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Just a reminder that the Montgomery County Public
School system (MCPS) in Maryland now is teaching and using the SI
exclusively to its 140 000 students in its science courses and classes.
And, the superintendent has told me on a couple of occasions that he is
committed to the SI.
The USMA now has a simplified poster of the SI
UNITS and most of its derivatives. The poster has been well received by
many groups here since its was first distributed last week.
Regards, Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 10:35
AM
Subject: [USMA:36654] Re: metric
experience at home
I'm glad that she's receptive. I've found many teachers
in my area who were also receptive to teaching SI. If I remember right SI was
introduced for me around fourth grade, but the New York state public school
system taught it well. Unlike the schools out here who just brush over it and
spend around ten minutes on it, the NYS schools had charts showing meters and
temperature in Celsius and the teachers would have us pace out meters and find
millimeters and such on the rulers.
I can still recall the chart they
handed us to, it had USC measures on it in the form of 1 mile=1.6 km=5280 feet
and 1 inch=2.54 cm, but it emphasized SI first.
We even learned the
teaspoon was 5 mL and tabelspoons were 15 mL and cups were 240 mL and to this
day I really have to stop and think before I can tell someone how many fluid
ounces are in a cup :).
The schools out here just teach that metric
exists and these are the main measures (kilogram, liter, etc). They don't even
provide a frame of reference or have students become familiar with it, and
I've heard complaints from many students who get just this passing familiarity
with SI in fourth grade then get into chemistry or other sciences later on in
high school and have to relearn it because it wasn't properly taught the first
time. As I said before the teachers are generally receptive but the principles
of the various districts I've talked to have a personal hatred of S and refuse
to acknowledge its existence or importance, even insisting the kids run the
mile instead of the 1600m in spite of the fact that all track and field events
are metric. Ah well, one step at a time.
On 4/26/06, Remek
Kocz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
James,
Actually, I did speak to my son's
kindergarten teacher on a tangential matter. Just wanted to let her
know that I was teaching my child metric at home, and that he will be
talking about temperatures in Celsius rather than Fahrenheit. I
assumed that his recent obsession with temperature was something they were
learning at school, but apparently they don't learn any measurements in
kindergarten. In the end, we did have a good conversation on
converting the US to metric, and about the stalled efforts in the
'70's. Needless to say, she was very supportive of metrication and was
sorry to see things fail they way they did 30 years ago.
Once we're
in an elementary school I plan to approach the teachers about metric.
I don't know when the kids start learning measurements, but it would be good
to make a presentation coincide with a lesson on such topic.
From my experience, seeing metric applied and/or related to daily
life in an exclusive fashion (ie. no conversions) completely demystifies
it. Metric stands alone, and its advantages become readily
apparent.
Remek
On 4/25/06, James
Frysinger < [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
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
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