I came across a post on Tumblr that said, "Math is the only place where I hear a person buying 60 watermelons."
According to Wikipedia, the suspension of disbelief "might be used to refer to the willingness of the audience to overlook the limitations of a medium, so that these do not interfere with the acceptance of those premises. These fictional premises may also lend to the engagement of the mind and perhaps proposition of thoughts, ideas, art and theories." So, if the suspension of disbelief is acceptable in the realm of art, why not math? Poor math gets such a bad rap.
Fortunately, the tumblr post also came along with a joke:
Q: "I had 10 chocolate bars. I ate 9 of them. What do I have now?"
A: "Diabetes, maybe?"
Friday, June 24, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The Square Root of 69 is 8 Something, Right?
Yes, Drake. The square root of 64 is 8 and the square root of 81 is 9, so the square root of 69 is indeed somewhere between 8 and 9. Thank you for that brilliant lesson in mathematics.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Using Algebra in Everyday Life
The other day, I came across the following image:
I don't agree with the majority of the "lies" on this list, but the one in particular that caught my eye was "you will use algebra after high school." Now, this is not a new opinion. The idea that algebra is useless and will never be used after high school is one shared by many students. I've lost track of how many times, while substitute teaching, I've been asked something along the lines of "Why do we need to learn this? We're never going to use it again."
The truth is that students need math in almost every occupational field that requires higher education, such as computer science, electronics, engineering, medicine, trade and commerce analysts, science, etc.
Students can check the Math in Careers Database for the math requirements of 291 major occupations. These jobs together employ 88 percent of the American workforce! Since most high school students aren't sure what career path they want to follow, they should be encouraged to study algebra and learn all the math that they can so that their career choices won't be limited later in life. And even if they think they know what they want to do, they could change their mind!
Students still convinced they won't need algebra in the future? Direct them to the website Algebra in the Real World, which has short movies, lesson guides, and student worksheets that show how algebra is used in real world applications, such as animal conservation, architecture, baseball, farming, roller coasters, solar power, and more! When you have $360 and you're trying to figure out how many $60 X-Box games you can buy, when you have 64 guests coming to dinner and only 12 plates and need to know how many more to buy, when you're creating a budget, or even just figuring out which size product is the best value while grocery shopping, you are using algebra!
Still not convinced? In that case, tell students that studying algebra helps develop logical thinking and problem solving skills. It can increase your intelligence! So even if you don't use the specific skills you learned in algebra class, your improved thinking skills will help you in all other areas of your life. How's that for a real world application?
I don't agree with the majority of the "lies" on this list, but the one in particular that caught my eye was "you will use algebra after high school." Now, this is not a new opinion. The idea that algebra is useless and will never be used after high school is one shared by many students. I've lost track of how many times, while substitute teaching, I've been asked something along the lines of "Why do we need to learn this? We're never going to use it again."
The truth is that students need math in almost every occupational field that requires higher education, such as computer science, electronics, engineering, medicine, trade and commerce analysts, science, etc.
Students can check the Math in Careers Database for the math requirements of 291 major occupations. These jobs together employ 88 percent of the American workforce! Since most high school students aren't sure what career path they want to follow, they should be encouraged to study algebra and learn all the math that they can so that their career choices won't be limited later in life. And even if they think they know what they want to do, they could change their mind!
Students still convinced they won't need algebra in the future? Direct them to the website Algebra in the Real World, which has short movies, lesson guides, and student worksheets that show how algebra is used in real world applications, such as animal conservation, architecture, baseball, farming, roller coasters, solar power, and more! When you have $360 and you're trying to figure out how many $60 X-Box games you can buy, when you have 64 guests coming to dinner and only 12 plates and need to know how many more to buy, when you're creating a budget, or even just figuring out which size product is the best value while grocery shopping, you are using algebra!
Still not convinced? In that case, tell students that studying algebra helps develop logical thinking and problem solving skills. It can increase your intelligence! So even if you don't use the specific skills you learned in algebra class, your improved thinking skills will help you in all other areas of your life. How's that for a real world application?
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Adventures of Miss Math: The Journey Begins
I've been considering starting a blog about my substitute teaching experiences for some time now, but something happened in my classroom today that gave me the final push I needed to actually sit down and start writing. I was giving a high school geometry class their final today, and a student called me over and asked how to find the area of a rectangle. I was absolutely shocked. How can someone possibly make it through a GEOMETRY class without ever learning the formula for the area of a rectangle? As it turns out, his teacher taught him to rely on his "formula sheet" all year, and that particular formula was not on the formula sheet attached to the final. So that poor student, assuming he did well enough on his final to pass the class, will move on to algebra 2 next year without knowing the area of a rectangle. And goodness knows how many other gaps there are in his knowledge of math.
Scenarios like this one are simply not acceptable. By failing to adequately prepare students, teachers are setting them up for failure. By 2020, only an estimated 50 million Americans will be qualified to fill 123 million highly skilled, highly paid jobs, according to the recent documentary "Waiting for Superman."
It's time to change students' perceptions of math as the stereotypical least-favorite subject, and encourage them to think of it as a big, fun puzzle that they get to work out. So won't you join me in celebrating the wonderfulness of math? Then share it with your children, students, parents, colleagues, friends, and anyone else that cares to listen? It's time to get everyone excited about math so that students can start enjoying and excelling in the subject that could be the key to their success in the future!
Scenarios like this one are simply not acceptable. By failing to adequately prepare students, teachers are setting them up for failure. By 2020, only an estimated 50 million Americans will be qualified to fill 123 million highly skilled, highly paid jobs, according to the recent documentary "Waiting for Superman."
It's time to change students' perceptions of math as the stereotypical least-favorite subject, and encourage them to think of it as a big, fun puzzle that they get to work out. So won't you join me in celebrating the wonderfulness of math? Then share it with your children, students, parents, colleagues, friends, and anyone else that cares to listen? It's time to get everyone excited about math so that students can start enjoying and excelling in the subject that could be the key to their success in the future!
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