First of all, read all of Pat Naughtin's newsletters at http://www.metricationmatters.com/. For those who have never heard of Pat, he was an Australian metrication commentator who sadly passed away in 2011 shortly after he had written (but not published) newsletter no 100. Australia had a successful metrication program in the 1960s and 1970s.
If Hawaii is going fully metric, first of all they need to identify how much of their daily goods are produced ion the islands and how much comes from continental USA. This will give a good idea of how much attention they need to place on customary units. With this in mind, they can gear their education programs up to handle metric only, or metric and a little bit of customary units. Metric education is more than just changing feet and inches for metres - in the lower grades you have to identify when you will teach vulgar fractions and when you will teach decimals. When I was a kid in South Africa (with a non-decimal coinage), the teaching of decimals came a couple of years after the teaching of fractions - I was adept at all four arithmetic operations with fractions before decimals were introduced. On the other hand, the US has a decimal coinage so kids are taught about dollars and cents fairly early on (at least I hope they are). I could go on about my experiences in South Africa, but for it to be relevant, I would need to know the start point in the US, so UI will not ramble on any more. Regards Martin -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: 30 January 2013 20:29 To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:52291] RE: FW: Fwd: The Metric System, the United States of America, and Scientific Literacy | Sci-Ed I think Hawaii COULD make sense if they were serious about full metrication and our conference were to serve as educational sessions to stakeholders/ policy makers about the different implications/ approaches/ current firm and school practices everything related to SI usage. Although based on my research, no one seems to have current data on any of these topics. Honestly, I am not sure about the quality or even quantity of sessions we could provide. Does anyone have ideas about content they could provide? I could talk some about current classroom practices (which vary so much) and more about the intent of the new standards in Mathematics and what I believe shall become part of the new standards in Science. NIST and USMA are considered the US experts in metrication, yet I feel like WE are a data poor group. How is it that someone can figure out how many birds and small mammals, Cats are killing in the US but we can not figure out how many people (in this country) are working in the modern metric system. I'm not trying to be negative; I know this is a volunteer organization. I am just concerned that we shall get our wish, and Hawaii will contact us and say, "we are serious" give us the current data and give us a plan. What would we do? Bridget Sent from my iPad On Jan 30, 2013, at 9:47 AM, Scott Hudnall <[email protected]> wrote: > In all practicality, I have a corporate Webex account. I can host online > video-conferences, if there is sufficient interest in attending. It is more > cost-effective than flying all the way to Hawaii, but no sandy beaches. > > -- > Scott Hudnall > > On Jan 30, 2013, at 6:58, "[email protected] " <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I'm all for it, as long as there is a grant for unemployed people to travel >> to Hawaii fro a conference.... >> >> >> Bruce E. Arkwright, Jr >> Erie PA >> Linux and Metric User and Enforcer >> >> >> I will only invest in nukes that are 150 gigameters away. How much solar >> energy have you collected today? >> Id put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope >> we dont have to wait til oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish >> I had a few more years left. -- Thomas Edison♽☯♑ >> >> >> Jan 30, 2013 05:58:55 AM, [email protected] wrote: >> It is also mid-winter in Hawaii, only just not as cold as say New York or >> Chicago! J >> >> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf >> Of [email protected] >>> Sent: 29 January 2013 23:57 >>> To: U.S. Metric Association >>> Subject: [USMA:52282] RE: FW: Fwd: The Metric System, the United States of >>> America, and Scientific Literacy | Sci-Ed >> >> Of course! A meeting in Hawaii while it 's the dead of winter on the >> mainland! >> >> (Now why didn 't I think of that. ;-) >> >> Ezra >> From: [email protected] >>> To: "U.S. Metric Association" [email protected]> >>> Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 12:44:50 PM >>> Subject: [USMA:52281] RE: FW: Fwd: The Metric System, the United States of >>> America, and Scientific Literacy | Sci-Ed >> 100% open to that idea. We could share ideas and coordinate efforts to >> promote metric usage. A meeting sounds like a great idea. >> >> From: JohnAltounji [email protected]>; >>> To: U.S. Metric Association [email protected]>; >>> Subject: [USMA:52279] FW: Fwd: The Metric System, the United States of >>> America, and Scientific Literacy | Sci-Ed >>> Sent: Tue, Jan 29, 2013 6:00:43 AM >> The more similar work, the better. I thinks, we should have cross links >> between all the web pages and blogs, etc… >> What about meeting each other (metric people), conference style? >> >> Special thanks to the pioneers at USMA. >> >> John Altounji >> One size does not fit all. >>> Social promotion ruined Education. >> >> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf >> Of [email protected] >>> Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 8:45 PM >>> To: U.S. Metric Association >>> Subject: [USMA:52278] Fwd: The Metric System, the United States of America, >>> and Scientific Literacy | Sci-Ed >> >> Hi everyone. My name is Linda Anderman and the metric documentary referenced >> in the second to the last paragraph of the blog is the one I 'm working on. >>> >>> I will have very big news on the project in the next couple of weeks. >>> >>> I 've been waiting for the right time to introduce myself and this seemed >>> like as good a time as any. >>> >>> I 'll have more news very soon. Promise. >> From: [email protected] >>> To: "U.S. Metric Association" [email protected]> >>> Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 6:16:37 PM >>> Subject: [USMA:52277] The Metric System, the United States of America, and >>> Scientific Literacy | Sci-Ed >>> >>> Very timely and the writer works at the Smithsonian! Great comics >>> >>> http://blogs.plos.org/scied/2013/01/28/the-metric-system-united-states-of-america-and-scientific-literacy/ >>> >>> >>> Sent from my iPad >> >> >
