Concept Map: Handling Physical Quantities

Jun 19, 2014 • Mark Betnel

pint_conceptmapThis is my concept map for a lesson on using Pint, a python package that defines physical quantities, to handle calculations on numbers that have units and uncertainties.

I have a couple of thoughts about this exercise — in my experience there is very little that can be usefully taught in 5-10 minutes.  I would use 5 minutes to setup an exercise or task, the completion of which would highlight many of the issues I am trying to get at, let the students work on it with assistance as needed, then use the debrief to “teach” the topic with an audience that is now better prepared for it.  I also see the concept maps not as an outline of the lesson or as something that an instructor would give to the student to help them work through the tasks, but as an outline of the mental model I have of the domain, which helps me understand better what I am trying to do.  This map is about showing the problem (that the code should be handling the issues involved in physical quantities, not just the user’s head; and that combining incommensurable units should raise an exception) — I think a second map would be required to fully show the solution using Pint (or some other package).