Posted on 04/09/2011 12:45:57 PM PDT by Sonny M
We all know the standard drill for a math class. The teacher delivers lectures on a new concept, students do some homework problems, and after a few weeks they take an exam. Some do well, some do poorly, and then it's on to the next topic.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The answer for the moped is 240 minutes.
Thanks for the formula! She looked at it and said “Oh yeah!”
In my house (using Saxon), anything that they miss in the problems, they watch the Teacher video that explains each problem. If they get any wrong on the test, they repeat the lesson.
I am math illiterate so I can’t help them.
They took the test in the article and got them all right.
Answer: Time moped is 4 hours
Solution
Dm + Db= 216
Distance = rateXtime
Distance of the bus + Distance of the moped= 216
( rate of bus)( time of bus) + ( rate of moped)( time of moped) = 216
20(time of bus)+ 44( time of moped)+ 216
Time of moped + time of bus = 6 hours
Time of moped= (6) -(time of bus)
20( time of bus) + 44 {(6)- (time of bus)}= 216
20 (tb )+ 264- 44( tb) =21 6
264 - 24(tb) = 216
-24( tb) =21 6 - 264
- 24( tb)= -48
time of bus = 2 hours
time of moped= 4 hours
Interesting find.
Oops! They wanted minutes
4 x 60= 240 minutes
“I am math illiterate so I can’t help them.
They took the test in the article and got them all right.”
OUTSTANDING. I know more than enough math to get my kid through high school, so I’m always curious how Saxon would work with parents that may not. I suspected that it would still work, and that appears to be the case.
Would that work in college?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
No. ( Sorry)
She would have a hard time with physics, chemistry, algebra, and calculus.
Wow! Thanks!
What do I do to get her up to speed? She is in the middle of Algebra 2 using Saxon. She either gets them right or repeats the lessons.
I just read this post to my husband. He quipped, “Who would ride for 6 hours with a bathroom break?”
Check your work.
They have Digital interactive video disks (D.I.V.E.) that give them the instructions on the lessons. They also have the lessons in the books. If they are stuck they put in the Teacher videos that do the problems step by step. All of them, even the tests. So, when we correct the tests and they make arithmetic errors, I see that and will have them do the problem over but not the whole lesson. If they mess up the formulas then I consider they didn’t learn it.
My 13-year-old is doing Algebra 2. In real life, she should be in 8th grade. The younger one just turned 11 this month. She is doing Algebra 1. She would be in fifth grade.
They lost me back in area and perimeter. Saxon is a Godsend!
Excellent...it looks like you’re on track to join Wintertime and myself with kids that don’t bother checking in with the public schools to figure out how advanced (or really unadvanced) they should be in math.
Keep it up...the results will just get better and better.
Thanks!
You’re welcome - I love to hear about success!
Even here in Texas, most people think it’s just smart kids...but it’s not. It parents that keep them focused, making the learning (especially in math) go much, much, faster. The only person that’s really shown an interest in getting their kids years ahead and asked me how to do it winds up being a Russian lady (US citizen, though). The rest of the people: “Oh, that’s nice.”
Honestly, I need them to turn out smarter than Dad and I.
I’m working hard on that.
One wants to be an Optometrist, the other an Electrical Engineer.
God willing, they will do it.
You’re getting them there, keep at it. If they can learn math RIGHT, it’s a HUGE advantage these days (against kids that still can’t do Algebra, and arithmetic, in some cases).
We’ve been using the lectures to supplement our HS biology work here. Even my preschoolers watch. LOL.
Yep, only partial credit. The concept is correct however.
That's what I would have done back in grade school, before I learned algebra (I ended up taking a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering). And that approach certainly can yield the solution to plenty of problems - especially if implemented in a computer or programable calculator. For example, spreadsheet programs have facilities in them for doing that kind of solution search.Would that work in college?But they put that in because there are problems for which algebraic methods ] do not yield "closed form" solutions. In which case "cut and try" methods which give a "good enough" answer beat the snot out of just saying, "I don't know." I even had a boss once who praised an engineer for the way he had solved a problem by a tedious, approximate solution in a test, when the calculus solution was so simple (to the initiated) that it should have been done precisely, in two minutes flat. And that is assuming a careful check of the result.
In fact, the sort of rough hack your kid did is something that is generally prudent to do anyway, as a "sanity check" on the exact theoretical solution which - as Reply #18 illustrates, sometimes turns out to be "exactly" wrong. But I notice that the FReeper who posted #18, 22cal, reported a result which, although not accurate to the specified precision, was still in the same time zone as the correct answer. Had he, or she, arrived at a result which was outside the obvious bounds of greater than zero and less than 6, he would have checked his work more carefully and found the glitch in it.
But the bottom line is that your kid is not quite doing algebra in her attack to that problem. And in college as in real life problems, the correct result won't always - or even frequently - be a nice round number (like 4 hours, in this case). This problem is a pedagogical example, and the specific result is a matter of mere curiosity. By learning algebra one has the foundation to understand calculus, which allows one to feel competent to discuss technology at at least the layman, rather than the uncomprehending, level.So no, that should not be accepted in college.
-------------------------------------------- A while ago I went to my 50th HS reunion. I met "you" there - the place was loaded with people who I had known back in the '50s to have scant interest even in algebra, let alone calculus. But 50 years later they were fully functioning adults whom you or I instinctively accord respect to as fellow adults. And it's not like becoming an engineer assures you of making more money than someone who goes into a mundane business . . .
The unfavorable light which the school environment has a tendency to place many kids in can look pretty ridiculous in retrospect. Yes, by all means inspire your child to be what she can be - but do keep things in perspective a little, too.
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