+- MacResource (https://forums.macresource.com)
+-- Forum: My Category (https://forums.macresource.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: Tips and Deals (https://forums.macresource.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Thread: Jennie should learn math (/showthread.php?tid=176101)
Re: Jennie should learn math - jdc - 02-05-2015
I thought the answer was always 42?
Ive got a 4th and 2nd grader. Wish they missed the common core math crap.
Re: Jennie should learn math - Mike Johnson - 02-05-2015
Well, there’s lots of people can tell you 7 * 8 = 56, but if you say your need 7 feet of drip tubing for every one of your eight lemon trees, and ask to buy enough hose, they have to think about it and maybe use the calculator on their phone.
My own son wasn’t drilled properly on the multiplication tables by his third grade teacher; I had to step in and teach him myself. But that’s not because of Common Core, it’s because his teacher should have retired long ago. Showing a kid an alternate way to calculate 7 * 8 is not meant to supplant drills, but demonstrate a technique with numbers where they can verify the result because they already know their answer. 7*8 = 2*8 + 5*8 is pretty derrrr, but that’s how exactly I multiply stuff like 23*12.
Re: Jennie should learn math - GGD - 02-05-2015
The UnDoug wrote:
Interesting. I've never heard that there is more than one "order of operations."
In math I've only known one order of operations too, and I learned math back when it was "new".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Math
The order of operations used throughout mathematics, science, technology and many computer programming languages is expressed here:[2]
exponents and roots
multiplication and division
addition and subtraction
This means that if a mathematical expression is preceded by one binary operator and followed by another, the operator higher on the list should be applied first. The commutative and associative laws of addition and multiplication allow terms to be added in any order and factors to be multiplied in any order, but mixed operations must obey the standard order of operations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_operations
In computer languages, things sometimes got "iffy" when mixing arithmetic and Boolean operations.
Re: Jennie should learn math - JoeH - 02-05-2015
The UnDoug wrote:
Interesting. I've never heard that there is more than one "order of operations."
Yeah, there have been a few proposed over the years. Two that I recall would give totally different answers. The first would do each math operation from left to right and give the answer 42. The other would give precedence to the multiply and divide operations, then perform the additions and subtractions. Then the answer would be 37.
Re: Jennie should learn math - Sam3 - 02-05-2015
Using a visual or word syntax with math is closer to the way humans process math in real life.
This New York Times article explains the issues with teaching math pretty well: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html?_r=0
NYTimes wrote:
The unschooled may have been more capable of complex math than people who were specifically taught it, but in the context of school, they were stymied by math they already knew. Studies of children in Brazil, who helped support their families by roaming the streets selling roasted peanuts and coconuts, showed that the children routinely solved complex problems in their heads to calculate a bill or make change. When cognitive scientists presented the children with the very same problem, however, this time with pen and paper, they stumbled. A 12-year-old boy who accurately computed the price of four coconuts at 35 cruzeiros each was later given the problem on paper. Incorrectly using the multiplication method he was taught in school, he came up with the wrong answer. Similarly, when Scribner gave her dairy workers tests using the language of math class, their scores averaged around 64 percent. The cognitive-science research suggested a startling cause of Americans’ innumeracy: school.
Please read the article. It describes why Americans are failing at math, and why Common Core actually is a well-designed program that is not implemented well, due to teachers themselves not being trained properly on the methodology behind it and how to best teach it.
Re: Jennie should learn math - space-time - 02-05-2015
I never used the RPN, but I heard it eliminates the confusion. And the correct answer is 37.
The first would do each math operation from left to right and give the answer 42.
cheap calculators do that. wrong.
Re: Jennie should learn math - mrbigstuff - 02-05-2015
anyone else think this was about Jenny McCarthy?
I agree with Mike Johnson, it's an alternate way of looking at mathematics. Arithmetic, really. But where I diverge is over the issue with Common Core instructional methods that allow zero variation. The kids do *not* learn both methods, as they only have time for one. Time is and has always been an issue, but it is even more so now where the structure is pre-ordained and individual teachers have little room to teach using their own talents.
Re: Jennie should learn math - Article Accelerator - 02-05-2015
Onamuji wrote: I wonder whether learning math as an extension of English vocabulary and syntax is more effective than the rote repetition of formulas that we had to do when I was a kid.
No need to wonder: It's not.
Re: Jennie should learn math - Racer X - 02-05-2015
mrbigstuff wrote:
anyone else think this was about Jenny McCarthy?
Yes I did. I thought it was something like
bad information about vaccination+bad judgement+mindless blogging followers=over 100 infected with measles, and growing
Re: Jennie should learn math - Onamuji - 02-05-2015
Article Accelerator wrote:
[quote=Onamuji]I wonder whether learning math as an extension of English vocabulary and syntax is more effective than the rote repetition of formulas that we had to do when I was a kid.
No need to wonder: It's not.
It seems a reasonable supposition that treating math as a language might tap into evolutionary/instinctive learning mechanisms in children.
A mandatory review of the Common Core is due in 2016, covering the 2014-2015 curriculum and comparing to past performance. Gonna be an interesting report.