Pedometers in the Classroom

Church Street School fourth grade teacher Amy Warren recently posted a project on donorschoose.org, asking for funding to outfit her students with pedometers that they would use not only to gauge how much they walk, but also use math skills and assist in health education classes.

Donors fulfilled her request, and here's a report from Warran on the project:

"Students will use pedometers to collect data on their own physical activity over the course of 1-2 weeks. This is going to lend itself to Health and Math lessons. Students will collect their individual data and then together, we will look at class data.

"Students will work on ways to present data visually to their peers. Students will determine central tendencies, patterns, and differences using this meaningful data.

"We will also use this information to learn about the various forms of measurement. The students will gain a better understanding of measurement magnitude and conversions.

"While some of the data will be collected during school hours, I am confident that many of my students will spend the after school hours "collecting data" with friends. The pedometers will promote conversations among my students,  an essential tool for social development that we frequently work on in my class."

Donorschoose.org allows teachers to post requests for money for projects for which funding is not available in the school budget. Many of the requests, such as Warrens, come from teachers in schools that service lower-income families.