Practical Uses of Math and Science
October 11, 2008Practical Uses of Math and Science
I gravitated towards a lesson “Metric Wins” and I enjoyed what I read. As a math teacher who also liked science I always tell my students that we should get rid of our standard measurement system and work with the rest of the word using the metric system. I also took at look at “Teaching Radicals in Less Than 5 Minutes”, which showed how to simplify the cubic root of an algebraic expression by having students play with a deck of cards and practice making pairs or three of a kind. I thought that this same idea could be used at the middle school level when students are looks for greatest common factors or least common multiples when looking at the bottom line of the factor trees. The concept of pairing up numbers like when they play go fish would make a great connection.
Bryan,
There was a huge push towards making everything metric in the 80′s but it flopped – too many industries would have to retool their factories businesses and it just never happened. I think the only thing and that stuck was the 2 liter bottle of soda!! What is really sad is that the metric system is not tested in Maryland middle school math so it is not getting taught since it is no longer part of the state curriculum.
Judy