Hand Span
1 out of 3
Use your hand span to measure the distance around a tree trunk. If you ask a friend to try the same thing, how do the answers compare?
Problem
Getting Started
It would be helpful to have many hands span pictures created by each child cut out so that the "hand spans" can be laid out side by side instead of the difficulty of the actual hands being placed next to to other over and over again.
Student Solutions
Harriet tried this problem out:
My hand's not as big as my mum's, so it took more spans to go round the tree. So if I told you how big the tree was, you might think that it was bigger than if my mum told you. So it's better to use a tape measure and use centimetres or something because then we'll all give the same answer.
Teachers' Resources
Using NRICH Tasks Richly describes ways in which teachers and learners can work with NRICH tasks in the classroom.