NCTM Curriculum Focal PointsThanks Pat. That's why the school system here moved teaching and using the SI to science classes from math classes. Science classes are where the SI is needs to be taught and used exclusively to prepare kids for science and technology jobs. Math class is just conversion as you've shown.
Stan Doore ----- Original Message ----- From: Pat Naughtin To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2007 8:58 PM Subject: [USMA:38124] NCTM Curriculum Focal Points Dear All, I have just had a chance to skim through the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) document: 'Curriculum Focal Points for Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics - A Quest for Coherence' that I downloaded from http://www.nctmmedia.org/cfp/full_document.pdf Interestingly in this 50 page document, the word: a.. metre appears once, b.. meterstick appears once, c.. metric appears twice (both times with the word customary nearby - see both examples below), and d.. centimetre appears three times. Sadly, from my point of view, the words millimetre and millimeter are not mentioned anywhere in the entire document. It appears that the children of the USA will not be prepared to work in the industry of the USA - or anywhere else for that matter using these 'Focal Points'. See: http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/centimetresORmillimetres.pdf for clarification of this issue. For Grade 2 the NCTM writers say: a.. They understand the need for equal length units, the use of standard units of measure (centimeter and inch), and the inverse relationship between the size of a unit and the number of units used in a particular measurement (i.e., children recognize that the smaller the unit, the more iterations they need to cover a given length). For Grades 3-4 they say: a.. Understand the need for measuring with standard units and become familiar with standard units in the customary and metric systems a.. Carry out simple unit conversions, such as from centimeters to meters, within a system of measurement And for Measurement in Grades 5-6 they say: a.. Understand both metric and customary systems of measurement a.. Understand relationships among units and convert from one unit to another within the same system Specific units are not mentioned for the other grades. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305, Belmont, 3216 Geelong, Australia Phone 61 3 5241 2008 Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'. Subscribe at http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter Pat is recognised as a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. He is also editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' section of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual - for writers, editors and printers'. He is a Member of the National Speakers Association of Australia and the International Federation for Professional Speakers. See: http://www.metricationmatters.com This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be partly or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender by return email.
