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Re: Significant figures - a Modest Proposal



I'm going to be teaching sig figs this afternoon to my elementary ed
majors. and yes, I do believe it adds to their understanding of sciences.
My students need to be reminded to look at their answers to questions and
ask themselves if it makes sense.

Earlier this week several students wrote down that 1.5 liters was .0015
millileters. (!) <Scarey thought that someday most of them will be teaching
other people's kids!> They need to be pushed to THINK! I believe the idea
of presenting your answer with no more places than any of the original data
is an opportunity to add sense to science. And I do insist that their quiz
and test answers have an appropriate number of sig figs. It just makes
sense that way.

Likely my attitude comes from years in the lab, and running calculations in
reality, not theory. I've had a boss (a manager who came up through the
ranks from accounting!) who insisted I report data to more decimal places
than we were able to measure, because it was "better." Maybe that's why I
insist on my students' understanding sig figs now. It's the principle of
lying to yourself that you know more than you do.


Dr. Lois Breur Krause
Department of Geological Sciences
442 Brackett Hall
Clemson University
Clemson SC 29634

teaching chemistry, physics, astronomy and geology to elementary education
majors.

How We Learn and Why We Don't: Student Survival Guide,
available from International Thompson Publishing, ISBN 0324-011970

http://home.earthlink.net/~breurkrause

krause@clemson.edu