Today we investigated different strategies we could use to measure how long we have been alive.
We began by discussing units of measurement we could possibly decide to use. Students came up with:
° whole years and a fraction of a year
° whole months and a fraction of a month
° days
° hours
° seconds
We thought about which we would like to investigate and to add to the challenge they were only given this year's calendar as a way to measure the time passed till today. Most of us decided to find out how many days we had been alive for and a few decided to challenge themselves a bit further with how many hours. We also had a few who felt working out how many whole months and fractions of a month would suit their ability best.
After investigating, we shared different strategies we used.
Some students thought of starting at today's date (15th May) and they counted years on till they reached 2015. Once there, they thought about measuring the number of months or days will they reached their birthday.
Another common strategy used was they first identified their birthday in the year they were born. They measured the remaining number of days from their birthday till the end of that first year. They then added years till they reached 1st Jan 2015. From there, they measured the number of days till they reached today's date.
We discussed which strategy we felt was easier to use and then discussed if one strategy, when shown on a number line was easier to understand.
After this, we wrote our names and number of days we measured we had been alive for and discussed possible reasons why we had collected such a vast array of different answers.
