The Importance of Careful Measurements

The Grade 3 the students start the year learning how to make a range of careful measurements .  They measure solids and liquids using a range of tools to measure properties from linear to volume and temperature.  These kinds of practices are the foundation to building a real data set from which the class can begin to trace the actual patterns of the world.  They are also fun.

 It is fun to measure the temperature is on a foggy day.

And it is a chance to get to use new and interesting tools such as graduated cylinders.

All this attention to careful and accurate measuring has made me think about a couple of recent stories about some remarkable and very precise measurements that have been in the news recently.  The annual announcements about the Nobel prizes have just come out.   This year the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to two scientists who developed new ways to study individual quantum particles without damaging them.

Did you know that one of the two scientists, the American scientist Dr. David Wineland, works at the National Institute of Standards and Technology?  I didn't even know we had a national center for standards! - but of course, it makes sense. We need one.  When I read the article in the New York Times  - I knew that I had to share this announcement with the Grade 3 students.  Recently we have been discussing why it might be important to have a standard unit of measure.

Here is what the New York Times had to say about Dr. Wineland's research "Dr. Wineland said that much of the motivation for his work over the years came from the need for better and better clocks. 'Historically,' he said in an interview with the Nobel committee, 'when we have better clocks, we have better navigation.' "

"Dr. Wineland’s work has focused on the material side of where matter meets light. His prize is the fourth Nobel awarded to a scientist associated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology over the past 15 years for work involving the trapping and measuring of atoms. Dr. Wineland and his colleagues trap charged beryllium atoms, or ions, in an electric field and cool them with specially tuned lasers so that they are barely moving, which is another way of saying they are very, very cold.

NIST physicist and Nobel Prize-winner David Wineland adjusts an ultraviolet laser beam used to manipulate ions in a high-vacuum apparatus containing an "ion trap." These devices have been used to demonstrate the basic operations required for a quantum computer.

 The photo above is from a great blog post from NPR

"Some of the measurements may be a bit hard to wrap your head around, but for even the most seemingly useless measurement, there's a practical use.

That's where the really precise clock comes into play. Ever wonder how GPS works?

'The fact that they have highly accurate and synchronized clocks on board [the satellites] is the crux of how GPS works,' says Andrew Novick, an electrical engineer at NIST.

'If they were off by hundreds of nanoseconds from each other then the whole thing would fall apart,' he says.

If you are wondering about the elementary science curriculum we are using -   many of the lesson plans are based on the FOSS Measurement curriculum module -(which is also a great resource for math lessons for Grades 3 and 4 as well) - of course our measurements not only take place in the science room but we do lots of measuring outdoors as well.

As we are learning more about the types and names of plants in our observation area it is also important to include scale on our notebook drawings.

Most recently students are learning how to measure liquids using metric units for volume and capacity.

Accurate measurements is a team effort because it is important to check and double check each measurement before the recorder writes it down on the data sheet.

It is important to get down level with the liquid to make sure the reading is correct.

In addition, first thing every morning the Meteorologists in Grade 3 are also outside taking careful and accurate weather data including the temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius - but more about that in an upcoming post.....