noashmam Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Reposting because I posted this on the General Board first by mistake. My ds is currently in TT PreAlg. But we also use Fred as a supplement to TT. He ha done LOF Fractions, Decimals, and now Pre Alg-Bio. In Fred, in the past, he got stuck on the conversion factor explanation. We moved on anyway. But now we are at conversion factors again in LOF PA and he is not understanding the concept still. I am not very good at explaining it either! Does anyone have a link to an online video directed at middle schoolers or another site that might present it in a different way to help him get it? Thanks! Kim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3andme Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 (edited) This is a short video from Derek Owens' Pre-algebra course which does a nice job introducing unit conversions. Here is a video from Art of Problem Solving Pre-algebra which also addresses this topic. There is a second follow up video. Edited January 17, 2012 by 3andme Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Reposting because I posted this on the General Board first by mistake. My ds is currently in TT PreAlg. But we also use Fred as a supplement to TT. He ha done LOF Fractions, Decimals, and now Pre Alg-Bio. In Fred, in the past, he got stuck on the conversion factor explanation. We moved on anyway. But now we are at conversion factors again in LOF PA and he is not understanding the concept still. I am not very good at explaining it either! Does anyone have a link to an online video directed at middle schoolers or another site that might present it in a different way to help him get it? Thanks! Kim Does he understand that conversions at the most basic level are simply like multiplying by the number 1? That is the easiest way for my kids to just go, oh, got it. Taking anything very familiar (like 12 ins in 1 ft), regardless of how you write it, 12 in/1 ft or 1 ft/12 in, they are both simply another way of writing 1. (you can take a white board and come up with as many as you can think of.) Then they have to recognize what units they want eliminated and what units they want to get to determine which way they want to write it. Don't know if that explanation helps at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noashmam Posted January 17, 2012 Author Share Posted January 17, 2012 This is a short video from Derek Owens' Pre-algebra course which does a nice job introducing unit conversions. Here is a video from Art of Problem Solving Pre-algebra which also addresses this topic. There is a second follow up video. Great! Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noashmam Posted January 17, 2012 Author Share Posted January 17, 2012 Does he understand that conversions at the most basic level are simply like multiplying by the number 1? That is the easiest way for my kids to just go, oh, got it. Taking anything very familiar (like 12 ins in 1 ft), regardless of how you write it, 12 in/1 ft or 1 ft/12 in, they are both simply another way of writing 1. (you can take a white board and come up with as many as you can think of.) Then they have to recognize what units they want eliminated and what units they want to get to determine which way they want to write it. Don't know if that explanation helps at all. I will try this! Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsplaymath Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I wrote a blog post about conversion factors: How Old Are You, in Nanoseconds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noashmam Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 I wrote a blog post about conversion factors:How Old Are You, in Nanoseconds? Very cool. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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