Historical hang ups

[areia]

one word algebra never ever used it,


as fior a penny so many kids throw away 1p and 5ps one student decided to collect them one years and raised �40 around his school in a yr, not to be sniffed at really

[Mikey]

That sounds like an urban myth areia?

I've never thrown away even a penny, and I would be mortified if my DD did so.

[SlugLobber]

It really depends on what the kids do later in life, doesn't it? I use algebra and y=ax + b all the time, in calculating concentrations of unknown samples from a standard curve. Likewise my grounding in times tables mean I can stand at the bench and roughly figure out how much buffer to prepare if I need x ml per sample... you get the idea. I always thought that the inclusion of 11 and 12 was just to increase difficulty and nothing to do with decimalisation. Anyone working in one of the trades will need to use multiplication all the time, so I think that they should always include as much as possible in the tables and any other maths education. I've seen kids approach a counter and throw a pile of coins down, asking, 'Do I have enough for this?', whilst holding a packet of crisps or a couple of choccie bars. They need all the brain training they can get, these days, if the pharmacy students are anything to go by!

[bearded bloke]

One of the most useful things I learnt to do in a maths lesson was to work out in my head a rough estimate (for complicated/compound sums) & write it down before doing the full calculation.

[Mikey]

Yes estimating BB, when you work in any trade you are always expected to estimate very accurately at a drop of a hat. Low be tide if you are out. I get questions like how much is this kitchen going to cost me, or that bathroom, and I often feel like saying how long is a piece of string, of course you don't.

My daughter does a very basic form of this now, they give them a drawing with say 20 marbles on it, they have to quickly look and guess how many they think are there, then work it out. The same is true for the maths they are doing, they might have 32 minus 18, they are taught to give a rough idea so would round up and down, to 30 and 20 giving a simple answer of 10, then asked to work it out.

I think the whole point of it is, that if you can guess closely, then when you work it out you'd anticipate the answer to be in the ball park, if its way out perhaps your calculation is wrong, getting you to double check it.