Academic Ideas that Connect with Perimeter

Like Bread and Butter

Area and perimeter go together like salt and pepper, in and out, or peas and carrots. Yet, that is not the end of the story. There are other academic topics that support and extend the mathematical concept of perimeter. As you know, more connections make topics easier to understand and recall.

First, before you start teaching perimeter in math class, call the art teacher and the physical education teacher. Art and sports each have their own unique ways to explore the idea of perimeter.

Contour Drawing Extends the Idea of Perimeter

Art teachers often use contour drawing to develop their students’ hand eye coordination and to help them look closely at objects they are drawing. You don’t have to be an art teacher to try this ‘No-Look’ Contour Drawing activity in your class. Young students can pretend their pencil is tracing the path of a tiny ant which is walking along the outside edge of an everyday object such as a shoe, a water bottle, or some crayons. Betty Edwards’ book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain uses contour drawing as the first step in teaching her students to see and think differently.

Measuring Perimeters in Steps Adds Physical Understanding

Calculating the area of a football field, a track, or playground is a fantastic academic challenge. Running or walking around the perimeter gives students a completely different type of understanding! Let the PE teacher take care of this task.

There are other ways to help your students develop a more concrete understanding of perimeter. Students could calculate the perimeter of the hallway outside their room, their classroom, or some other accessible space. You could have them create scale models, or maps of a local neighborhood, building, or park. Again the art teacher might be a good resource when it comes to teaching about scale.

Perimeter Literally Means: Measure Around

Add detail to the concept of perimeter by delving into the history and the meaning of its root words. The root ‘peri-‘ originated in ancient Greece with the meaning ‘around, about, enclosing’ which relates to words such as ‘period’ at the end of a sentence telling us we have gone completely around the idea, or ‘period’ as an interval of time, or ‘periodic’ such as a cycle of events that repeats. ‘Peri-‘ is similar to the Latin root ‘circum -‘ as in circumference, circus, or circumscribe. The second part of the word comes from a classical root meaning ‘to measure.’ It connects with other words such as centimeter, diameter, geometry, parameter, metronome, and metric.

What is the Perimeter of a Country?

Finally, measuring perimeters can lead to some very interesting mathematical ideas such as fractals and infinity. For example, invite your students to consider how to measure the coastline of a country. This is sure to get them thinking about how the size of the measuring stick impacts the answer.