Metric Mastery B

[Smiddrocks]

About your "time" question, I went to the Wright State invite and the way time was apart of the event was they put a penny in a bottle filled with corn syrup and had you estimate how long it would take for the penny to go from the bottom of the bottle to the top when flipped up-side down.

[hscmom]

About your "time" question, I went to the Wright State invite and the way time was apart of the event was they put a penny in a bottle filled with corn syrup and had you estimate how long it would take for the penny to go from the bottom of the bottle to the top when flipped up-side down.

So, could you actually do the flip during the estimation part, or only during measurement?

[awesome90220]

Are they allowed to make us do the measurements in inches

[Skink]

About your "time" question, I went to the Wright State invite and the way time was apart of the event was they put a penny in a bottle filled with corn syrup and had you estimate how long it would take for the penny to go from the bottom of the bottle to the top when flipped up-side down.

So, could you actually do the flip during the estimation part, or only during measurement?

I doubt it because, then, they could count it. That's a pretty cool station, though. It's just a makeshift hourglass, and I found when running this that you won't find an already made hourglass that goes for a short enough amount of time out of which to make a station.

Are they allowed to make us do the measurements in inches

Nope. I don't have the rules in front of me, but the event description includes the phrase 'in metric units', if I recall. That's very clear.

Besides, no scientist uses inches!

[awesome90220]

About your "time" question, I went to the Wright State invite and the way time was apart of the event was they put a penny in a bottle filled with corn syrup and had you estimate how long it would take for the penny to go from the bottom of the bottle to the top when flipped up-side down.

So, could you actually do the flip during the estimation part, or only during measurement?

I doubt it because, then, they could count it. That's a pretty cool station, though. It's just a makeshift hourglass, and I found when running this that you won't find an already made hourglass that goes for a short enough amount of time out of which to make a station.

Are they allowed to make us do the measurements in inches

Nope. I don't have the rules in front of me, but the event description includes the phrase 'in metric units', if I recall. That's very clear.

Besides, no scientist uses inches!

Can I complain?

[Skink]

Not really. Your coach can complain an hour after the event . Your scores are finalized once scores are submitted (except maybe in extreeeeeeeeme circumstances, which this isn't). What you can do, though, if you're really concerned, is talk to your coach and have them inform the Regional Director about the Metric Mastery supervisor such that they can talk to the supervisor for next time or find someone else. It happens. Unfortunately, you have to move on from this one, but you should be able to expect State to be run better.

[hscmom]

Well, I'm coaching two sixth graders on this and enjoying it (right now, there's a 30 item "event" waiting on the dining room table that we'll do when the other student arrives).

Anyway, they have sort of learned how to estimate mass by looking (without hefting) somewhat. They learned a few masses ("My calculator is 120 g and that banana is 165 g") and then they simply ask themselves "Is this as massive as my calculator?" or whatever. Usually their gut answer is close. Not always. Another question they may ask themselves is "Would this thing float?" Often, their gut is right on that too. And, if one partner says float and the other sink, I told them that they really don't have time to hash it out and assume that it's got a density of 1.0.

That said, we're pretty nervous about the competition as Metric's not been an event in years and I've never coached it before. I think our pair is doing okay, but I have no idea how they compare to the other teams' students. Ask me in a few days when we're either happy with the event or wondering what went wrong...

One thing that I reminded them is to not lose any stupid points. There is no excuse for leaving off a unit or giving the wrong unit. And they shouldn't lose points for sloppiness, even though they are rushed. Decimal points should be visible, a seven should not look like a one. And they need to be careful using sig figs.

[dholdgreve]

I've been looking for a good name for those points for a long time! "STUPID POINTS!" I like it! Thanks for the smile!

[-274degreesC]

Is there a better way of estimating the volume of a box than estimating the dimensions and then multiplying because I am finding that to be pretty inaccurate. For example, if you estimate the dimensions of a box to be 1 cm x 3 cm x 7cm then you get 21 ml. If the actual dimensions are 1.2 x 3.2 x 7.2 then it is 27.648 ml which is 24% off even though the individual estimations weren't that bad.

[ali941]

For a box that small, you could try imagining packing cubes of 1cm x 1cm x 1cm and seeing how many would fit. If the event supervisors ask for the answer in liters, then imagine cubes of 10cm x 10cm x 10cm. It's worth a shot and sort of works for me.