SI Metric-Matters

Cross-curricular Activities for Schools

Cross-curricular Activity: Science/Mathematics/History/Presentation Skills.

This activity, which can also be extended to cover other subjects, for example languages, is based on a section in A Dictionary Of International Units, by Philip Bladon.

Symbols For Scientists

Students should tabulate the information in a similar way as shown in the book. Students should add an extra column as shown in the example below.

Teachers might prefer to prepare a worksheet for this. One line of this is shown below ; ‘hertz’ is used as an example.

SYMBOL	UNIT	QUANTITY	SCIENTIST
			NAME	YEARS Born - Died	Age when died	NATIONALITY
Hz	hertz	Use the details in the book	Heinrich Rudolf Hertz	1857 - 1894	STUDENTS CALCULATE THIS	German

EXERCISE:  Some possible questions:

• Which Scientists(s) lived the longest?
• Which American Scientist was born in the 18th Century?

Timeline

Students prepare a scale with linear divisions.

Graph paper (Landscape format) can be used.
Alternatively, a one or two metre long piece of paper could be used. This is ideal for a display on a classroom wall.

The scale should start at YEAR 1600 and end at the YEAR 2000:

 

 

Present the Scientists on a time-line. Two have been done as an example.  This example is NOT to scale

 

Different coloured lines could be used for the different nationalities.
Students may have difficulties like trying to present all the 19 scientists neatly on a small piece of paper.

EXERCISE: Use the information presented in the timeline to answer questions:
Prepare suitable questions
Name the Scientist(s) who were alive in  ……… ?

There may be too much to do in one lesson, this activity could be part of a school’s work for a National Science Week.

©Philip Bladon 2005

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SI Units – Famous Scientists

American
Surname	Unit	Symbol
Henry	henry	H
Tesla	tesla	T
British
Surname	Unit	Symbol
Faraday	farad	F
Gray	gray	Gy
Joule	joule	J
Lord Kelvin	kelvin	K
Newton	newton	N
Watt	watt	W
French
Surname	Unit	Symbol
Ampere	ampere	A
Becquerel	becquerel	Bq
Coulomb	coulomb	C
Pascal	pascal	Pa
German
Surname	Unit	Symbol
Hertz	hertz	Hz
Ohm	ohm	Ω
Siemens	siemens	S
Weber	weber	Wb
Italian
Surname	Unit	Symbol
Volta	volt	V
Swedish
Surname	Unit	Symbol
Celsius	degree Celsius	°C
Sievert	sievert	Sv

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