​Discuss

 

Your teacher will assign you one or more of these questions to discuss in a group. After that, be ready to share what you talked about with the rest of the class.

 

1. Mr. Veliz wrote that students “will learn to appreciate” the simplicity of the metric system, but Emanuel thinks that implies something. What’s Emanuel’s concern?
2. Thomas Jefferson liked the idea of a measurement system that used factors of 10. Most people find multiplying and dividing by 10 easier than by other numbers. Do you agree? Why do you think it is easier for many people to divide or multiply by 10?
3. Deyanna pointed out that cups, quarts, gallons, and pints (part of our customary system) do not relate using factors of 10. Rephrase or explain her point.
4. Why do you think Mr. Veliz called out science class as an example when describing the transition to metric?
5. Deyanna and Emanuel seem to disagree about whether the metric temperature scale is sensible. What do you think? Why does Emanuel argue that the Celsius scale is easy? What is the nature of Deyanna’s confusion?
6. If your school adopted a policy like Valley View’s that all measurements will be metric, would your sports programs have to adjust? How easy or difficult would that be?