By permission from Jim, here are more SI-related quotes to the NCTM,
some from 1999 (>>), and some from today. Selections are mine alone.
The full exchanges in the NCTM Forum are worth reading. See URL below.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 14:48:48 -0400
From: Areas of Mathematics <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Bring math back to Earth
Author: James R. Frysinger
>>... Another grossly deficient area of teaching is in measurements and
>> the use of units for quantities...
... ask foreign language teachers how much time they spent on teaching
their students the SI terms in those languages?
Those are the units and prefixes that speakers of those languages use
in their *everyday* life--grocery shopping, traveling, etc. In fact, I
have provided some resources for this at
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj/SIguidelines.htm
which provides the SI unit and prefix names plus supplemental
information in several languages ("SI in ....").
>> ... I submit that no teacher should be certified to
>> teach math in high school unless that teacher has successfully
>> completed one year of college chemistry and one year of college
>> (algebra-based would be fine!) physics.
... Since you are apparently a teacher of mathematics, have
you acquainted your students with the SI brochure? With the structure
of the SI? Do your students know what is meant by "base unit" and
"derived unit". Have you taught them the "rules" for combining unit
names and symbols as specified in that standard? Have you READ the SI
brochure? Or don't you teach the topic of measurement?
You can follow the discussion and reply to this message at:
http://mathforum.com/discuss/nctm.standards.2000.A/t/751?hiafter=Jul-15-2001
