From an early age we are drawn to count and to measure; from reciting nursery rhymes such as “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe,” to reading stories such as One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, to stacking blocks by size, we have an innate desire to take our measure of the world. In this class we will examine measurements as a way of learning to understand (to make sense of) our world, considering questions such as: Why do we measure things? What do we choose to measure? How do we make measurements? How do we report measurements? What are the limits of measurements? How do we improve measurements? Can the act of measuring change what we measure? How do we measure what we cannot see? What can we not measure? What do we choose not to measure? Can we trust measurements? Can measurements do harm? Through a combination of reading, writing, discussing, and making measurements, we will work together to understand better the measure of all things.

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