Why do we need to know the metric system?

Upon further investigation, after asking on the discussion boards, another student told me the blog assignment for this week was basically explaining to children why we need to know the metric system. I would tell them it's the system of measurement used by the rest of the world, and in order to translate measurement with any other country, you need to be familiar with the metric system. I would also explain that because it is a base ten system, it is easier to calculate and convert from one form of measurement to the next.

Assuming Measurement (to be refined later)

So, this is my shot in the dark blog post because I'm not sure what I'm actually supposed to write about, as I did not get the assignment because I was home with some weird flu bug. Assuming the post will relate to the chapter that was covered, I'm gong to ramble a bit about measurement a little just so I have SOMETHING to be graded, to show I made an effort despite being totally clueless. I do plan to refine this post once I know what I should actually be writing, but for now this is all I got. Fortunately, I actually dealt with a lot of measuring this week despite not going to class. For example, measuring out medicine in those tablespoon cups (yuck). There was a lot of medicine being measured. On Wednesday I made myself a detox bath hoping it would make me feel better. The recipe called for three pints of hydrogen peroxide (because people use pint ALL the time), and two ounces of ground ginger. Because I had never really used pint as a form of measurement before, I grabbed my measuring cup and got to converting. One cup is a half a pint, so needless to say I bathed in six cups of hydrogen peroxide. I then  converted ounces to tablespoons because my kitchen doesn't really have any means of measuring two ounces very well. That ended up being four tablespoons. It was a strange experience. Yay for real life relate-ability to this weeks lesson. At least I got something.

Working with small children, it's amazing how early some math concepts can be introduced, though not necessarily understood mathematically. One prime example is the concept of symmetry. As early as the "two's room" at the daycare where I work we inadvertently teach the kids about symmetry, simply by doing projects involving folding paper in half to create a cut out or to make a pretty paining (by smearing paint, folding the paper in half, and opening it again). One perfect example, especially this time of year is cutting out snow flakes, or christmas trees. If I were to teach younger children (1st, 2nd grade) symmetry, I would love to introduce it this time of year if I could, making trees with them and explaining how the fold of the paper is the line of symmetry, and how the two sides of the tree show reflective symmetry. I would then let them get creative and decorate their trees (symmetrically of course), but thats beside the point. A few lessons later, to show how some figures can have more than one line of symmetry, I would make snowflakes with them. Apparently Christmas time and winter lends itself perfectly to teach symmetry to kids. I would explain how things in nature, such as trees, flowers, butterflies, snowflakes, etc. occur symmetrically. 

Really complicated for small children, but really geometric looking. Yee.