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Olympic Mathematics - High jumps for Year 5/6

Story:


Your big brother has put something you desperately want way up high so you can't reach it. Well...sucks to him! This is why it pays it be good at vertical jumps!


Who looks like they have a jet pack on when they jump? That's right - it's you! Time to show everyone what you got - jump as high as you can and mark the wall with chalk at your highest point.


Materials:

  • Chalk.

  • Measuring tapes stuck 150cm to 250cm up the wall with Blu Tack or similar.


Main event


Stick a measuring tape to the wall. If your measuring tape only goes to 100cm, stick it 150cm up, so that you add 150cm to any jump you record.


Jump as high as you can and make a chalk mark as far up the wall as you can reach.


Read the measuring tape and record your jump.


Record the jump in all ways possible:


  • As metres and centimetres (3m and 40cm)


Pro tip: Start with this way of recording first, separating the 'whole metres' from the 'centimetres' figure.


  • As metres (3m 40cm = 3 whole metres + 40 parts of the next metre, so 3.40m or 3.4m or 3.400000m).


  • As centimetres (1m = 100cm, so 3m = 300cm, so 300 + 40 = 340cm)


Pro tip: The decimal point shows where the wholes end and the parts begin. So for 2m 60cm the 2 shows the whole metres and the 60 is the parts out of 100 of the next metre (since there are 100 centimetre parts in 1 metre). Therefore, 2m 60cm is 2.60m or 2.6m or 2.60000m (write it all ways, as the 0 is of no consequence as it represents 0 of the smaller decimal place values that are not involved in your jump at the moment).


Pro tip: Repeatedly emphasise 100cm = 1m, 1m = 100cm.


Extension 1: More ways:


  • As a decimal fraction (1 whole metre and 25 out of 100 parts of the next metre, so 1 25/100). Also 1 whole metre, 2 out of 10 parts of a metre, 5 out of 100 parts of a metre, so 1 + 2/10 + 5/100.


  • As an equivalent fraction:




  • Any other ways you can brainstorm...


Can you jump higher than your dog? Test it with a treat at home tonight.



Extension 2: Who can estimate the closest - you or your teammate?


Extension 3: How far off are you from a kangaroo's top measured jump distance? Or from your teammate's jump?


Extension 4: How far off are you from the current world record for high jump? Remember, those jumpers get their entire body over the pole.


Extension 5: What was the mean, median, mode and range of your jumps?

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