The “Steps” of Metric Conversion
Marvin N. Tolman · The Arithmetic Teacher · 1982
In working with students in the elementary school and with prospective teachers of those students, I find that one of the common difficulties in using metric measurement is in changing from smaller to larger or from larger to smaller units within a given basic unit of measure. For instance, in converting 36.2 decimeters to kilometers, the students have difficulty remembe ring how many decimeters in a kilometer. And deciding what to do about it, after the “how many” question is answered, is sometime perplexing. Although multiplying and dividing by powers of ten are relatively simple processes, problems with the application of these processes seem to occur as students struggle with the newly-acquired vocabulary and with their efforts to remember how many of what are in what, all the time trying to keep the prefixes in true perspective.