Phillippi students compete in Measurement Olympics

The students of Phillippi Shores Elementary International Baccalaureate School spent Friday morning throwing paper planes, pouring water and tossing cotton balls for the 3rd annual Measurement Olympics.

Second grade students became “mathletes” for the morning to compete in events like the high jump, cotton ball shot put, paper plane fly and a water relay. All eight events included an element of measurement that students would estimate and conduct an exercise to find distance or volume. James Anderson first thought up the event three years ago after doing another hands-on experiment that students enjoyed.

“The students have been working all year on learning different units of measurements in the class room and this is our culminating activity in which the students use, centimeters, meters, inches, yards, milliliters and liters,” Anderson said. “They have to learn how to apply the math that they learn in the classroom to outside situations that are outside of school, at home or in the workforce when they grow older.”

The prize for completing all of the events is an ice cream sundae with their choice of two toppings that the students portion by measuring.  Each student was allotted 20 grams of whichever two toppings with a choice of M&Ms, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or butterscotch chips. All topped with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry.