Plans are under way to redefine the International System of Units (SI) around 2018. The new SI specifies the values of certain physical constants to define units. This article explains the new SI in order to provide a resource for high school teachers as well as for advanced students already familiar with the pre-2018 SI.

The current use of two sets of units in the UK continues to be a source of muddle and confusion. Young people are taught metric (SI) units in school but, in the outside world, still have to contend with units such as inches, feet, pounds, stones and miles. Specialist teachers and practitioners of the sciences are not blameless. This paper…

Using the triple beam balance to measure mass in metrics is just one of the many skills teachers want their students to master. The author has found a few effective and fun approaches to develop this skill over a couple of interesting days. With each activity, students are actively involved in the construction of knowledge: What is mass and how is…

Constructing model hot air balloons is an activity that captures the imaginations of students, enabling teachers to present required content to minds that are open to receive it. Additionally, there are few activities that lend themselves to integrating so much content across subject areas. In this article, the authors describe how they have…

Describes a simple exercise that can be used to demonstrate the concepts of SI units, experimental design, and significant digits in a manner that holds the attention of students who already understand these concepts but is still valuable for students who are less prepared. (CCM)

This article provides a science lesson for the middle school level, the metric system is used for all methods of measurement. The example lesson utilizes edible fruit as the real-world focus and offers ideas for additional lessons and the integration of disciplines beyond mathematics. This lesson requires students to handle, examine, and possibly…

Presents ideas and activities for teaching basic skills including vocabulary building, learning science from the microclimates, using tape recorders to teach reading, and using monsters to teach metrics. (JMB)

Presents the following activities for teaching elementary students about the metric system: Metric Soda Fountain, Metric Meals, Metric Moola, and Metric Golf. (PR)

Describes how students in grades 2-8 can make beakers from quart-sized oil containers and calibrate them in milliliters. In an second activity, students estimate the volume of water in four jars and use their beakers to measure the water in each. The estimates are compared to the true measurements. (PR)

Twelve resource units are presented for the teaching of science and mathematics to gifted students in secondary school. The units present an introduction, tips for teachers, objectives, activities, and materials lists. The units include: "Functions, Relations, and Graphs" (Priscilla Watts); "More Wham to the Gram (A Study of the…

This document, which is intended for Ohio agriculture teachers, contains lesson plans for an eight-unit competency-based course in agriscience. Each lesson plan contains some or all of the following items: (1) unit title; (2) competency/terminal performance objective; (3) competency builders/pupil performance objectives; (4) list of applied…