Math Projects for Fourth Graders to Present to the Class

Presenting a math project to the class can include elements of interactivity.

Math projects to be presented to the class should ideally present a new and surprising perspective on a set of data or situation which all the students are familiar with. This way the students can see how math can be a powerful tool for digging below the surface of the world they see around them. Presentations can also contain an element of interactivity to show students good ways to engage an audience.

Averaging and Fairness

It's a good idea for students to get familiar with the different ways of finding averages and see how using the mode, median or mean can yield different results. Get the students to imagine a scenario in which they will only be able to find one size of something; shoes, hats and rings are good examples. Get the students to take measurements of the other students in the class and then to work out the mean, median and modal size for the class. Have them produce some toy hats or shoes from card stock, according to the sizes given by each average, and have them get the students to try on the different garments to see which type of averaging serves the class best. They may find that things cut to the mean size hardly fit anyone or that this is the most reasonable size for the majority of students, depending on how widely the measurements vary from student to student.

Mapping and Surveying the School

Have students use a measuring tape, a board with weighted string and applied trigonometry to make a 3-D map of the school. The board can be used to find the height of the school by standing a measured distance away from the wall, aiming along the board's edge at the join between the wall and the roof and measuring the angle between the edge of the board and the string at a dead hang. Using this angle minus 90 and the distance from the wall to the measuring point, they can calculate the building's height. When they have mapped all the walls and roof they can work out the volume of the school and accompany their demonstration of the map with an explanation of how many bottles of cola--or other familiar item with a known volume--it would take to fill the whole school.

Human Footprint

Get students to keep a diary over a few weeks of the things they and their family eat, drink and use up, recording things such as gas, toilet paper, bread, eggs, water, light bulbs and milk. Get them to work out from this how much the average human uses in his entire lifetime. If you want the students to really push themselves, have them try to work out how much land it takes to sustain the lifestyle each one of them has and how many earths we would need if everyone on the planet consumed the same amount as they do.

Weather Charts

Get students to take measurements of wind speed, temperature, rainfall and air pressure over a number of weeks and to plot their results on graphs to show possible relationships between each variable. Have them try to see if a sudden change in one usually leads to a change in another and then have them make a weather report to the rest of the class with a prediction for the coming days.

References

• A to Z Teacher Stuff: Creating a Graph, Ashlynn Neel