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Could we fit 1,000 kids on the playground? 10,000?

This is a preview of a related Byrdseed.TV video.


As a new teacher, I thought “real-world examples” were the key to interesting math. Now I realize that, often, the most ridiculous examples are the most interesting.

For example, how many times do kids have to calculate the area around a pool or how much carpet/paint they need. Yeah, these are indeed “real world” – but they’re boring! Who cares!? Dan Meyer wrote about this issue here.

So, to practice with calculating area, we got a bit ridiculous: How many students could we possibly cram onto our playground?

Now, it’s tempting to hand out a worksheet here, but it’s way more powerful to simply ask your students:

What would we need to know?

Let them think a bit. You don’t need much information to get to a reasonable estimate. And all of the information is pretty easily accessible.

  • You need to calculate the area an average student takes up. This could be a circle or square or rectangle.
  • You need to know the area of your school’s playground. Kids can find this using Google Earth.
  • Then you divide!

And you can extend this to any space. How many kids could fit in the multipurpose room? Disneyland? A football field? Get ridiculous!

I actually wrote this whole thing out as a series of videos over at Byrdseed.TV.

Done For You!

There's actually a lesson at Byrdseed.TV that's specifically about this article. Check it out

This is an example of “Get Ridiculous”

Avoid boring examples and go for the outliers! Everything's more interesting when you're working with unexpected examples.

See other examples of “Get Ridiculous” ❯❯




📂 Also filed under Math.

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