Quick. Pick up a magazine or search the web: can you find a number with a 3 in the one millions place?  Kelly Alexander’s fourth-graders can, after an exercise this week titled “Real World Information Scavenger Hunt” that reinforced their understanding of place value, measurement units, and number sense, while drawing on their linguistic, logical-mathematical, and interpersonal intelligences.

Working in pairs, students rifled through reference books and the Guinness Book of World Records to answer puzzlers like “Find a number with an 8 in the ten thousands place. What is the unit? What does it represent?” (A couple of great answers: the dog population of China is 19,380,000 canines, and 890,685,675 video games were sold in 2008.)

Ostensibly a math exercise about place value and number sense, the active-learning experience also developed important pre-research text-scanning strengths, the ability to work with a partner, and reading and vocabulary skills. “Developmentally, students need to see that numbers represent real things, and aren't just abstract figures that have to be added or multiplied on a worksheet,” explains Kelly. “Grasping place value and units of measurement brings real meaning to math. I can write the number 66 in an addition problem, but it’s abstract and meaningless to kids.  Adding a unit – degrees, dog years, Easter eggs – gives context and interest, and the developmental interest in extremes (most, least, hugest, tiniest, smelliest) is a great tool for deepening students’ ease with place value.”