Clarke Middle School Holds "Metric Olympics"

Eighth-grade students at W. Tresper Clarke Middle School in Westbury recently gathered in the school's cafeteria to participate in the first annual Metric Olympics.

Science teacher Lincoln Douglas and mathematics teacher Judith Arabian organized the Metric Olympics to encourage students to apply skills learned in both subject areas.

Students enthusiastically participated in events such as the "paper plate discus" and the "cotton ball shot put." Working in teams of three and four, students also determined the mass of a handful of pennies, the volume of water squeezed from a sponge and the distances of straws they threw which, for all intents and purposes, served as javelins.

In the end, it was not physical strength, but the power of estimation that determined the winners. Students compared the actual measurements to the estimates that they had made prior to the activities. Those students whose estimates came the closest to their actual measurements were presented with gold, silver and bronze "medals" in recognition of their metric power.