Metric Knowledge and Awareness of College Students in Basic Foods and Nutrition Courses

Abstract

LEARNING OUTCOME: To identify the extent of knowledge and awareness of metrics by college students in basic foods and nutrition courses and implications for teaching and using metric (SI) units in these and other foods and nutrition classes. Metrication is progressing in the United States and the metric terminology used in classes can affect the level of students’ understanding of course content on topics such as nutrition labeling, food container sizes, recommended dietary allowances, and body mass index. Thus, the extent of knowledge of metric (SI) units was assessed in three introductory foods and nutrition classes on the first class session in January 1997. A total of 208 students completed the brief survey which assessed knowledge of terms used for mass, volume, distance, and temperature, and ability to utilize metric prefixes and metric equivalents for units expressed in U.S. household measures. Also assessed was awareness by students of where they encounter metrics in their everyday lives. Descriptive statistics of the data were computed using SPSS. Students were uniformly able to identify the metric terms associated with mass, volume, distance and temperature, while fewer than half were able to correctly indicate the portion or multiple of a meter represented by as many as two of the four given prefixes. The mean number of correct responses was 1.4 out of 4.0. Conversion from U.S. household measures to metric-equivalent units was correctly made by no more than 10 percent of the respondents on any one of the four examples, with a mean correct score of 0.1 out of a potential 4.0. Awareness of metrics in everyday settings was limited, with an average of only 1.0 settings mentioned. Most frequently identified places, in decreasing order of mention, were product labels, academic classes, and in cooking. As educators we assume that students are knowledgeable of the terms we use. However, if these study subjects are typical of current college students we will need to teach, or at least review thoroughly, metric prefixes and conversions in order to adequately equip students to comprehend and apply the concepts we teach and ultimately to use them in their professions as the U.S. moves to adopt metrics.