Understanding the Metric System - Video Notes

The metric system is tricky to introduce to kids who’ve grown up with the American system of measurement. It’s essential to help students understand what metric prefixes mean and how the base units are used before they can move on to super fun, hands-on activities involving the metric system (such as the Metric Olympics, a classic lesson many of us use!). While perusing introductory resources, I found a great video on Youtube produced by SmithMathAcademy. The set of notes I created here builds from the content of that video, going in sequence, and gives kids a simple, quick, foundational set of notes that to use for their metric unit and future units. This set of notes could also be used without the video, which is totally optional; students could simply complete an online search or use other resources that you provide.

Lesson duration: As an introduction to class, about 5-10 minutes (longer without video). This does not include discussion.
Materials needed: Copies of blank note sheets. Possibly, YouTube access to visit video link. (Alternatively, you could use other resources about the metric system to complete these notes, or have kids do a computer search for answers.)