Metric Conversions

We have been spending a lot of time going over the metric system, different tools of measurement, and how to use those tools. We learned about metric conversions yesterday and today. Students have a practice worksheet on how to convert metric units. The worksheet will be due Tuesday, this allows them to work on it tonight, ask questions tomorrow and go home to finish it. They need to start on it tonight because it is due Tuesday, so they won't have time to finish it on Tuesday.

We set up a chart in our notebooks that looks like this:

They have the 6 main prefixes will use, the abbreviations, and what number they stand for. I teach in like a ladder or staircase. When you go right down the staircase the units get smaller, so you move your decimal to the right. If you go left up the staircase the units get larger, so you move the decimal to the left.

So, you start by right the number given WITH a decimal where it belongs. Then, you look at the chart and decide which direction to move and how many steps. Next, you move the decimal that many spaces in the correct direction. Draw the new decimal, fill in any empty spaces with zeros, and rewrite the correct number with units (a number without a label is complete nonsense).