tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15350975.post7050800022219604657..comments2024-03-27T09:08:50.883-07:00Comments on Bad Mom, Good Mom: The importance of unitsbadmomgoodmomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11569728075698885020noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15350975.post-33335174938366207152009-10-10T07:47:44.154-07:002009-10-10T07:47:44.154-07:00Good for you. I lost points for failing to dot my...Good for you. I lost points for failing to dot my i's and cross my t's. I was the scary "TA" who took off points for history essays with poor spelling and grammar (although you wouldn't know that from my blog). Except I was the professor's high-school age daughter. That was how I earned spending money.Mardelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04850551308931710502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15350975.post-81135325699041597292009-10-07T11:24:03.953-07:002009-10-07T11:24:03.953-07:00Good for you! I had to learn a similar lesson in 6...Good for you! I had to learn a similar lesson in 6th grade (mine was more to do with reading instructions and not hurrying through classwork just because it is "easy" and boring...) and I still think it is one of the most important things I learned in grade school. My parents backed the teacher, too.Cloudhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15350975.post-33709325987352410332009-10-07T09:25:35.537-07:002009-10-07T09:25:35.537-07:00We went to Berkeley, where engineering and physics...We went to Berkeley, where engineering and physics majors take the same lower division physics sequence. This means that engineering majors use metric units in lower division and English units in upper division courses and that they understand that different communities of practice use different units.<br /><br />Science majors at Cal (and evidently many other places) don't learn that.<br /><br />The danger is that engineering students at many other school don't learn that the majority of the world uses metric units. Science is international. If the kid was working on a science mission for NASA, he should have known enough to check in with others about units. That he didn't, and he never labeled his units, meant that it never occurred to him that others wouldn't be using the same units he did. He obviously didn't go to Cal. <br /><br />Was he improperly trained or a terribly incurious student? That he was left alone to work on this software module with no supervision is unforgivable.<br /><br />When industry technical managers complain about the 'ivory tower' background and lack of 'real world' experience of engineers from first tier schools like Cal, I try not to get angry.badmomgoodmomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11569728075698885020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15350975.post-73818941813425528292009-10-07T08:48:14.235-07:002009-10-07T08:48:14.235-07:00I shared the math/Mars orbiter story with my son, ...I shared the math/Mars orbiter story with my son, who is also a homework hater but a total stickler for grammatical and mathematical accuracy. He agreed with you and Bad dad. They should have done THEIR homework at NASA. Good for you for making her dot the i's etc.Little Hunting Creekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15581836733935812927noreply@blogger.com