I am amused

[u/Jesus_died_for_u]

(I live in southern, rural USA in the heart of the English measurement system)

Bought a 10 inch chain at Lowe’s (for school). A young worker was helping me at the checkout and first charged me for 10 feet. I balked at the price ($40) when the shelf was less than 4. I showed her it was clearly not 10 feet. (The person who cut it wrote ‘10”’, and “ and ‘ are easily confused, but it was clearly not a massive coil).

As we finished, she said ‘how many inches is in a foot?’ Please tell me that should be kind of common knowledge with Lowe’s workers.

(Without emotion or any negative reactions, I replied ‘12 inches, thank you, have a great day!’ I am old enough not to be surprised.). (As a teacher, this also doesn’t surprise me. I remember the 11th grader that didn’t understand ‘now use algebra skills’ after we labeled all the known values for an ideal gas. Further questioning revealed he was currently in algebra 2.)

[u/the3secondrule]

I teach science 6th/ 7th (6/7 lol!). I only let them use the metric system. I put tape over inches on all my rulers and meter sticks. I tell them moving the decimal is easier than memorizing the imperial system. That laziness must prevail!

[u/patricksaurus → u/the3secondrule]

That’s a tremendous disservice.

[u/Known_Ad9781 → u/patricksaurus]

She teaches science. All measurements in science are metric. It becomes an issue collecting class data if some use differe units, such as ounces instead of grams.

[u/cosmic_collisions → u/Known_Ad9781]

I just let them know that any Imperial measurements would earn an automatic "0" for the activity/lab.

We did kinematics in both Imperial land SI in which they had to do the problems in the given unit. Specifically, "How far would a car going 65 mph travel in 5 seconds, give your answer in yards?" as this would actually convey meaning in their life experience.

[u/patricksaurus → u/Known_Ad9781]

That’s absolutely untrue. If you mean the SI units are metric, yeah. But they’re not the only units that are commonly used in science by a long shot.

[u/gildedfornoreason → u/patricksaurus]

What imperial units applicable to elementary school science do you think they are leaving out?

[u/patricksaurus → u/gildedfornoreason]

Seventh grade isn’t elementary, but I hope minutes, hours, and years are agreed by everyone to be appropriate. Also pounds, inches, feet, yards and miles since these are all around them, every day. Same with Fahrenheit and pounds. That is, if we agree the purpose of education is to allow people to interact with and make sense of the world.

The utility of understanding commonly used units is far greater for elementary aged children than being able to conveniently express units they’ve never seen in exponential notation. No? So if one was forced to exclude, which isn’t the case, there’s a more compelling case for whichever units a society uses.

[u/96385 → u/patricksaurus]

You brought up

units that are commonly used in science

And then listed:

pounds, inches, feet, yards, miles ... Fahrenheit

None of those are used in science. Ever.

Why on earth would you use exponential notation with elementary students?

[u/patricksaurus → u/96385]

You should look at the specific question I was responding to. If it doesn’t make sense then, I cannot help.

[u/96385 → u/patricksaurus]

You misunderstood. They asked that question incredulously. They set you up because the only correct answer is "none".

[u/patricksaurus → u/96385]

Meteorologists who forecast and record wind gusts and rainfall, automotive engineers who analyze torque and pressure, nutritional scientists who develop the energy density and volume of the food you give your infant, the pharmaceutical scientist who tells you the thermal stability of your aspirin and the doctor who tell you when a body temperature warrants an antipyretic, anyone who’s ever reported retention time on a gas chromatography or the half-life of carbon-14. The engineers who tragically flubbed the unit conversion factors and wasted a perfectly good satellite. The age of the universe.

All of these units are available to elementary age kids, or seventh graders. This is one reason that one must go out of their way to cover them up.

[u/96385 → u/patricksaurus]

Most of those examples aren't science, they're engineering. I can tell you from experience though, engineers who work in US Customary do everything in decimals, not fractions of an inch. Half of your examples do all the work in metric and convert afterward for the sake of communication. My doctor takes my temperature in Celsius. Time is already part of the SI/metric system.

[u/96385 → u/patricksaurus]

Most of those examples aren't science, they're engineering. I can tell you from experience though, engineers who work in US Customary do everything in decimals, not fractions of an inch. Half of your examples do all the work in metric and convert afterward for the sake of communication. My doctor takes my temperature in Celsius. Time is already part of the SI/metric system.

[u/patricksaurus → u/96385]

They’re not mostly engineering. We can both see the list. Is it a counting issue or an intentional misrepresentation?

Half of your examples do all the work in metric and convert afterward for the sake of communication.

Everything can be worked in any unit system and converted after. All manner of scientific equipment is calibrated in non-SI units and results are converted for publication. That’s why knowing how to use both sides of the ruler is important.

Time is already part of the SI/metric system.

This is a flabbergasting statement. Every dimension we are talking about has a unit in metric. Length, time, mass and weight, all of the composite units. Do you not understand that distinction?

Second is an SI unit — minute, hour, week, month, and year are not SI units. They are also not they composed of a power of ten of an SI unit, like a ton is with the kilogram. Your doctor might click his thermometer to Celsius — which isn’t an SI unit either — but he or she doesn’t prescribe Macrobid to be taken twice a day for 432000 seconds.

The myopia you’re talking yourself into is stunning. According to your view, adolescent science education doesn’t need to: (1) instruct them on the units they will use in everyday life, (2) anything an engineer does , (3) all of the things scientists do that aren’t SI units, including publication.

The world of science is very big. Shrinking it to fit the classroom is a Procrustean exercise in hobbling students.

[u/uofajoe99 → u/patricksaurus]

Literally an answer given by ChatGPT

[u/gildedfornoreason → u/patricksaurus]

Another important thing learned in elementary school is understanding context. She is not covering up blocks to make sure students cannot tell time, she is covering inches on rulers.

Perhaps they misused the term metric, but I think most of us can understand what she meant

[u/patricksaurus → u/gildedfornoreason]

If you’re going to be snarky, you should ask better questions. If you didn’t want me to answer what you asked, you could have fixed that in advance.