Classroom Projects
There are two classroom projects which stand out this year (besides getting ready for Outdoor Ed).
CUBIC METERS
One was a project on measurement where the students had to measure and divide the room into cubic meters, using string. They started with a base line 10 cm from the ceiling which encircled the classroom. The class was divided into four groups, each responsible for their wall. Each wall had to be measured in meters, along the string, and marked. String was strung across the room from side to side and front to back, and tied on the adjacent marks,to create a meter grid. One meter strings were tied to the crossed strings (and hung down) at the square meter.
Another base line was created, exactly 1 meter below the first line, and the above procedure to create a second meter square grid was completed.
The strings, which were hanging down, were then tied to the crossed strings on the lower grid and this created cubic meters across the entire upper level of the classroom.
A further extension is to tie strings one meter long from the corners of each cubic meter. These string hang down into the class proper. Each student can select their own cubic meter area to be in and move their desks into it. At this point it can become a bit crazy. If anyone gets caught on a string or begins to pull any of the strings, the entire unit of cubic meters goes into motion.
Each student should be encouraged to stand up high enough to get a view just above and across where all of the strings join to create the cubic meters.
This project was great to show the area of a square meter and its relationships with other units. The best part was using the cubic meters. Can you figure out how many cubic centimeters or cubic millimeters are in the figure? 1cc = 1g, therefore you can convert to mass, 1cc = 1ml, therefore you can convert to capacity.
If any class out there would like to attempt the project, think of this. There are very few classrooms which measure evenly in complete meters (or yards).
MOUNTAIN BUILDING
The second project was the creation of 5 mountains in the classroom, to scale, using chicken wire and paper mache.Following are some of the students reports on this project. A you view some of these you will see portions of the meter grid above the mountians.
GROUP #2
BUILDING THE MATTERHORN
We went to the library and researched 10 mountains from Switzerland and 10 mountains from the Elk Valley. Our group then compared the sizes of the mountains.
We started making our mountains scale from Zermatt in Switzerland to the top of the Matterhorn which is 2854 meters high.
We built a model of the Matterhorn because we are reading the book Banner in the Sky by James Ullman. Our class made a scale of 1mm = 4 meters for how big our mountain would be. We then gathered in materials like a 1m square board, chicken wire, staples, staple gun, newspapers, bucket, twist ties, flour, salt,water, paint, paint brushes, some paper strips and a meter stick.
We stapled our chicken wire to the 1meter board's edges. Our group then shaped it to our liking of the Matterhorn. We measured the height to 71 cm high. After our frame was done we made paper mache paste by mixing four cups of flour into a bucket with 1 tbsp of salt and 12 cups of water. We shook it hard until only a few clumps of flour were left. We then dipped paper strips into the paste and placed the strips firmly on the frame of the Matterhorn until the whole thing was covered. After the mountains dried we placed 3 more coats of paper-mache. On the forth day we painted the mountain grey, after it was dry we painted green for the forests, blue for the rivers and lakes, white for the snow and glaciers and black for the shadows. We had two coats for each color, except for black.
MOUNTAIN MAKING
The building of the mountain is based on a book called "Banner in the Sky". The mountain is called Matterhorn. It is located in Switzerland. Our grade seven class was going to create one large matterhorn but it would have been to large. So, as an alternative, we did it in groups of five.
If you are wondering how high the Matterhorn is, it is 14 690 feet tall or 4 478 m high. Our mountains that we are making in groups are 71.5 cm tall. This equals 1mm per 4 m. The Matterhorn is 14 690 ft high and the highest mountain here is Mt. Phillips. It is 9 200 ft. high. The difference between the Matterhorn and Mt. Phillips is 5 490 ft.
We decided what we needed to bring for the construction of the Matterhorn. We needed chicken wire, base board, staple gun, staples, flour, salt, twist ties, buckets, paint, paint brushes, small jars, measuring cups, wire cutters and paper. The first thing we did to make the Matterhoen was to stple the chicken wire on the base board. After stapling we formed the mountain until we were satisfied with what we had. Then we measured the mountains and made sure it was 71.5 cm high. Then we started to mix tha paper mache. The ingredients for it is flour, water and a little bit of salt. You need 12 cups of water and 4 cups of flour with a pinch of salt so it won't go moldy. When we had the right texture we ripped strips of newspaper and then let it soak in the paste until they were soggy enough to put on the mountian. When we were done the first full coat of paper mache we had to let it dry for about 24 hours. We did another full coat and let it sit for another 24 hours. We did the saem for the third.
Doing the paper mache took three days. After the three days we painted the whole mountain gray. We had to let that dry for about 1 hour. Then we needed to mix up some different colors like white fore the snow and glaciers, green for the tree line below, blue for the lakes and rivers, and black for the shade. After that all dried we put on another coat of each color again.
OUR OWN MOUNTAIN
We started out mountains before Christmas. We built our mountains based on the book "Banner in the Sky" by James Ramsey Ullman. To find the scale to the approximate size we had to do some reesearch in the library. We found out that there are higher mountains in Switzerland than there are in the Elk Valley. The mountian was built from the elevation of Zermatt which is in Switzerland. The elevation from Zermatt to the top of the Matterhorn is 2 858 m. The elevation of Zermatt is 1620 m and the elevation of Elkford is 1229 m.
The supplies for making the mountain included a 1 meter square board, a staple gun. chicken wire, a meter stick, paper mache, paint, paint brushes, tin snips. We stapled the chicken wire to the board and shaped it to look like the Matterhorn. Then we made paper mache paste which consisted of newspaper, flour, water and salt. Once we put one layer of peper mache on we let it dry. We did this three times. When it was completely dry we painted it and then painted in all the details like blue lakes and rivers, black shadows, green tree line and white snow and glaciers.
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