The New Neighbor

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The New Neighbor A WebQuest for 2nd Grade
(Measuring) Designed by Kendall
Potter     Based on a template from San
Diego State Universitys The WebQuest Page
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Introduction This activity is designed to be
performed after the students have read the book
How Tall, How Short, How Far Away? By David A.
Adler. This book explains the history of
measuring from the time that the Egyptians used
the units of cubics and spans to the Romans using
the units of paces, and to the now active
customary and metric systems. This webquest
helps the students to convert the customary units
to metric units in a practical and useful manner
through the help of certain websites.
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Learners The New Neighbor is made for 2nd grade
students to help them understand measuring. In
order to carry out this webquest, students must
know certain content prior to beginning this
activity. Prior Knowledge Needed - Units of
the customary system - Units used to measure
height, weight, and distance in the customary
system
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• Curriculum Standards
• Science Standards
• Tools are used to do things better or more easily
  and to do some things that could not otherwise be
  done at all. In technology, tools are used to
  observe, measure, and make things.
• People, alone or in groups, are always inventing
  new ways to solve problems and get work done. The
  tools and ways of doing things that people have
  invented affect all aspects of life.

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Curriculum Standards (continued) Math
Standards Understand measurable attributes of
objects and the units, systems, and processes of
measurement recognize the attributes of
length, volume, weight, area, and time
compare and order objects according to these
attributes understand how to measure using
nonstandard and standard units select an
appropriate unit and tool for the attribute being
measured. Apply appropriate techniques, tools,
and formulas to determine measurements
measure with multiple copies of units of the same
size, such as paper clips laid end to end
use repetition of a single unit to measure
something larger than the unit, for instance,
measuring the length of a room with a single
meterstick use tools to measure develop
common referents for measures to make
comparisons and estimates.
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• Process
• Students Process
• First you will be broken up into pairs of 2.
• Next you will take about 5 minutes to come up
  with a strategy or game plan for completing
  your task.
• Use the following websites to help you with your
  task
• Online Conversion Length
• Online Conversion Weight
• Mapquest
• Once you have found all the answers to Thomas
  questions, you need to tell Thomas.
• 5. Create a way to tell Thomas what you found.
  (Ex. Create a play, write a letter)
• The lesson will take about 3 or 4 periods. The
  students will need 1 to 2 periods to find all the
  conversions and 1 whole period to design their
  creative method to tell Thomas their findings. A
  final period will be needed for the students to
  present their methods.

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Process (continued)

• Students are grouped into pairs, but this doe
  not need to be done in a specific manner. Pairs
  can be done at random or done to fit for
  strengths and weaknesses.
• Variations
• This webquest is easy to manipulate. It can be
  changed to incorporate more skills, such as
  having to find the average height and weight of a
  person at a certain age to use for the
  conversion, or to require math conversions done
  on paper, as well as, the conversions found on
  the websites.
• Depending on the age and skills of the students
  this webquest can be varied to fit most
  elementary grades. Also, this webquest can be
  done during a science or math period, due to the
  high math content.

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Resources Needed The following resources will
be needed in order for this webquest to be
successful - Class set of How Tall, How
Short, How Far Away? by David Adler -
Computers with internet access (a computer lab
may be best) - Materials to aid in the final
creation ex. Markers, crayons, large pieces of
paper - 1 Teacher - Students
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Evaluation
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Evaluation (continued)
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Conclusion Through this webquest students will
learn more about the customary and metric
systems. They will learn about the units used for
different measurements (height, weight, etc) and
the methods of converting customary to metric.
This webquest is a practical use of math and
measuring. In a day and age where the world is
becoming smaller through increased technology, it
is important for students to adapt a more global
view. This webquest helps student to see
differences between the country they live in and
other countries.
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Credits References Books How Tall, How Short,
How Far Away? by David A. Adler Websites Teache
r Web Children Growing Fell 2
Earth Outer-Court Computers A special
thanks to Taskstream for their useful rubrics.