TOS Review: Master Ruler
No one told me when I joined the crew that I would have hidden benefits such as the opportunity to discover educational products I would never have found otherwise such as the Master Ruler from Master Innovations.
As part of the TOS Review Crew I received two rulers (one standard, one metric), an educational poster and a reproducible workbook to use with the rulers. These are not ordinary rulers nor are they limited to simply measuring the length, width or height of an object.
The Rulers: It is difficult to describe these rulers using words. If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, what is a video worth? In this case I think the video produced by Master Innovations explains and shows the product far better than my inadequate prose.
You can find the Master Ruler Video HERE along with videos of their other products Master Clock, Master Angle and Master Fractions.
The Workbook: A standard size of 8 1/2” by 11” inches this workbook contains both English (standard) and Metric measuring activities. Pages 1 is a measuring chart and pages 2 and 3 display an outline of teaching concepts and activities. The workbook includes an answer key found on pages 23 & 24. Workbook pages progress from simple such as measuring a line to the nearest inch to more complicated such as adding, subtracting and/or converting to find the answers to a puzzle.
The Poster: A bright, colorful, large display shows at a glance such information as how many ounces are in a 1/4 pound or how many yards are in mile. It is pictorial rather than just numerical so you can see that there are 8 pints in a gallon. It can’t display a mile but instead has a picture of a road with the number of feet (or yards) in a mile. It is not to scale but it shows clearly that one inch is a whole and two halves equal one whole.
Tailorbear’s (age 11) Thoughts: “The Master Ruler would have been a great thing to have a couple of years ago when I was learning about fractions. It was really fun to use to review fractions.”
Turtlegirl’s (age 13) Thoughts: “The Marvels of Measurement Poster is really good for reference. The Master Ruler does really make it much easier to measure things. It was fun to help teach Supergirl. It would have been nice to have this around when I was little to teach me measurements and fractions.”
BooBear’s (age 15) Thoughts: “I can see potential in the Master Rulers. I can’t really use it now because I am way past the learning to measure stage. I played teacher and used the Master Ruler with my special needs sister. She really likes it. You can use just the 1 inch part and it made counting much easier”
My thoughts and impressions: The concepts presented in the workbook, which retails for $15.95, were below the skills and abilities of three of my daughters and most of the pages were beyond Supergirl’s current skills. The workbook would make a nice supplement beginning in first grade and continuing through 4th or 5th grade. Because of the range of concepts and skills presented, I would not plan on using it all in one school year but spread it out over several years using it to supplement whatever math program I was using.
I love the rulers ($9.95 each) and find them easier to read than traditional rulers. I like that I can use each layer separately. Around here the Master Rulers are the first rulers we reach for when we need to measure something.
We are enjoying the $10 poster and it has reduced the number of times I hear “Mom, how many cups are in a gallon, again?”. It is a large (about 2’ by 3’) so it takes some wall space to display, but it is colorful which brings cheer to my dining room.
You can read about the scientific research studies here.
Some of my fellow crew mates reviewed Master Ruler while others reviewed other Master Innovation products so be sure and click on the banner to read more reviews
Disclaimer: As a TOS Crew member, I received this product free of charge to review. This review is my honest opinion with, hopefully, enough detail as to why I liked or did not like a product so that my readers can make an informed decision. I received no compensation.
Master Innovations provided the “Master Ruler” (both metric and standard) the Mastering the World of Measuring workbook and the “Marvels of Measures!” poster for review.
These rulers really are a great way to teach these concepts! I wish I had known about them a couple of years ago. We reviewed the Angle tool. I LOVED it.
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