- Guide to taking measurements
- Printable measurement tools
- Why were these questions chosen?
- Previous versions of the questionnaire
Before completing the online survey, students must record the measurements listed below.
Make sure they have measuring tapes available. Also give them measurement worksheets. (See printable measurement tools.)
Set up stations in the classroom for each type of measurement, using measurement instruction signs
How tall are you without your shoes on?
Answer to the nearest half centimetre
TIP: You could fix a tape measure to the classroom wall to help with this.
What is your arm span? Answer to the nearest half centimetre.
Open your arms wide and measure distance across your back from tip of right hand middle finger to tip of left hand middle finger.
You can stand straight up against a blackboard or wall with your arms outstretched. Mark a dot at the tip of the middle finger of each hand and measure the distance between the dots.
Does your arm span measure the same as your height?
Forearm: elbow to wrist
What is the length of your right forearm, from your elbow bone to your wrist bone? Answer to the nearest half centimetre.
What is your wrist circumference in millimetres?
Remember, this time we’re asking for millimetres, not centimetres!
Length of foot
What is the length of your right foot, without a shoe? Answer to the nearest half centimetre.
Use a piece of graph paper with the centimetre scale marked on it
Is your foot the same length as your forearm?
Make sure to provide measuring tapes for students.
As an alternative, we offer these mini measuring strips, 24 centimetres long, available in Acrobat (PDF) format.
Students can use these worksheets to record their measurements.
There are eight worksheets per page. Cut them apart and distribute them to your students.
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The international questions (indicated by the globe icon) were developed by a group representing statistical educators from all participating countries.
The other questions were developed for the Canadian questionnaire by an interprovincial teacher advisory board, with advice from teachers across the country.
These are the reasons different questions were chosen:
- to allow comparisons with questions in other countries’ surveys (date of birth, height, right or left-handedness, breakfast foods)
- to be similar to questions in the 2006 Census (number of people in household, time taken to get to school)
- to practise taking measurements (wrist circumference, arm span, etc.)
- to relate to health (smoking, allergies, nutrition)
- to relate to social issues (bullying, donations to charitable organization, environment)
- to relate to lifestyles (electronic gadgets, time use, favourite sport, role models)
- to engage and amuse students (measuring response time and memory).