Apologia Chemistry: Module 1 Metric Measures and Conversions

I taught metric measures, significant figures, and conversions earlier.  Apologia Chemistry has good explanations in Module 1.  Two of the kids in my Co-op are still struggling with metric measures and unit conversions—and maybe scientific notation.  Here’s my advice.  Start by reading Module 1 in the textbook.  Next diagnose the issue.  Can the child set up the problem using the unit factor method or factor-label method or dimensional analysis? Start with Example 1.1, 1.2, and the one your own’ problems in Apologia Chemistry text.  Is the problem writing numbers in scientific notation?  Practice with these problems.  Yes there’s an answer key.  Can the child enter the scientific notation into a scientific calculator correctly—-shown here?  By all means, use a calculator to solve conversion problems.  Here is another conversion set to use to practice with solutions.

Here are the steps.  Set up the problem using the factor-label method.  Change numbers into scientific notation and solve.  See if this helps.  Truthfully, I go over each step with the kids repeatedly until he or she learns the method.  I quiz until the child has 90% correct.  It seems like a lot of work.  The kids need these skills for Chemistry and Physics.