What's the Smallest Thing You Know? A Size and Scale Activity

By Joyce Allen1; NNCI Nano2

1. National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 2. National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure

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Teaching Materials

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Abstract

This lesson is designed to have elementary level students develop an understanding of size and scale.  It uses the book What’s Smaller Than A Pygmy Shrew? by Robert E. Wells to help students see that a pygmy shrew is among the tiniest of  mammals and that a ladybug is even smaller.  But in the book, they will also find even smaller things that they ordinarily do not see. This is the beginning of understanding students that must have when they reach middle school -- to be able to conceptualize the behavior of matter at the nanoscale and the tools used to explore this world. The lesson can be done using an activity center or as a teacher-led lesson.

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Credits

Joyce Allen

Sponsored by

NNIN at the Georgia Institute of Technology site NSF ECCS 0335765

Cite this work

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

  • Joyce Allen, NNCI Nano (2020), "What's the Smallest Thing You Know? A Size and Scale Activity," https://nanohub.org/resources/32367.

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Tags

  1. elementary school
  2. general science
  3. K-12
  4. Mathematics
  5. measurement
  6. NNCI Educational Materials
  7. size and scale