This activity was meant to introduce students to the process of classifying, or
breaking things into groups. First students made a list of 20 things
around the classroom. Then using some criteria or their choosing, they
broke the items into 2 groups. They then added 2 more things to there
lists and put those into the established groups. This showed them that
breaking items into groups makes them easier to study. Each student was
then given a bag of 12 fasteners. They broke the fasteners into 2 groups
based on a criteria of their choosing. They then subdivided the two groups
into 4, and then into 8. This showed them that as they kept dividing there
was less in each group and the items got more alike.