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Olympic Metric Conversions

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  Document Type: Lesson Plan
  Lesson Plan Type: Interactive Instruction
  Subject: Mathematics
  Grade Level: 6,7,8,9,10
  Time: 55 minutes
  Last Updated: 02-04-2010
     
  Keywords:
     
     
 
Created/Provided by:
NBC Learn
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Students will practice their skills in unit conversions by converting dimensions and speeds found in various Olympic competitions. They will also calculate average speeds of gold medal winners in certain 2006 Olympic events. Students will have extension activities in creative writing and creating scale drawings.

  
 
PROCEDURES
 
Goal(s):
Students will reinforce skills of unit conversions while they explore dimensions and speeds of various Olympic competitions. Students will also compare and contrast these dimensions and speeds to those in their everyday lives.
 
Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:
  1. Convert from metric units to English units.
  2. Convert from English units to metric units.
  3. Convert Speeds from English units to metric units.
  4. Convert Speeds from metric units to English units.
 
Required Materials:
Materials will depend upon the method of conversion. Some teachers may allow students to use calculators or even unit conversion programs on phones or computers. Paper and pencils may be required to show calculations.
 
Anticipatory Set (Lead-in):
How many of you like to go fast? What are some of the fastest speeds you have experienced, both motorized and without motors? How do we determine the speed of any object? (Discuss the need to measure distance and time). How do we decide what is the correct choice of distance units, in other words, why would we choose mm, cm, or m? What about times, how do we know whether to measure in seconds, minutes, hours, or a combination? Today we are going to explore dimensions and speeds in winter Olympic competitions. To begin, we are going to look at the role of math, in general, in the winter Olympic games.
 
Lesson Plan Procedure:
  1. Show the NBC Learn Video: Mathletes
  2. After the video, briefly discuss with the class the role of math in the Olympics.
  3. Explain that the day’s activity involves unit conversions. Depending upon the abilities of your class, at this point you will either need to do a short review, or a more extensive lesson on unit conversions.
  4. Depending upon your particular curriculum objectives, you can have students perform conversions either by hand or using electronic aids from calculators to unit conversion technologies on cell phones and computers.
  5. There are many variations to this activity. In the simplest one, you can ask for volunteer students to briefly discuss and describe the sports listed in the attached tables and then give students time to complete the conversions.
  6. The attached tables are only a guide for this activity. As an extension or as homework, there are blank rows at the bottom of each one, and you can require students to research other sports and statistics of interests and record them in the blank spaces.
 
Closure (Reflect Anticipatory Set):
Review the answer to selected problems. Students will be particularly interested with the distances of ski jumping, the speeds of bobsleds, and downhill ski racing. Discuss the difference between the average bobsled and downhill speeds to the values obtained in the “approximate top speeds” table. (This was discussed in the video, and you might want to discuss the difference between instantaneous velocity and average velocity.) You may also want to discuss why most of the units given in the table below and on international websites are metric, and only a few like curling and snowboarding are listed in English units. Like it or not, the world is getting smaller and more competitive, and metric units are the global norm so we need to learn understand and use them.
 
Assessments & notes
 
Plan for Independent Practice:
Students can do their own web based research on statistics or dimensions found in other sports or activities and add them to the attached tables.
 
Assessment Based on Objectives:
Quizzes can easily be created by editing the tables below.
 
Possible Connections to Other Subjects:
Language Arts: Write a creative essay describing a day where you awoke and all units were listed in metric. What challenges would you face? How often do we encounter units in daily life?
 
Adaptations & Extensions:
In addition to the tables below, students can be asked to make other conversions (e.g. 32.2 seconds is how many hours, or 95.5 mi/hr is how many feet per second).
 
Additional Notes:
This lesson plan is open to all levels of students. Teachers should adapt lesson to meet their particular curriculum goals.
 
 
 
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Submitted by NBCLearn on Sat, 01/23/2010 - 00:16


Title:

Olympic Metric Conversions

Grade Level:

6,7,8,9,10

Subject:

Mathematics

Author:

nbclearn

Time:

55 minutes

Lesson Plan Type:

Interactive Instruction

Keywords:

Olympics, Metric System, Unit Conversions

Brief Description:

Students will practice their skills in unit conversions by converting dimensions and speeds found in various Olympic competitions. They will also calculate average speeds of gold medal winners in certain 2006 Olympic events. Students will have extension activities in creative writing and creating scale drawings.

  

Related Links:

Link 1:
Link 2:

Goal(s):

Students will reinforce skills of unit conversions while they explore dimensions and speeds of various Olympic competitions. Students will also compare and contrast these dimensions and speeds to those in their everyday lives.

Specific Objectives:

Students will be able to:
  1. Convert from metric units to English units.
  2. Convert from English units to metric units.
  3. Convert Speeds from English units to metric units.
  4. Convert Speeds from metric units to English units.

Required Materials:

Materials will depend upon the method of conversion. Some teachers may allow students to use calculators or even unit conversion programs on phones or computers. Paper and pencils may be required to show calculations.

Anticipatory Set (Lead-in):

How many of you like to go fast? What are some of the fastest speeds you have experienced, both motorized and without motors? How do we determine the speed of any object? (Discuss the need to measure distance and time). How do we decide what is the correct choice of distance units, in other words, why would we choose mm, cm, or m? What about times, how do we know whether to measure in seconds, minutes, hours, or a combination? Today we are going to explore dimensions and speeds in winter Olympic competitions. To begin, we are going to look at the role of math, in general, in the winter Olympic games.

Lesson Plan Procedure:

  1. Show the NBC Learn Video: Mathletes
  2. After the video, briefly discuss with the class the role of math in the Olympics.
  3. Explain that the day’s activity involves unit conversions. Depending upon the abilities of your class, at this point you will either need to do a short review, or a more extensive lesson on unit conversions.
  4. Depending upon your particular curriculum objectives, you can have students perform conversions either by hand or using electronic aids from calculators to unit conversion technologies on cell phones and computers.
  5. There are many variations to this activity. In the simplest one, you can ask for volunteer students to briefly discuss and describe the sports listed in the attached tables and then give students time to complete the conversions.
  6. The attached tables are only a guide for this activity. As an extension or as homework, there are blank rows at the bottom of each one, and you can require students to research other sports and statistics of interests and record them in the blank spaces.

Closure (Reflect Anticipatory Set):

Review the answer to selected problems. Students will be particularly interested with the distances of ski jumping, the speeds of bobsleds, and downhill ski racing. Discuss the difference between the average bobsled and downhill speeds to the values obtained in the “approximate top speeds” table. (This was discussed in the video, and you might want to discuss the difference between instantaneous velocity and average velocity.) You may also want to discuss why most of the units given in the table below and on international websites are metric, and only a few like curling and snowboarding are listed in English units. Like it or not, the world is getting smaller and more competitive, and metric units are the global norm so we need to learn understand and use them.

Plan for Independent Practice:

Students can do their own web based research on statistics or dimensions found in other sports or activities and add them to the attached tables.

Assessment Based on Objectives:

Quizzes can easily be created by editing the tables below.

Possible Connections to Other Subjects:

Language Arts: Write a creative essay describing a day where you awoke and all units were listed in metric. What challenges would you face? How often do we encounter units in daily life?

Adaptations and Extensions:

In addition to the tables below, students can be asked to make other conversions (e.g. 32.2 seconds is how many hours, or 95.5 mi/hr is how many feet per second).

Additional Notes:

This lesson plan is open to all levels of students. Teachers should adapt lesson to meet their particular curriculum goals.


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