Measurement in Maths

Currently, Year 7 students are studying measurement, which the Australian curriculum finds is foundational to all other areas of mathematics. It is also necessary for understanding and decision-making in many personal and professional contexts. Their current topic, computing area and perimeter for various regular and irregular shapes, has many everyday applications: for example, building a fence, planting crops, or planning new roads.

During a recent class, students had to estimate the area and perimeter of different structures around the school, including the basketball courts and hands-on learning shed, but the only tool that was provided was a 30cm ruler. Students appreciated getting to spend time outside and working together to solve a challenging problem. All of our students demonstrated ingenuity in coming up with different ways of estimating. Students used different strategies: some used the ruler, or the length of their stride or foot to estimate the length and width of the structures they were investigating. Others used their environment to their advantage, for example measuring the size of the grooves on the corrugated metal of the learning shed or the distance between poles around the basketball courts to ease the estimating process. 

For more practice at home related to area and perimeter, you can try your hand at the following problem: 

Imagine you need to repaint the exterior walls where you’re living. To paint a wall, you’ll need one to three coats of paint to make sure your walls look smooth and even. Do some research, and select the type of paint you would like to use. 

1. What is the total area that you will need to paint? 
2. How many litres of paint will you need to paint one coat on your walls? (Hint: check the coverage per litre of the paint you’ve chosen)
3. How many litres of paint will you need for two coats of paint on your walls? Three coats?
4. What will be the total cost of painting your walls? 

Now imagine you want to install shoe moulding anywhere the boundary walls meet the inside floor, to keep drafts out of the house. 

1. How many metres of shoe moulding trim will you need to install?
2. How much might this cost?