Teacher Notes - Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Software Manual

4: Units & Conversions
Objectives
Upon completion of this section, students should be able to:
Recognize the seven SI base units and several common derived units.
Perform conversions using various SI prefixes.
Perform conversions other than SI.
Use dimensional analysis to help understand relationships among physical quantities and
their units.
Relevant National Science Education Standards
From Science as Inquiry—Content Standard A:
Use Technology and Mathematics to Improve Investigations and Communications. Mathematics
is essential in scientific inquiry. Mathematical tools and models guide and improve the posing of
questions, gathering data, constructing explanations and communicating results.
Common Student Errors
Students do not consistently include the proper units when expressing physical quantities. Even
though the examples are silly, the
importance.
Students do not recognize how dimensional analysis can be used as a "sanity check" for
calculated results, or how to use dimensional analysis to help them recall mathematical
relationships among physical quantities. Several examples in the
DIMENSIONAL DEMENTIA
Using the Fundamental Topics in Science Application
To begin the application, press
Contents page shows the last place the student was in
. The student may need to press Ã
TOOLS
Table of Contents and then select
1:INTRODUCTION
are not yet familiar with it, or print Navigating Fundamental Topics in Science on pages viii–x of
the Introduction.
Fundamental Topics in Science
INTRODUCTION
activity will assist them.
, select
1:FUNDAMENTAL TOPICS
to begin. You may need to tell students how to navigate the application, if they
© 2001 Texas Instruments
section will help them understand the
FunSci , and press any key. The displayed Table of
FUNDAMENTAL TOPICS
Ä one or more times to go to the Science Chapters
UP
,
4:UNITS & CONVERSIONS

Teacher Notes

section and the
CONCEPTS
or
SCIENCE
,
Teacher Notes 4-3