dimanche 3 juillet 2016

Math Strategies Needed for Showing Patterns in Math Itself

Calling all Math Experts.


For the last year and a half I have tried to put together a one day Math Workshop for test prep.

Disclosure:

The Math Test I'm teaching for is an arbitrary requirement just recently tacked on for Special Education Teachers. This means these teachers are basically teaching "Life Skills" type classes to students with profound intellectual disabilities. The Math Test has absolutely no relationship to the actual work they are doing with the students.

It's just a new requirement that is actually being reevaluated because it's not in any way a representation of the work they are expected to do.

There are actually two lawsuits in the works challenging these tests, but that doesn't help my client base that is stuck in the requirement rule and must pass the test until new rules apply.

I point this out because this has nothing to do with their job, so I don't understand why they are expected to understand or prove that they can do this level of Math.

Nonetheless I am trying to get them through it.


I am not a Math teacher, and it's not my forte however I am noticing that by hiring Math teachers, they are focused on teaching Math in a foundational way rather than a strategic way.

The test is a Multiple Choice Test. My clients are often so overwhelmed by Math Anxiety that they can't see a simple solution right in front of their face.

It is a very strange situation because what should be common sense understanding eludes them. I have come to realize that this is because they were blindsided by the requirement and they also don't have strong math skills in the first place. So teaching them MATH in the class causes them to totally give up and shut down even when they could easily figure out that answer.

I am trying to put together a class I would teach myself as a supplement to the actual Math Class and I was considering going through and showing them what MATH IS.

I think the biggest problem is that they don't understand that Math is not "THE ANSWER" and that many Mathematicians "don't know" why something works....it just does.

It's a standardized test, they don't need to show their work or flex their genius level thinking.

One of the things I have asked my instructors to do (which they won't) is to show that Math is a Mystery of Sorts. It's not a known. It's a seen pattern that occurs around us.

Examples: The Fibonacci Sequence, The Golden Ratio and Fractals.

I was planning on showing clips from this video in the class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocq8OR4OydQ

First clip at 4 minutes. And then at the end at 46 minutes for about 10 more minutes.


I am attempting to shake off the anxiety by getting them to realize that they are basically asking the same types of Math Questions several different ways.

For example, they don't realize that these two questions both use Pythagorean Theorem


The Shape is a Polygon which has two sides of the shape given. One side is 10, the other is 20. The third side is X.

All you have to do is draw a line through the shape to make two triangles of which the Hypotenuse is 20, one side is X and the other is 10.

10) Given the lengths of three sides of the garden plot, what is the length of the fourth side?



A) 10 + x = 20 B) 100 + x = 400 C) 10 + x2 = 20 D) 100 + x2 = 400



AND


20) To deliver a package a delivery man goes 6 miles east from town R to town S, then 8 miles north to town T. How many miles shorter would it be to go directly from town R to town T?

A) 2
B) 4
C) 10
D) 12


My goal is to explain to them that there are patterns in Math that can be used in a variety of ways and they are testing your ability to recognize this pattern.

So although the questions may look different, they are really testing you about the same thing.

What would be the best way of explaining or showing a pattern with Ratio and Probability?

And do those two relate? Or am I mistakenly combining two entirely different concepts?

TYIA


via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/29daWnV

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