Mike
On 4/26/06, G Stanley Doore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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 -----From: Mike MilletSent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 10:35 AMSubject: [USMA:36654] Re: metric experience at homeI'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]
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Office:
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