Teacher training is metric at the UI according to Fouad.
The extent of metric education at the STEM Academy is still to be determined.
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Dear Eugene,
In education, we generally do not teach our teachers their science. For
the most part, they take their science courses in the respective science
departments. My understanding is that college-level science courses use
the metric system.
I am not clear at this point what the STEM Academy approach will be in
this regard. My hope is to use the international standard.
All the best,
Fouad
Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, PhD
Professor of Science Education
Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
311 Education Building
1310 South Sixth Street
Champaign, IL 61820
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: (217) 244-1221
Fax: (217) 244-4572
On 2/20/11 12:45 PM, "mechtly, eugene a" <[email protected]> wrote:
>Dear Fouad,
>
>Below is an e-mail sent to the US Metric Association after I reported our
>conversation on metric-only education on February 16.
>
>Do you teach metric-only science courses to your student-teachers?
>
>What is your opinion on the Article from the ASNT journal that I gave
>your?
>
>Will metric-only learning be offered to students at the STEM Academy in
>grades 3? 4? or 5?
>
>Eugene A. Mechtly
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 08:17:32 -0500
>>From: "Kilopascal" <[email protected]>
>>Subject: [USMA:49876] Re: STEM in Urbana, Illinois
>>To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
>>
>> I'm not surprised that STEM is not interested in a
>> metric only curriculum and neither should anyone
>> else. The people obviously involved in the STEM
>> program are nothing more than average citizens who
>> are very ignorant of SI and will never understand
>> its benefits. Their concept on teaching SI is to
>> teach obsolete units first and teach SI as an
>> afterthought by conversion.
>>
>> It also isn't a surprise that the only person aware
>> of SI or the one having practical experience in it
>> is someone born and raised in a foreign country.
>> But like most immigrants not wanting to insult
>> citizens of their new country will only show support
>> for SI in private.
>>
>> It is too bad that someone from industry with a
>> metric background could not provide a seminar to
>> STEM supporters on the importance of teaching only
>> SI. Even to the point of emphasizing that a student
>> who can't think in SI (without back converting to
>> obsolete) will be of no use to industry. The point
>> can be made that STEM will backfire and industry
>> will go outside the country to find SI literate
>> employees. The result is that STEM graduates will
>> find themselves either as unemployed as the rest of
>> the citizens or working in the same low pay service
>> jobs that remain.
>>
>> Stem is nothing more than the blind and ignorant
>> leading the blind and ignorant.
>>...
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