Frey Scientific Four Sided Meter Stick

I ordered two Frey Scientific Four Sided Meter Sticks to use as instructional aids in teaching my own children about measurement. Since there was only one photo provided on Amazon, I wasn't sure what all 4 sides of the meter stick would look like, but from others' reviews I decided to give it a try.The stick itself is a rigid 4-sided hollow plastic extrusion. It seems sturdy enough to be handled quite a bit by children without fear of it getting broken. I checked it against a steel machinists rule and found it to be accurate enough for instructional purposes. Each of the 4 sides has markings intended to emphasize different units in the metric system. One side is labeled "1m" in the center, with arrows pointing to both ends. These markings are in orange on a white background. The second side is marked to illustrate decimeters. The first decimeter is orange, the second white and so forth alternating orange and white from one end to the other. At the boundaries between the orange and white segments there is a black mark and a black digit 1, 2, ... 9. The third side is marked to illustrate centimeters. The photo on Amazon shows this side. Each 10th centimeter is numbered 10, 20, 30 etc and the centimeters between marked 2, 3, 4, 5... all the centimeters numbered with 2 digits. Unfortunately, the centimeter side is marked in orange on white - a low-contrast marking that I found impossible to read at a distance of 6 feet. I don't think this would work in a classroom. If it had been marked in black on white, it would have been much more readable. Between each centimeter, the half-centimeters are also marked with an orange line, which I think is a distraction when trying to teach children. The 4th side has markings intended to emphasize millimeters. These are marked in black on white, which is good. Unfortunately, however, the numbers on this side are centimeter numbers rather than millimeters. If it were marked 100, 200, 300, instead of 10, 20, 30... it would be much more effective as an instructional aid.Also, for increased teaching clarity, I think it would be better if the alternating orange/white theme were carried over to the centimeters side, or eliminated from the decimeters side.Finally, I have only examined one of the two sticks I received, but the millimeters markings on one edge of one end were already partly rubbed off, so I'm not sure how permanent the markings will be in the face of frequent handling by children.

I love this meter stick. I am an archaeologist and photograph scales this size for archaeology run about 50 bucks (which is ridiculous for a piece of wood painted black and white). I am working on my own project right now and making my own rules, so I can use whatever stick I want. I actually prefer the orange/white pattern over the black/white - it photographs better in the field. Furthermore, this thing has 4 sides with different measuring scales which means, for me, different scales with which to photograph my site(s). Also, don't be thrown off by it's plastic material - this thing is extremely sturdy. I would definitely recommend this product to someone else.

As a teacher, the functionality of this meter stick is good. Students can see the relationship between millimeters, centimeters, and decimeters. It's a good visual tool. Unfortunately, they cut my meter stick at 99.9 cm (1 mm short). Didn't pay a lot, but annoying. The hash marks are also painted on (not etched) and some of the (mm) lines are already showing signs of wear. The stick is a square, tubular PVC-type plastic. Each side is 2cm wide. I'll keep it for the price and get another that feels better when handling.

The actual product differs slightly from the picture, but still looks great. I would pay 4 times the list price since the product is very effective for teaching the metric system. It is durable and I love that each of the 4 sides illustrates a different metric value (one meter, 10 decimeters, 100 centimeters and 1000 millimeters. The colors are simple and bright. The students love it and I highly recommend it.

The pictures don't do this justice. This is a square-shaped ruler, not the usual flat kind. Each side has a different coloring set showing: (1) the whole meter, (2) decimeters, (3) centimeters, and (4) millimeters. We go this to help our daughter think about decimals -- how 1 whole (m) gets broken down into 10ths, 100ths, and 1000ths. Teachers should have these in their classrooms!

I got this to use as a photo scale for geological and possibly archeological work, and I like it. It is a hollow square cross section, lightweight, plastic, and probably not the sturdiest thing out there, but the price and function are great. One side has alternating-orange-and-white 10-cm bands, perfect for my purposes.

Great for talking about significant figures in physics and the side with 10cm blocked off in orange and white makes it very visible to the entire class when doing demonstrations.

For grandaughters school work to learn meter-Perfect exactly what she needed