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Hermit Crab Races
Concepts Covered:
Number sense, concepts, operations,
and measurement
Sunshine State Standards:
MA.A.3.2.3
MA.B.4.2.2
MA.B.3.2.1
Materials:
- Spreadsheet program
- Hermit Crabs
- Meters Sticks
Student Arrangement:
Students work in small groups
Procedure:
- Arrange students in small groups.
- Have students measure the length of the hermit crabs (from one end
of its shell to the other).
- Show students how to measure how far the hermit crab runs in 5 seconds.
- Students should enter their data into a spreadsheet. Have students
calculate the speed of the hermit crabs by entering the formula, distance
equals the rate times the time (d = r x t), into the last column on
the table.
- Have students measure the length of their bodies with a meter stick.
- Using the ratio in the template, have students enter their measurements
and predict how fast they can go.
- Go outside or in a gymnasium. Have half of the class run for 5 seconds.
The other half of the class will measure how far the students run with
meter sticks.
- Have students enter their data in their tables in the template. In
the last column, have students enter the formula to calculate speed.
- Have a discussion with the class comparing their speeds to their prediction
and to the hermit crab’s speeds.
Extension:
- Have students make bar graphs
for the data they collect. They can make it with paper and pencil or
with a spreadsheet program.
- Have students write paragraphs
and/or an essay about their results and the process of the experiment.
- Any animal, bug, rodent,
etc. can be used for this experiment- it dies not have to be hermit
crabs.
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