Scale expedition field report

Pick two things of different sizes, measure them, calculate both areas, work out how many times one fits into the other, then draw them on one page at a scale you choose.

Two things of different sizes — a leaf and a petal, a flowerbed and a road, a hand and a leaf. The sheet does not care which, only that they differ enough to be worth comparing.

For each: width, height, what shape it is closest to, and then the area, calculated rather than estimated. Then the question that ties the two together — how many times does A fit into B.

The drawing task is where the scale becomes real. Both objects on the same sheet, in proportion, at a ratio the child picks and writes down. Choosing the ratio is the work; a child who picks one centimetre to one centimetre discovers the problem immediately.

The sheet closes with a comparative essay that deliberately refuses to stay mathematical: what the two things have in common, how they differ, and then whether the size difference is the important one. Followed by one open question — was there anything that looked different when you changed the scale you were looking at it from.