Mow A Lawn

Objective

Students will convert between multiple measurements and calculate area per hour to estimate how long it will take to mow a large lawn.

More info about Central Park's Great Lawn and the Sheep Meadow. And a hat tip to What If for the inspiration.

Steps

1. Students begin by identifying what information they'll need to know. Then they will try to find that info. We're going for a rough estimate here, so they really only need to know the size of the Great Lawn, the speed they will walk, and the width of their mower.
2. Next, they convert all of their units into feet and square feet (feel free to adapt this however you'd like).
3. Now, they calculate how many square feet of grass they can mow in one hour and then determine how long it would take to mow the whole lawn.
4. As an extension, students can pick a new mower and a new speed and re-calculate their time. Alternate speeds could include: world's fastest mile time, fastest land animal, student's sprinting speed, backwards walking speed, etc.
5. Finally, they can pick a new lawn, determine the measurements, and decide how long that lawn would take to mow.

Resources

• Worksheets (PDF)
• Worksheets (Google Slides)