Reading Your Electric Meter

A Math Activity

If you have access to the electric meter in your home or building, you can read the meter to see how much electricity is being used each day. (Most meters have 5 dials.)

Steps:

• Record the readings at a specific time of day by recording the numbers displayed on the dials.
• The next day, at the same time, record the numbers displayed on the dials.
• Subtract yesterday's reading from today's reading and you can get an idea of how much energy (kilowatt hours) is used in one day.
• Have the children continue with their readings for a few days. Then they can put the data in a chart or create a graph of the data.  
• Younger students can calculate the amount of electricity used in 3 days or 7 days, etc. Older students can also find the average amount of electricity used per day.

Planet Survey & Data Charts

To combine science and math children can conduct surveys.

clipart by www.graphicsfactory.com

A clipboard is a good tool to use, but if you don't have a clipboard(s), the kids can use their science or math notebooks.

• First have children make a list of the 8 planets.
• Next they should conduct a  survey of their family, friends, classmates, etc. to see which planets are their favorites.
• Then they could make a tally chart or bar graph to display their data.

Animals and Data Analysis

This is a MATH Extension lesson to the Animal Classification Activity with stuffed animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Have the children estimate the number of stuffed animals that they have in each display. (How many mammals, reptiles, amphibians, etc.?????)
• Then tally the number of animals in each group and create a tally chart. (Compare the numbers.)
• Lastly, graph the number of animals in each group. Compare.  Which group has the most? Which group has the least?  Do any groups have the same number?

 

Here is a MATH VIDEO from Brain Pop Jr. called Tally Charts and Bar Graphs to introduce or review Surveys, Tally Charts, and Bar Graphs.
Click here: Brain Pop Video

• An extension activity for older students is to find the Mean, Median, Mode, Maximum, Minimum, and Range from the Data in this activity.
• Students can also record and display the data using tables, line plots, etc.