Lesson plan from Italy…

The students are brought to a sports field situated near the school.

They are invited to observe and take a picture of a blade of grass which grew on the surface of the field. They notice the dimensional features of the blade of grass in respect to the size of the field (measures and shape s both of the blade of grass and the field). In the classroom a glossary is produced of all the dimensions detected (length, height,width,weight, surface, volume). The students are also invited to list a series of objects of intermediate size between those of a blade of grass and the soccer field (dimensions of a book, of a desk, teacher’s desk, classroom, of the wing of the building,the floor of the building, the area occupied by the school, etc.), extrapolate other objects which are smaller than a blade of grass (needle or sewing thread) and bigger areas than those of a soccer field (district, city, province).

What are the main subject areas and topics it covers?

Mathematics: numeric sets, sets of natural numerics for mathematical calculations,scientific notations raised to  power with positive and negative exponent, ratio between sizes, direct and inverse proportionality, diagrams, statistics distribution, geometrical shapes .

Computer studies: elaboration of data collected

Physics: concept of measurements and  approximation,errors in measurements, main tools and measurement techniques,

Security elements: attention at not getting hurt during outing (sports field and external paths)

How to do it – description of activities

Working methodology: groups of  4-5 students.

Students are subdivided into three working groups: a group notices, analyses and takes pictures of objects whose size is included between a blade of grass and a sports field; the second group researches and takes pictures of objects which are smaller than a blade of grass, the third group locates and takes pictures of objects which are bigger than a soccer field. They measure the magnitudes that characterize the objects taken into consideration,they collect the data in tables and compare the measures among themselves, calculating the ratio.

Each group relates to the other groups on the part of activity carried out with the use of computer tools (adeguate software and projectors). All the material produced , conveniently organized, is loaded on  Moodle (FAD platform) to be disseminated on web.

Equipment and tools needed

Digital camera-videocamera, internet, MS Office, google maps, fastone (image display), slideshare (presentations), vlc (film display), wikipedia, prezi, moodle.