Measure It Yourself Investigator’s Field Manual · A DET & CW Casebook
Stop asking how big, how fast or how far. Go find out. Twelve cases where kids build their own instruments and get their own numbers. Ages 10–12, grades 4-6.
How tall is that tree? How far away is the storm? How fast is your reaction time? DET doesn’t look it up. He goes out with string, a stopwatch, a jar and a handful of coins, and measures it himself.
Measure It Yourself is a hands-on math and science manual about real measurement: units, averages, ranges, repeat trials, checking one method against another, and the difference between precise and accurate. Nearly every case ends with something your child builds or tests.
What’s inside (12 cases):
• Your body as a ruler (and why the world needed standard units)
• The ruler-drop reaction test
• Counting thunder and measuring the speed of sound
• Finding a tree’s height with its shadow
• A pendulum lab, a homemade rain gauge and a water clock
• A coin balance: weighing without a scale
• Estimating huge numbers by sampling
• Walking speeds, “measure twice, cut once,” and inventing your own instrument
Every case has three parts:
• The Case: a short DET & CW story to read aloud, with vocabulary and discussion questions.
• Field Work: a real hands-on project in science, math, history, geography or language.
• Your Own File: private pages that turn the case around, so your investigator looks at their own life the same careful way. They decide who reads them.
Good to know:
• 45-page printable PDF, US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), black-and-white line art that prints cleanly at home
• Stand-alone: no novel or other book needed
• Ages 10–12 (grades 4–6), great for homeschool, classroom or summer learning
• Includes a case-file cover sheet, a word search, and a grown-up guide, “Things to Listen For,” with answers to the math and facts
• Available in a Canadian edition (metric, Canadian examples) and a U.S. edition (US units and spelling, American examples). Please choose the one you need.
• Print for your own household or one classroom
Part of the Investigator’s Field Manual series from Perspective Detective Studios.
Observe. Investigate. Discover.