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- CH 18|Overview & Teacher Resource Sheets
Measurement & Geometry
Chapter 18 | Location
Overview & Teacher Resource Sheets
Rich tasks
- These are problem solving open-ended questions related to the properties of 2-D and 3-D shapes that can be used at any point in the chapter. The tasks can be given at the start of a topic and done as the students gain enough knowledge to complete them, inserted into a topic at an appropriate place or given as homework or extension.
- Long lost cousin
- Photo Finish
> More on "Rich tasks for this Chapter"...
1. Long lost cousin
- You could use Task 1 as the basis of your teaching for this topic. Students will revisit knowledge and learn new skills as they complete the task.
- Encourage students to plan the task. They should decide on the tourist sites and which relatives to visit, and so on before starting.
- Most maps are available on the internet. Students may need to visit the local information centre to collect local maps. There may be a cost for some maps.
- This task could be linked with a social studies investigation about tourism, public transport and local facilities, such as shopping, recreational activities or other local issues in your area.
2. Photo finish
- This task will only be possible if an aerial photograph of your school is available.
- Students may have difficulty working out the scale of their map. Encourage them to discuss the inaccuracies involved in this task and that rounding and estimating is therefore appropriate. For example, if the distance between the buildings on the photo is 2.1 cm and in real life the distance is measured at 18.7 m, it is probably fine to estimate this scale as 2 cm represents about 20 m so 1 cm represents about 10 m. The amount of rounding will depend on the size and quality of the aerial photograph.
- An alternative activity is to give students cut outs of all of the school buildings and ask them to make a map of the school with the cut outs. Students could put their own grid on it and work out a scale and then make up a guided tour using their map.
- Students could use the Practical activity on page 310 Question 2 to work out where North Is.
- This task could be linked with Art and Design and Literacy. Students could make a school brochure including the history of the school, staff, school mission statement, guided tour for visitors, and so on.
Grid and coordinate references
- Describe the location of and locate places using grid references that have two letters and numbers and coordinate references that have two numbers on both axes.
> More on "Grid and coordinate references"...
Teaching ideas
This link displays the Getting started on page 291 for use as a class discussion.
This link displays the instructions for this game.
1. Get students to hold the ends of strings to create a grid on concrete or tarmac. Use 10 to 12 strings in each direction.
2. Draw along the strings with chalk and number along each axis of the grid 1, 2, 3 and so on. Discuss with the students whether
it would be better to label the spaces or the lines of the grid.
NOTE: You could make a permanent grid on plastic or other material that could then be used for other purposes.
3. Choose a leader.
4. The leader chooses five grid references and writes them down without showing them to the others.
5. Each student in the group stands at a grid reference of their choice.
6. The leader calls out the five grid references he or she wrote down.
7. Any students at the grid references that the leader called get 5 points each.
8. All students move off the grid and steps 4 and 5 are repeated with a different leader.
9. The winner is the student with the most points after each member of the group has had a turn as leader.
This link displays the map from the check up on level 3 on page 292. Ask students to make up questions about the map displayed using coordinates. Choose some students to put their questions to the rest of the group/class.
Teacher notes
- Students sometimes forget which axis to read/write first. You could have a class/group competition to see who can come up with the most novel way of remembering this. One easy way to remember the order is that on a map the horizontal axis references are called the ‘Eastings’ and the vertical axis ‘Northings’ and since E comes before N in the alphabet the horizontal is read before the vertical.
- Four figure grid references can be difficult for some students after becoming used to two figure grid references. Students often forget that the numbers give the bottom left hand corner of the square. Again challenge them to come up with a novel way of remembering this.
Compass directions
- Be able to use compass directions to locate and describe the location of places and follow directions.
> More on "Compass directions"...
Teaching ideas
This link displays a grid and instructions.
Note: You will need to display the grid on a whiteboard or similar so that students can write on it.
Ask for volunteers to come and plot the next line.
- What direction is that?
A compass will be needed for each group in the class.
- Students should have been taught how to read a compass before they are sent out to find directions.
- Send students out into the playground to find a compass direction from a given place, for example from the classroom door, to
three different places. Choose a different start place for each group. - Students write down their results. For example one group might write “The gym is North West of the classroom door”.
Variation: If there are no compasses available students can use an acetate or paper compass. They will need to work out, or
be told, the direction of North and can then use this and their compass to work out the directions of the different places in the
playground.
- I know where that is
- Locate where North is in the classroom.
- Have everyone stand up and all face towards North.
- Call out directions for everyone to face, for example NW, Anyone who hesitates or faces the wrong direction has to sit down.
- The last person standing is the winner.
Teacher notes
- Students often get East and West mixed up. Discuss ways of remembering which goes where. Reminding them that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West and moves from right to left across the sky helps them remember, if they are familiar with this.
- Another way to help remember is that as you look at the compass the points West and East spell the word WE across the centre or starting at North and reading clockwise you can make up a mnemonic like Never Eat Soggy Weetbox. Students could invent their own mnemonic.
- A map will usually have a North pointing arrow on it that points to the top of the map to help them when describing directions from
a point.
Reading maps and plans
- Use the scale on a map or plan to work out distances in real life. Locate, describe the location of, and follow directions using the scale of a map and compass directions.
> More on "Reading maps and plans"...
Teaching ideas
This link displays a map, but it would be better to use a map that the students are familiar with, for example the school, a street map of the area around the school etc. It must have a North line and scale.
Play the game of 20 questions as follows:
Ask a volunteer to come to the front and secretly choose a place on the map that is in a N, E, S, W, NE, NW, SE or SW direction and a particular distance from another place. The volunteer may need to have an opportunity to work out the distance on the map before they stand up in front of the class. For example they might choose a place that is NW of the school and 2 km away.
Go around the class giving each student a chance to ask one question to identify the location of the place on the map. The student at the front can only answer yes or no. Encourage the students to ask questions other than simply taking random guesses at where the mystery location might be.
For example Is the place less than 5 km from Ilam school?
- Simon says (directions)
This is best played either outside or in a large space like the gym or the hall.
Choose a watcher. You might need more than one watcher for a large class.
Decide where North is.
Give the students instructions such as "Turn to face NW". Anyone who the watcher sees move in the wrong direction is out. - Simon says (scale) Note: You could combine directions and scale
This is best played either outside or in a large space like the gym or the hall.
Choose a watcher. You may need more than one watcher for a large class.
Work out how big a stride you must take to move a metre.
Decide a scale like 1 cm represents 5 m.
Call out instructions like “Move 2 cm forward/back/left/right” (students then have to move 10 m (strides). Anyone who the watcher sees move by the wrong amount is out.
Teacher notes
- Students need exposure to all of the different ways scales can be presented on a map or plan. This is best explored using maps that interest the students such as maps of their local area or maps the students find themselves.
- Reading maps and plans integrates many measurement topics such as converting between measures, estimating, compass directions, angles, grid references and scales.
- Students seem to have most difficulty using scales given as
- It is important that students are well practised in converting between measures so that they can give answers using appropriate measures.
- Students might need to estimate distances that fall between given markers.
- To measure distances that are not straight students could use a piece of string to follow a given route and then straighten it out along the scale.
- Students might also have difficulty with scales given as 1:1250 etc. They first need to multiply the measurement by 1250 and then convert the measurement to an appropriate unit. They need to be comfortable with converting measures.
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