Expected level of development
Australian Curriculum Mathematics V9: AC9M5M01
Numeracy Progression: Understanding units of measurement: P8
At this level, students choose appropriate metric units measuring the length, mass and capacity of objects.
Use explicit teaching and the use of practical tasks to select and use appropriate units of measurement.
Students choose appropriate units of measurement and recognise that some units of measurement are better suited for some tasks than others. Provide measurement tasks and problems that require students to reason which unit is most suitable to achieve a more accurate measure.
Support students to determine which unit to use in certain situations and when converting between lengths. Through explicit teaching, demonstrate how to convert between units.
Investigate alternative measures of scale to demonstrate that these vary between countries and change over time, for example, imperial units of measurement used in USA (inches, feet and miles).
Introduce common prefixes, for example, when used in conjunction with metre:
- centi refers to one-hundredth of a metre
- milli is one-thousandth of a metre
- hecto means one hundred times larger than a metre
- kilo means one thousand times larger than a metre.
Develop benchmarks for standard units of measure such as a metre, a centimetre and a millimetre. This will help students choose appropriate units. The same principles can be applied when measuring area, volume, capacity and mass.
Teaching and learning summary:
- Provide relevant opportunities for students to select and use appropriate units.
- Introduce common prefixes.
- Explicitly teach how to convert between units of measurement.
- Investigate alternative measures of scale.
The Learning from home activities are designed to be used flexibly by teachers, parents and carers, as well as the students themselves. They can be used in a number of ways including to consolidate and extend learning done at school or for home schooling.
Learning intention
- We are learning how to measure the capacity of containers.
- We are exploring how various containers have different capacities.
Why are we learning about this?
- We are learning about capacity to build measurement skills.
What to do
|
Container |
Estimated capacity |
Actual capacity |
|---|---|---|
2. Order the containers from the container that holds the most to the one that holds the least.
Success criteria
I can:
- estimate and measure capacity using metric units
- use millilitres (mL) and litres (L) to describe capacity.
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Teaching strategies
A collection of evidence-based teaching strategies applicable to this topic. Note we have not included an exhaustive list and acknowledge that some strategies such as differentiation apply to all topics. The selected teaching strategies are suggested as particularly relevant, however you may decide to include other strategies as well.
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Explicit teaching
Explicit teaching is about making the learning intentions and success criteria clear, with the teacher using examples and working though problems, setting relevant learning tasks and checking student understanding and providing feedback.
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Questioning
A culture of questioning should be encouraged and students should be comfortable to ask for clarification when they do not understand.
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Mathematics investigation
By giving students meaningful problems to solve they are engaged and can apply their learning, thereby deepening their understanding.
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Teaching resources
A range of resources to support you to build your student's understanding of these concepts, their skills and procedures. The resources incorporate a variety of teaching strategies.
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Osprey bird dimensions
In this lesson, students investigate measurement data related to the osprey.
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What’s a gram?
Students investigate the difference between a gram and a kilogram through looking at the relative sizes of measurement units.
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What’s a kilogram?
Students determine equivalent conversions between grams and kilograms, and understand relative sizes of measurement units.
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How far is a kilometre?
In this unit, students explore the size of a kilometre and the time it takes to cover this distance.
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Taking off
The two activities here are based on the fact that a plane can’t take off if its mass exceeds a carefully calculated limit.
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Weighty problems
This unit comprises of six problems for students to apply and interpret measurement of mass. Students are also introduced to the concepts of net and gross mass.
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Dynamic darts
Measurement skills include being able to use devices, read scales, estimate, choose appropriate units, interchange units, round, interpret a decimal point, and assess the sensibleness of a result.
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Bouncing back
Students work out how to accurately measure the height of a ball bounce.
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How close, how far?
This lesson provides an authentic context in which to develop skills of estimation and measuring length.
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Fill it up
Students solve problems involving capacity and measure capacity in millilitres.
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Eyeball estimates
This is a level 3 link measurement activity from the Figure It Out series. It is focused on making estimates of measurements. A PDF of the student activity is included.
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Books in boxes
This is a level 4 measurement activity from the Figure It Out series. It is focused on solving problems with mass and volume. A PDF of the student activity is included.This is a level 4 measurement activity from the Figure It Out series. It is focused on solving problems with mass and volume. A PDF of the student activity is included.
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Egging you on
This is a level 4 measurement activity from the Figure It Out series. It is focused on measuring lengths and masses. A PDF of the student activity is included.
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