CONVERTING METRIC UNITS

METERS, LITERS, & GRAMS

PREFIXES -
kilo-
hecto-
deca-
unit-     meter/liter/gram
deci-
centi-
milli-

To help everyone remember the prefixes for conversions we took time to make up our own mnemonic device. Let me say there were some very unusual creations. I shared the one I use,

King Henry Does Usually Drink Chocolate Milk

The method I use to help students convert metrics is decimal movement. This means they are multiplying or dividing by 10 and powers of 10 without doing any multiplication or division. Let me say they were some very happy kids.

Example:

9 cm = _______ mm

Students counted the places from C to M and found it to be 1 so they came up with 90 mm.

BE CAREFUL----- the U stands for units which represent LITERS, METERS, and GRAMS