Faculty Attitudes about Progress of Metrication
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 119, Issue 2
Abstract
The long‐promised conversion to the International System of Units (SI) from the United States Customary System (USCS) has not yet occurred. To determine faculty attitudes about the anticipated conversion, a questionnaire was sent to civil engineering faculty throughout the United States. Numerous reasons for not teaching civil engineering courses in SI are cited; the main reason is that SI is not used in practice (cited almost three times as often as the next most important reason). Strong differences are noted among the several subdisciplines of civil engineering; almost 100% of the courses in steel, transportation, and concrete use less than 50% SI. Very few civil engineering departments or engineering colleges have policies about metrication. Attitudes about the relative value of the two systems, personal abilities with them, and appropriate time for conversion in the colleges and in practice are explored. A definite age bias is noted. A significant minority of civil engineering faculty do not like SI, or are opposed to a conversion to SI. Several possible causes for the general failure of a conversion to SI are discussed.
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References
1.
Johnson, A. I. (1990). Committee on Metrication annual progress report. ASCE, New York, N.Y.
2.
Wastewater engineering: Treatment, disposal, and reuse. (1979). 2nd Ed., McGraw‐Hill Book Co., New York, N.Y.
3.
Wastewater engineering: Treatment, disposal, and reuse. (1991). 3rd Ed., McGraw‐Hill Book Co., New York, N.Y.
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Copyright © 1993 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 5, 1992
Published online: Apr 1, 1993
Published in print: Apr 1993
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