Alternative Record Book

In which Olympic event does a human travel fastest? Decide which events to include in your Alternative Record Book.

New Units for Old

Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Why do this problem ?

This important problem will lead to a thorough understanding, and demystification of, the various units which exist. Students will enage in a variety of problem solving strategies in its solution.

Possible approach

This question initially appears to be quite demanding. Provide a printout of the data to each student. Which units are already known? Suggest that these first be crossed off, with the results tabulated elsewhere. This will significantly reduce the scale of the problem.

Key questions

Are there any obvious pieces of data with which to start?

Possible extension

Extension activities are given in the question. Can students find examples for each of the units?

Possible support

Create cards for a team card sorting exercise, allowing students to move the various data around physically.

As a warm-up, you might try Choose your units.

Energy. engineering. Investigations. Mathematical modelling. Converting between units. Dimensional analysis. biology. physics. Non-standard units. chemistry.

You may also like