Home > Teacher Supplies Info Center > Teaching the metric system

Teaching the metric system

Click here to see our selection of Teaching the metric system.

 

Aside from taking measurements and converting them over to the metric system the teacher can move on to other ways of teaching the metric system.

For temperatures, the school nurse may be able to provide sterilized thermometers for your class. Have your students read the Celsius room temperature and record it both inside and outside. Have your students write in words how the different temperatures feel to them. No matter what age group, when teaching the metric system, this rhyme is helpful as a frame of reference for temperatures:

Thirty is hot
Twenty is nice
Ten is chilly
Zero is ice

· Suggestions for lessons in teaching the metric system that can fit any subject matter or level of study. Here are some examples:

· Teaching the metric system in Mathematics:
From a unit on decimals reproduce two arithmetic problems. Have your students add the columns. Then discuss which problem is easier for them to solve. Have your students explain their answers. –This could also evolve into a writing assignment. Develop problems which demonstrate computation with decimal fractions as opposed to vulgar fractions, and the ease with which this can be done.

· Teaching the metric system in Language Arts/English:
Write stories using metric units to describe daily activities. Create a glossary for your students of metric units for the average person working with metric units. List some things that can be found in the home/marketplace that display metric units. Have the students write essays on the advantages of using the metric system, these they can submit to the school paper. Have the essays include economic, social, educational, and psychological aspects of the metric system. Hold class competitions for the best metric poems, slogans, jokes, or limericks.

· Teaching the metric system in Art:
Design posters that show the advantages of the metric system, or that list rules for metric usage, etc. These posters can be posted in class to reinforce teaching the metric system. Another idea is to have the students create a metric logo for the United States. Have the students design a mobile, integrating metric units and sizes in the design.

· Teaching the metric system in Social Studies:
Teaching the metric system in Social Studies class is easiest if you first make a time line that shows significant developments in the systems of weights and measures throughout history. Then describe major figures in history that influenced the development of metric weights and measures. Then as you teach them the metric system, have the students research the uses of the metric system in different industries and professions such as medicine, architecture, science, construction, the Global Positioning System, and so on. Have the students choose one of these as a topic and write essays on how, for example: medicine relates to the metric system. With these essays you will be able to assess how well your students understand the metric system.

Homeroom Teacher has the best selection of Teaching the metric system at the lowest prices!

Related information:

Learning Strategies
There are lots of ways to learn, the approach for the most effective learning comes through the knowing yourself, your capacity to learn, processes that have worked for you in the past, your interest in, and your knowledge of the subject you are learning.

Special Needs Teaching
Special needs teaching involves teaching children (or adults) who have behavioral, emotional, or learning difficulties.

Tips for new teachers
If you have already been a teacher’s aid, you have probably noticed that things do not always go as planned.

Copyright © 1998 - 2012   Homeroom Teacher