Count Around

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Learners explore their surroundings while reasoning about categories and counting. Pose a question that involves locating items in the room or building, and have learners count how many they can find—and figure out "what counts." It’s easy to vary the question for different levels of challenge. For instance, for less challenge, ask: How many light switches are in the room? For more, ask: How many light sources are in the room? Once everyone has counted, engage the group in discussing findings: Why might the answers differ even if everyone counted correctly? [Activity is publicly available through a web crawler capture on Archive.org.]

Quick Guide

Preparation Time:
Under 5 minutes
Learning Time:
5 to 10 minutes
Estimated Materials Cost:
free per group of students
Age Range:
Ages 4 - 14
Resource Type:
Activity
Language:
English

Materials List (per group of students)

  • letter size or larger piece of paper (optional)
  • small post-it notes (optional)
  • pencils (optional)

Keywords

Subjects

  • Mathematics
    • Data Analysis and Probability
      • Data Analysis
      • Data Collection
    • Number and Operations
      • Number Systems
  • The Nature of Technology
    • The Design Process
      • Problem Solving
  • The Nature of Science
    • The Scientific Process
      • Conducting Investigations
      • Gathering Data

Informal Categories

  • Collecting

Audience

To use this activity, learners need to:

  • see

Learning styles supported:

  • Involves hands-on or lab activities

Other

Access Rights:

  • Free access

By:

Source Collection

  • Mixing in Math

Rights:

  • , © 2010, TERC, Inc., MA., 2010

Funding Source:

  • NSF, ESI-0406675 and DRL-0713537