Using the Celsius scale in education has another useful property - they introduce children to negative numbers in a meaningful way. In the South of England for example, we regularly go down below 0°C, but hardly ever below 0°F (about -18°C).
----- Original Message ----- From: "James Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 5:58 PM Subject: [USMA:36647] Re: metric experience at home > Remek, > > That is excellent! Now, how hard would it be for our schools to do that. Have > you considered asking your son's teacher if she would like for you to come in > and do something like that in class? > > A few years ago I taught kindergartners the Celsius rhyme ("30 is hot, ...). > And they knew what it was for because we talked about temperature. I related > that to what they would wear to school, as you did with your son. > > Jim > > On Friday 21 April 2006 11:45, Remek Kocz wrote: > > My 6-year-old has been fascinated by the thermometer lately, so I took that > > as an opportunity to teach him Celsius. He wants to know each morning > > which jacket to put on for school, so depending on how many degrees the > > thermometer reads, we pick either a winter or a spring jacket. As it > > happens, we started when the morning temps were around 0C, and now we're up > > to 10-15C, so it's really perfect time to give him a very practical sense > > of reading a thermometer. He already knows that snow won't stay around if > > the temps are above 0C, and that it's t-shirt weather when we go around > > 18C. It's a wonderful thing to be able to teach this to one's kids, and I > > do gain another sense of appreciation of the sheer elegance of centigrade. > > > > We're also working on meters, since he started bringing feet from school. > > Right now it's just kiddie banter like "giants are a million feet tall," > > but I may as well head off the USC pollution early. So, he learned that he > > is a meter and a quarter tall, that a meter is as long as dad stretching > > out his arms or as tall as he is to the shoulder. Easy enough. Then I > > estimated the height of our house at 10 m, the trees in the backyard at 20 > > m, and told him that the clouds are up at 2000 m. > > > > Remek > > > > On 4/21/06, Howard Ressel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I called my 13 yr old son with a favor the other day (home alone on > > > spring break). Asked him to get a tape measure from my toolbox and > > > measure the length of a fluorescent bulb so I could get a new one at > > > lunch. I have several tape measures, one in English, on in metric and > > > several in dual - he could have taken any of them. Without me prompting > > > he read me the length as 300. I said is that millimeters he said yes. > > > > > > Next I went to the store to find the bulb figuring id be looking for a > > > 12" long bulb. To my surprise and delight I found what I needed on the > > > shelf, only one choice. It was at Home Depot (do not remember the brand) > > > and it was labeled as 30 cm with no English units. > > > > > > Al in all a very metrically illuminating experience for the day. > > > > > > Howard Ressel > > > Project Design Engineer, Region 4 > > > (585) 272-3372 > > -- > James R. Frysinger > Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist > Senior Member, IEEE > > http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Office: > Physics Lab Manager, Lecturer > Dept. of Physics and Astronomy > University/College of Charleston > 66 George Street > Charleston, SC 29424 > 843.953.7644 (phone) > 843.953.4824 (FAX) > > Home: > 10 Captiva Row > Charleston, SC 29407 > 843.225.0805 >
