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| Lesson:
Estimating Heights |
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| Dear
Students, I am an anthropologist from Canada who investigates changes in human body size and shape over time. I have been working on comparing the differences in heights of people who lived during the 19th century and the present. Unfortunately, I don’t always have complete skeletons of the 19th century folks to work from. Here is where I
need your help. I heard through the grapevine
that you guys are the best at scientific
investigation! Is there a way to predict the
height of a person by just knowing the length of
the radius bone?
(In case you don’t know the radius bone extends from your elbow to your wrist.) |
 Radius bone I hope you can help me.
Sincerely, Shelly |
In your group come up with a plan for
helping Shelly determine the heights of the people from
the measurement of their radius bones.
In your group measure the radius bone and height of each student. (Each group gets a recording sheet like the one below and a measuring device.)
In your group measure the radius bone and height of each student. (Each group gets a recording sheet like the one below and a measuring device.)
After your group completes their
measurements, one person from your group reports your
results to the teacher who will record them and then
project the cumulative results for the whole class to
see.
Describe any patterns that you see.
Plot the ordered pairs.
Draw a line of best fit using a spreadsheet program (or equivalent) like the one below.
Now that you have drawn a line of "best fit" we can use this line to make predictions. For example, if someone had a radius bone that was 17 cm, what would you guess his or her height to be?
Is it possible for someone to have a 17 cm radius bone and have a height of 170 cm? Why?
Having some fun with lines of "best fit"
What if Shaq O'Neil (former Miami Heat basketball player) walked into the room? Could you predict the length of his radius bone? (O'Neil is 7’ 2” tall. (Convert his height to centimeters.) How confident are you about your prediction?
In 1951 Eddie Gaedel* batted one time for the St. Louis Brown's baseball team.
Eddie was 3' 7" (110 cm) tall. Use the graph that you made to predict the length of Shaq's and Eddie's radius bones.
* More on Eddie Gaedel
Describe any patterns that you see.
Plot the ordered pairs.
Draw a line of best fit using a spreadsheet program (or equivalent) like the one below.
Now that you have drawn a line of "best fit" we can use this line to make predictions. For example, if someone had a radius bone that was 17 cm, what would you guess his or her height to be?
Is it possible for someone to have a 17 cm radius bone and have a height of 170 cm? Why?
Having some fun with lines of "best fit"
What if Shaq O'Neil (former Miami Heat basketball player) walked into the room? Could you predict the length of his radius bone? (O'Neil is 7’ 2” tall. (Convert his height to centimeters.) How confident are you about your prediction?
In 1951 Eddie Gaedel* batted one time for the St. Louis Brown's baseball team.
Eddie was 3' 7" (110 cm) tall. Use the graph that you made to predict the length of Shaq's and Eddie's radius bones.
* More on Eddie Gaedel