A Foot Is A Foot - Or Is It - Texas Instruments TI-73 Teachers Manual

Activity 11
A Foot is a Foot – Or is It?
Students investigate how their own foot measurements
compare to the customary measurement of a foot
(12 inches).
Setup
Tell students that the dictionary defines foot, as it
relates to measurement, as a measure of length equal
to 12 inches based on the average length of a human
foot.
Have students investigate this definition to see if the
average human foot is equal to 12 inches, or a foot.
Ask questions to guide the students to determine how
they will investigate this definition. Decide as a class
your answers to these questions:
How will we find out if this statement is true?
Who will we survey (measure)?
What will we ask them?
Should we only survey students? (You will probably
want to include adults in the survey.)
How many people should we survey?
Could we find out this information without a
survey? Where could we find it?
Probability and Statistics
mean
conversion of fractions to decimals
measurement
Materials
ruler
student activity sheet (provided)
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EXAS NSTRUMENTS
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