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SessionZero · **01-23-2015, 02:17 PM**

(01-23-2015, 02:14 PM)Coatleque Wrote: Or, you know, we could just continue to memorize our multiplication tables like we did in the "good" old days and forget this BS altogether.

So long as they can come to the correct answer to the problem, who cares what method they use?

Developing problem-solving skills is applicable in more than just mathematics.

Kage · **01-23-2015, 02:58 PM**

Or you can be like my old physics professor at a research university.

MATHEMATICA IS GREAT!

OR TEXTBOOKS

I like it when transistors that fail PIND testing later DO NOT FAIL PIND testing. Completely. Absolutely.

C'kayah Polaali · **01-23-2015, 06:35 PM**

(01-23-2015, 02:14 PM)Coatleque Wrote: Or, you know, we could just continue to memorize our multiplication tables like we did in the "good" old days and forget this BS altogether.

So long as they can come to the correct answer to the problem, who cares what method they use?

You know, I normally agree with you. This time, however...

Aya · **01-23-2015, 06:51 PM**

Everyone thinks about concepts and abstract ideas differently.Â The more complicated, typically, the more ways there are to arrive at the same answer.Â Addition is simple, and I imagine most of us do mental addition in the same manner (or using a small set of similar approaches).Â Multiplication is much more complicated, same with division, and there are a myriad of ways we may go about it.. or not go about it!

I would hope teachers could be flexible enough to try to deal with students reaching the same, correct, answer using different mental approaches.

When it comes to these sorts of basic mathematical operations, the best method I ever had for learning them was a terribly strict math teacher who would make the entire class stand up 5 minutes before her class ended (stand up so that you couldn't use pen and paper or calculator) and then verbally go through a long series of operations: "5 plus 3 times 8 divided by four plus six subtract 2 and divide by 2), and whoever answered correctly first got to leave the classroom.Â There was no method involved, but there was motivation to get it right (since you got an extra long break to go talk to friends between classes or whatever!) and it made you work.Â I think class by class, week by week most of us got a lot better at doing math in our heads and that sort of improvement becomes ingrained and sticks with you.

I never found teaching me a particular method was as effective as making me just want to solve these problems in real time.Â Anyway, not really a useful anecdote, but something I always think of when the topic of math education comes up Smile

Kage · **01-23-2015, 06:51 PM**

I think there's a tiny pride thing. For me.

I consider myself quite able to solve problems well etc. Faced with these problems, scratching my head and wondering WTF IS THIS is not something I like. I also remember during elementary school being one of the biggest helpers of my peers and those younger than me with learning. I was able to do a quite a bit of it and a lot of people always asked me for help.

I wouldn't be able to help people with these :c

Cause god it'd take me a long time to even figure out their method in the first place.

Coatleque · **01-23-2015, 06:56 PM**

(01-23-2015, 02:17 PM)SessionZero Wrote: Developing problem-solving skills is applicable in more than just mathematics.

You are right.
But this is still a math class.
In my day, what you wanted was the "Philosophy and Critical Thinking" course.

They are two different subjects.

In this case, the math problem said how do you add 8 and 5 to make 10. The boy was correct, it is not possible. The teacher only confused him by telling him he is wrong and making it a philosophy question.

If the question had been worded "Using the XYZ System, how can you derive 10 from adding 8 and 5", THEN I can see the argument being valid.

C'kayah Polaali · **01-23-2015, 07:10 PM**

(01-23-2015, 06:56 PM)Coatleque Wrote: But this is still a math class.
In my day, what you wanted was the "Philosophy and Critical Thinking" course.

I'm going to take angry exception with that.

(Which is a cue for someone to pop in and complain that the topic is boring, but what the hell)

Math is all about solving problems. It's all about thinking about things in a way that we're not used to thinking about. Arithmetic, algebra, calculus, and all that? Those are the tools. The grammar. The vocabulary. They're the tools that you can carry in your toolbox to help you think about all this crazy stuff.

When we teach kids to read, we start with stories. We don't make them memorize vocabulary and diagram sentences for a decade before they see a story.

When we teach kids art, we start with painting pictures. Formal techniques come later, if at all.

Music theory can help us understand why a song is the way that it is, but when we teach kids music we always start with songs.

Why, then, do we think that math has to start and end with rote techniques?

Recoil · **01-23-2015, 07:20 PM**

My boyfriend and I didn't get to see each other this week, so we were looking forward to spending this saturday together, but his work called him in to close. He's working all day saturday as well and most of Sunday. Bah. We spent last night together which was nice, though. He got a new puppy!

Kage · **01-23-2015, 07:21 PM**

The process of sending a loved one to their "final" resting place takes forever.

More than 2 weeks before the cremation and putting them in the same place as their wife. Why should it take that long to say goodbye and then celebrate their life and passing after almost 2 years of being without the one they'd lived with for over 50 years?

Mae · **01-23-2015, 07:46 PM**

Got up this morning and went into the store to get my provisions for the day, which includes a 16oz bottle of whole milk that's listed as pasteurized. I won't go hugely into things, but I'm part of the estimated 50% of the lactose intolerant population that has little-to-no problems with whole milk that is either raw or pasteurized (ultra-pasteurized is something else).Â

(Before anyone comes out of the woodwork trying to convince me that cow's milk is evil and I'll die a horrible death because I drink it and that I should switch to soy or almond milk... I have research that points to soy and almond milk being at least just as bad. I'd much rather drink goat's milk, but that's not available commercially as anything but ultra-pasteurized which makes it pretty much worthless, nutrition-wise.)

Anyways. Drink half the bottle of milk, we get moving for the day. About a half-hour later, I start feeling... off. Shaky, queasy, crampy. I'll spare the rest of the details, but I was sick for a little while. No real idea -why-, I check all the packages for what I'd eaten at breakfast and nothing is out of date. A few hours later, I feel a bit thirsty and hungry (but not wanting to risk trying to eat something solid), I finish off the rest of the milk. Half-hour later, again I'm sick. I grab the now-empty bottle out of the trash to double-check the expiration date, and my eyes happen to fall on the ingredients list.

Ingredients: ultra-pasteurized skim milk, mechanically separated and processed fats, carrageenan, vitamin B13 added

My bottle of whole milk was made from skim milk that they went and re-added some sort of fat to. And seaweed.

What. The. Frack.

MadWater · **01-27-2015, 01:03 AM**

I created a character over the holidays because I was bored. I really had fun with her. Now that classes have started again, I have no time to RP =(

Gegenji · **01-27-2015, 10:07 AM**

If you ever want to see me angry myself into a boil, get me talking about how people drive.

Seriously.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people either forget or (the more likely thing in my rage-filled mind) outright refuse to use their turn signals. And then you get dirty looks when they have to swerve back into their lane because you're not a goddamn mind-reader. My apologies!

Oh, speaking of swerving? Those people who drift. You know the ones. Either they change lanes horrendously slowly (usually without signal, of course), or decide that staying in their lane isn't good enough and decide to start straddling two.

Then there's folks who decide that they're above the law and use turn lanes and even the pull-off lanes/curbs as if they're normal lanes. I literally had a dude cut around me at a light that JUST TURNED GREEN once by jumping into the left-turn-only lane.

And that's not even getting into unnecessarily slow drivers, tailgating, and idiots on their cellphones. I swear. I wonder at times why there always seems to be accidents on the road, then I remember all the nitwits I've seen doing stupid nonsense.

Coatleque · **01-27-2015, 10:24 AM**

(01-27-2015, 10:07 AM)Gegenji Wrote: {bad driving rant}

And motorcyclists who think they don't have to wait in line with the rest of us.

And people who don't know how to "zipper"

And people who wait till the last minute to get out of the construction lane.

And people who refuse to let the 18-wheeler merge because they *need* to be in front

And people who complain when others do the speed limit in the passing lane. I got news for you, the passing lane isn't the "I can go over 65" lane. If you have to break the speed limit just to pass someone, you are still breaking the law. (this coming from someone who regularly does 75-80)

Stormwind · **01-27-2015, 10:28 AM**

(01-27-2015, 10:07 AM)Gegenji Wrote: If you ever want to see me angry myself into a boil, get me talking about how people drive.

Seriously.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people either forget or (the more likely thing in my rage-filled mind) outright refuse to use their turn signals. And then you get dirty looks when they have to swerve back into their lane because you're not a goddamn mind-reader. My apologies!

Oh, speaking of swerving? Those people who drift. You know the ones. Either they change lanes horrendously slowly (usually without signal, of course), or decide that staying in their lane isn't good enough and decide to start straddling two.

Then there's folks who decide that they're above the law and use turn lanes and even the pull-off lanes/curbs as if they're normal lanes. I literally had a dude cut around me at a light that JUST TURNED GREEN once by jumping into the left-turn-only lane.

And that's not even getting into unnecessarily slow drivers, tailgating, and idiots on their cellphones. I swear. I wonder at times why there always seems to be accidents on the road, then I remember all the nitwits I've seen doing stupid nonsense.

I like the cut of your jib sir.

It's things like this that cause my blood pressure to go up, and my doctor wonders why my stress levels are so high. You try getting around the beltway twice a day with these idiots.

Don't even get me started when the weather gets bad. Yes, I get it, the weather is bad so we need to slow down and be more careful. Slowing down and being more careful does not mean doing 30 on the highway, its only a drizzle.

Edit: By the way, is merging a lost art? Did we like lose it at some point in our advancement as a species? How hard is it to merge from an off-ramp?

Warren Castille · **01-27-2015, 10:28 AM**

Re: Driving stuff

Truth be told, I hate everyone on the road that isn't me.

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RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes