Fourth grade math and eighth grade science

[redbird]

I don't mind proofreading a multiplication table (rule something-or-other is that there can be a typo in anything), but every time I look at a problem that's basically about the children learning the relative sizes of pints, cups, and quarts, or similar, I find myself thinking "can't we just do this in metric?" There's nothing wrong with practicing their eight-times table, but I doubt that students elsewhere in the world keep being handed questions like "which is larger, 2 liters or 230 milliliters?" On the other hand, points to Louisiana for noting that the way to learn how the two systems relate is "a meter is slightly longer than a yard" rather than precise conversions that leave students thinking only in inches and yards.

2 Pallas is not the largest asteroid. The IAU did not redefine "asteroid" when they introduced the "minor planet" category last year, but even if they had, 4 Vesta is larger in two of three dimensions and significantly more massive.

Sometimes the editorial notes (this place uses Word and "track changes") are straightforward things like "there is no question 4 here" next to a deleted entry for it in the answer guide, and sometimes they're paragraphs about astronomy or evolution.

Comments

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

I doubt that students
elsewhere in the world keep being handed questions like "which is
larger, 2 liters or 230 milliliters?"

Actually, yes they do, because its easy to assume that milli means lots more (at least, i assume so, given how often it comes up). At least you learn yards and inches in school and then use them in real life in the US (unless Louisiana does differently?), until the government finally insisted just a few years ago that Britons *had* to use metric, you'd learn to figure in litres and centimetres but buy food by the ounce and the pound and estimate distance in yards.. most confuzzling.

[spacecrab.livejournal.com]

My two cents (as an old math teacher and someone who's done gigs writing questions for the Pennsylvania State Math Assessment exam and several textbooks): as long as food in American grocery stores and industrial products are labeled in the English system, it's probably a good idea to make sure students know how to work with ounces, pounds, fluid ounces, pints, quarts, and gallons --that it's *two* pints per quart, *four* quarts per gallon, etc. I'm less worried about inches, feet, yards, and miles.