Re: [Phys-L] Sig Figs homework from my 7th grader

[Philip Keller <pkeller@holmdelschools.org>]

On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 8:06 PM, John Denker <jsd@av8n.com> wrote:

> u
> My suggestion:  Forget about sig figs.  Have the students play
> some coin-tossing games or something else that will teach them
> some actual factual facts about probability.

There it is!  You only have so much class time.  It would be hard to come
up with something less useful and less interesting to spend it on than sig
figs. And it would be easy to come up with 50 better things.   I like the
one where half the class flips a coin 100 times while the other half makes
up their own "random" strings of H's and T's without actually flipping the
coins.  When you compare, you see that the ones who did flip have more
"strange" runs of consecutive heads or tails.

Or how about actually measuring the length of a bunch of small things, add
them to predict the length when they are arranged end to end and then
measure that length too.  Discuss,

Or teach them how to play backgammon.  Including the doubling cube.

Or craps...(come up with a more acceptable name if you like)

Or just let them play "sprouts".  At least they will be thinking.


  I feel bad for the high school chem teachers: sig figs are tested on so
many standardized tests and contests that the teachers feel locked in.  Has
this migrated down to the elementary school level?  That would be sad and
also unusual.  The inane stuff usually migrates uphill.