The use of measurement units in the study of elementary operations in an Arithmetic edited by a Franciscan Sister for a female audience

Abstract

The paper aims to investigate how measurement units were used in the study of elementary operations, in a book on Arithmetic of the 20^th century, edited by Sister Valesca Volkmer, for the female audience. It has a qualitative approach, based on cultural history for the analysis of a book of Arithmetic of the 3^rd primary year, edited by a religious of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters, located in the municipality of São Leopoldo, state of Rio Grande do Sul. The book contains operations with natural numbers, ordinary and decimal fractions and notions of geometry. Units of measurement for length, capacity, mass, time and money are used in the study of elementary operations with natural numbers and ordinary and decimal fractions, in a practical and utilitarian way for the students. It is considered that this book presents a proposal that educated generations of students from Franciscan institutions to solve everyday situations, from didactic material for Mathematics classes produced by the Franciscan Sisters themselves.