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Having a field day with the metric
system
Longfellow Elementary third-grader Cheyenne Pino looks
to send her racecar farther than anyone else in her group during
competition at Metric Field Day, a series of events planned by
teacher Toni Shoukletovich to teach kids the metric system. (ERIC
CHANEY PHOTO) | By Eric Chaney, Marion Daily
Republican
MARION -- Several of Longfellow Elementary third-grade teacher Toni
Shoukletovich's students were making paper airplanes behind her back
Friday afternoon during class but even after she turned around
Shoukletovich didn't seem to mind. The classic classroom distractions were
actually part of the Metric Field Day, a series of competitive events that
Shoukletovich organized to help the kids learn the metric system.
"It's actually a Foss measurements hands-on science kit," she said.
"One of the difficulties of teaching the metric system is that they really
have no prior knowledge of any of these measurements."
Students had one sheet of paper to make any kind of airplane they
wanted, but whoever's plane flew the furthest went on to the finals.
Caroline Fletcher didn't get to move on but she seemed happy just to be
playing.
"My favorite part was the paper airplanes because we're usually not
allowed to throw them," she said. "It was fun to kind of get to break the
rules."
So while one set of kids were making and flying paper airplanes, more
students were competing in the other three events. Grab for Buried
Treasure asked each kid to grab a handful of "treasure" in the form of
marbles, estimate how much their handful weighed and check their estimate
on a scale.
From there it was on to the racecar event where the students tried to
"out-drive" each other by rolling plastic cars as far as they could then
measuring their distances.
"The racecars were my favorite part even though I didn't win," said
Roderick Throgmorton. "My brother is really into cars, and he's showed me
a lot of cool ones so I kind of like cars too."
The water transfer event asked kids to transfer as much water as they
could in a limited amount of time from a cup to a graduated cylinder using
only a spoon. The student with the most milliliters of water in his
cylinder got to move on to the finals.
After the second round of competition in each event Shoukletovich
presented the first, second and third place finishers with a ribbon and
then presented every other child with a ribbon for participation.
Shoukletovich was pleased with the success of Metric Field Day and said
that she felt the kids really understood the concepts.
"I think doing hands on activities gets them more involved and
engaged," she said. "They're actually doing what we're learning about and
not just getting it from a book so it's easier to learn."
Metric Field Day Winners
Grab For Treasure
1st -- Micheal Norris
2nd -- Kelly Freibott
3rd -- Cheyenne Pino
Race Cars
1st -- Ryan Parker
2nd -- Zach Pineda
3rd -- Ray Smock
Water Transfer
1st -- Taryn Pender
2nd -- Roderick Throgmorton
3rd -- Megan Lewis
Airplane
1st -- Glenn Lane
2nd -- Andrew Koehcer
3rd -- Mikey Boaz
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