How to work out scale

Scaling activity to change the size of items

In this activity learners will change the scale of items, by doubling or halving the size and drawing them to a new scale. Learners will be shown that multiplication and division are useful methods to change the scale of an item.

This is one of a set of resources developed to support the teaching of the primary national curriculum. They are designed to support the delivery of key topics within maths and science. This resource focuses on the use of multiplication and division in the context of scaling an item to either double or half its size.

This activity could be used as a main lesson activity to teach learners how to work out scale or to reinforce understanding of multiplication and division. It could be used as one of several activities within a wider scheme of learning focusing on the use of maths to understand ratio and proportion. It could also support the development of drawing skills in art.

The engineering context
Structural engineers collaborate with architects to design various structures, such as houses, hospitals, office blocks, bridges, oil rigs, ships, and aircraft. They create scaled-down drawings for each of these structures.

Suggested learning outcomes
By the end of this activity, students will know how multiplication and division can be used to work out scale, they will be able to scale drawings back to their original size by either scaling up or scaling down, and they will be able to solve simple problems in scaling contexts, i.e. two times larger and two times smaller.

Download the activity sheets for free!

The activity sheet includes teachers’ notes, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs.

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