Students celebrate ‘Metrics Around the World'

Tuxedo Park — While celebrating the metric system might not sound like an activity to which children would flock, students at Tuxedo Park School couldn’t wait to travel to nine different countries during their recent celebration of “Metrics Around the World.” Mathematics chair Jennifer Rising worked with the school’s foreign language teachers to help the ninth grade students create activities related to different countries, that younger students completed using metric measurements. For example, after snacking on tortilla chips and salsa in Mexico and hearing a presentation in Spanish and English about the country, students were challenged to find the weight in kilograms of a Mayan temple, based upon weighing a smaller block and forming ratios to estimate the weight. Students visiting Vietnam measured rice in grams both before and after it was cooked, to determine how much water was absorbed. Later they visited Ecuador to determine the number of Alpaca needed to produce enough wool to fill cubic liters, traveled to France to estimate distances between cities in kilometers, and read train schedules to find travel times, and enjoyed determining how fast a man must run (in meters per second) to outrun the bulls in Pamploma, Spain. As they traveled to each country and completed the tasks, the ninth grade ambassadors stamped each student’s passport with a sticker from their country. When they completed their travels, students had souvenirs from their experience. Correct answers were tallied from each grade level to determine the event’s winners. “‘Metrics Around the World’ was a hands-on way to teach our students about the metric system and learn about other countries’ cultures,” said Rising. “Since the United States is only one of three nations that has not officially adopted the metric system, we need to immerse our students in this international system of measurement, as they will be using metric measurements in business and education more than any previous generation.” Founded in 1900, Tuxedo Park School is one of the oldest schools in the country specializing in pre-secondary school education. Located on Mountain Farm Road in Tuxedo Park, the school educates children from grades pre-kindergarden through nine, and serves families living in Bergen and Passaic counties in New Jersey, and Orange and Rockland counties in New York. The school is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools. For more information, call 351-4737 or visit www.tuxedoparkschool.com.