge from the

measurement videos, we

returned to the measurement

tools from our free explorationtime. We used a thinking

routine called Trash or

Treasure to sort out which

tools we thought would be

useful for finding out how tall

the school is from those we

thought would not be useful.

TRASH

TREASURE


13/17

Page 13

INVESTIGATION/ REVISION

Revision: Developing New Theories &Adapting Old Ones

#4

We can climb up the

steps... (Denzil)

We go up the stairs so

we can see the school

better. We can also go

up in an

elevator. (Emma)

Dont forget Emma & Zoes Ah-ha! Moment!

Remember when Emma and Zoe used counting asa strategy to find out how tall the ladder was? It

was now time to return to that strategy and see if

we could apply it to our theory of climbing up the

steps to see how tall the school is.

We walked up the first set of the stairs and counted

independently. When we shared our answers with our friends we

realized that something was wrong: some our answers were

different! So we went back down again and counted together one

number for each stair. This time we all got 15!

Then we walked up the next set of stairs which was smaller.

Some of us started counting at 0. Some of us used the strategy

counting on to keep counting up from 15 since we knew there

were already that many steps. There were 5 more steps in this

set of stairs, which Daniel & Denzil told us meant 20all together!

The next set of stairs had 15 more steps, which Denzil told us

was 20 and 15and Daniel told us meant 35all together!

The final set of stairs had 5 more steps which all together was 40

steps.

Climbing up the steps: A Revised Theory

The school was 40 steps tall!!


14/17

Page 14

INVESTIGATION/ REVISION

Revision: Developing New Theories &Adapting Old Ones

#5

Using the Big Ruler & Measuring Strings: A New Theory

TREASUREDaniel: I think the string is too short.

Denzil: We can tape or glue them all together.Daniel: But we are not very high [tall]!

Ms. Alison: Well lets try it out. Lets bring the

measuring strings and some tape? Do you

remember how we taped our height chart to the

wall? Do you think we can use the same

strategy now?

Everyone: Yes.

Ms. Alison: Should we also bring the big ruler?

Denzil: No, its too short.

Daniel:And we only have one of them.

Aziz: Lets count it to see if its enough.

So Aziz and Denzil read the numbers that they

saw and knew on the big ruler, but they decided

it was still too short.

We went outside of the classroom and found awall space to start measuring. We agreed that

we would start with the first floor of the school.

Ms. Alison explained that when we measure for how tall something is (height), we

need to line up our measuring tool straight and start at the very bottom of the

object and go to the very top. So we lined up the measuring tape on the school

wall, starting at the floor.

Somebody noticed that there were so many numbers on the

measuring string. More than maybe we could even count!

Ms. Alison:At this end of the string it says 148. At the other

end it says 1 and theres a little 0 before that. Where do you

think is the best place to start counting from.

Everyone: 0 and 1!

So we taped the measuring strings to the wall very straight and

when we finished with the first string, we got another to keep

measuring, but it was getting to tall for us.

Everyone: We need the ladder again!

So we got the ladder and kept taping, but soon the string got to

tall for us again and we had to give up. There was no way of

getting any taller.


15/17

VALUATION

Valuation: What have we learned? Whats important?

Page 15

What was achieved? - A Teachers Analysis

An understanding that counting is connected to measurement

Application of measurement tools & concepts in play

Community involvement: many other people took an interest in our

work

Problem-solving & critical thinking

Real-life application of math concepts & skills to answer a real

question

Was anything missed?

From our valuation discussion &

other activities it seemed that

children were still not reliably using

specific vocabulary to describe

and compare measurements.

Words like big and small were

being used in place of words like

tall, short, and long.

Mr. Chan took this photo of us

from the second floor of theschool as he was walking by

one day.

Timetogobacktosomemoredemonstration!

What did we learn? - The Students Perspective

Aziz: We learned how tall the school is.

Daniel: The school is 40 steps tall!

Lea: We learned how to use the long things that count one by one

[measuring tapes or strings].

Daniel: Nobody is as tall as the school.

Violett: We learned how to climb tall, tall ladders.

Denzil: We used different things to measure. We learned that we can

measure all different things!

Aziz: We can use anything to measure! [non-standard measurement]Denzil: We used rulers to count and measure.

Daniel: Small tools for measuring are only good for small things.

The students also expressed lots of action theyd like to take, including

measuring more things around them like the fridge, the toilet, the

computer, and more!


16/17

DEMONSTRATION

Back to Demonstration

Page 16

Our Valuation discussion and dialogue during other measurement

activities we were involved in showed that the specific vocabulary we

knew to compare the height and length of objects was still developing. It

was time to review these words, keeping them in the context of ourmeasurement of the school.

We went outside to the parking lot to look at the school so we could see it

clearly and compare it to other things around. We focused on 3 main

words:

tall (or taller)

short (or shorter)

long (or longer)

We observed the school and the objects around it and made

comparisons. We made a list to keep track of our ideas.

When we came back inside we worked together as a group to

review the things that were taller, shorter and longer than the

school and the things that the school was taller, shorter and

longer than. We each completed our own page of work with

drawings representing our ideas.


17/17

ACTION

Taking Action: Applying & Extending Our Learning

Page 17

Weve continued to play with measurement tools and have

incorporated the concepts into our play. We are more

frequently using specific measurement vocabulary to compare

objects and are continuing to consolidate this knowledge.

This

one is longer

than this one!

This

tower is shorter

than me!

Measuring things

around the room.

how tall is the school? - inquiry documentation.pdf

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