True or False?

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura) 04/10/2019 at 12:40 • Filed to: None

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Are you smarter than an 8th grader?

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 12:43

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When it comes to math? No chance.  I failed math 9...more than once.

HondoyotaE38: A Japanese and German Collab...wait a minute > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 12:44

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I skipped 8th grade math I think.... Idk I skipped a few classes that I didn't need don't remember if pre-alg was one of them

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 04/10/2019 at 12:45

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Heh. That’s nothing. I am a secondary grades math teacher and I never passed Algebra in high school. Nor ever took Geometry ever  before becoming a math teacher.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 12:49

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GoodIdeaAtTheTime > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 12:49

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Smarter. I can still do it in my head. Stuff doesnt get difficult until I get to really big numbers. Like when “a” reprsents the effects on gravity from a dying nuetron star at a set distance. It gets really ineresting once orbits and dark matter start fudging numbers.   I am gooder at math.

lone_liberal > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 12:54

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Once upon a time I could pull a B+ in a college level Calc III class (but fail miserably at differential equations) so there is a slight chance that I might  be able to fire enough brain cells to do it, but the wonderful thing about being an adult is that I don’t have to and you can’t make me.

TorqueToYield > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 12:54

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I would just use a calculator.

Seriously, there’s not a good reason to ever do square roots or large complex fractions in your head . 12 over radical 17 yeah I’m busting out the calculator.

And I’m an engineer who uses maths everyday.

PartyPooper2012 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 12:54

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ummmm

the simple fact that this was possible is terrifying. 

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > GoodIdeaAtTheTime 04/10/2019 at 12:59

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Wanted: a massless monkey to perform an unnatural act involving a frictionless pulley

jminer > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 13:03

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I can still do those in my head, but am slower than I used to be. I'm in IT so I don't use actual math much anymore, those muscles get rusty when you don't use them regularly.

facw > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 13:04

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I’ve heard it said that we do a poor job teaching children to estimate, so this sort of exercise  could be good for that? Though it’s not clear to me what exactly they are supposed to be doing, or why they have e instead of six (at least  fits sequentially).

Azrek > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 13:07

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Nice handwriting...and those are square roots? This is fun! 

razorbeamteam > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 13:07

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No, I’m a banker. I haven’t done math in years. 

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 13:08

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I actually worked through all of these in my head and can say yes, I probably have better critical thinking skills than an 8th grader. I like problems like these because you don’t actually need to solve the problem, just compare a few similar numbers. For instance, #2, 2 times a number larger than 3 is certainly greater than a number smaller than 2 times 3. It helps build problem solving, even if you really aren’t good at math (I would say as an engineer, I’m above the national average haha) .

LOREM IPSUM > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 04/10/2019 at 13:08

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Math has never been my forte. Of course, I used to use kid logic and ask why it was so important to memorize all of this stuff when the calculator had already been invented. The adult response, every time without fail was: “What, are you going to carry a calculator everywhere you go?”

Actually...

LOREM IPSUM > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 13:09

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You sir, are a beacon of hope.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > lone_liberal 04/10/2019 at 13:10

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DE was harder than Calc III for me as well. I think it had more to do with me hating my DE professor, though.

Svend > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 13:11

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I’m one of those weird ones who thoroughly enjoyed maths and science.

I loved algebra and even taught my science teacher a couple of things.

I was that pathetic I’d critique the science teachers set up of experiments that I ended up doing them for them as some of the ways they did it, increased the variables and would skew the results slightly.

But then again I was teaching myself how to read hieroglyphics when I was ten and while others were doing snowmen, I was making a snow-sphinx.

My only problem was I could never show my working, so lost many points on my maths and science exams because of it. My parents didn’t allow me to have a calculator until I had proven that I could get the correct answer by myself first.

I was always a weird kid. At 14 some prospective parents and their kids asked me what class I taught at my school as I was walking down a corridor . I said, ‘I don’t, I’m a pupil!?’.

Bloody hell. I really am an odd ball, aren’t I!?. 

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > TorqueToYield 04/10/2019 at 13:15

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The thing about these is you don’t actually have to solve for the square root of 17. You know it’s slightly larger than 4, which will give you a smaller than 3 value. But I agree, I would just pull out my TI-89 which I mostly use to add and subtract these days lolol

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 13:18

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Why would I ever need to know this? Why would anyone need to know this? We have computers for a reason. 

random001 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 13:20

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Yes, I am. I know how to use MATLAB. Take that, 8th grader.

WootKnowledge > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 04/10/2019 at 13:44

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Yeah, 8th graders aren’t very smart. The method to all of these problems is to estimate the solution.

RallyWrench > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 13:48

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Absolutely, let me just... let’s see, 1+... carry the 4... I before E except sometimes with 7, uh... no. No I am not. 

RallyWrench > LOREM IPSUM 04/10/2019 at 13:50

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I was prepared to carry my TI-82 to the grave to answer that question. 

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > LOREM IPSUM 04/10/2019 at 14:11

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I never had me as a teacher, either. But thank you.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > PartyPooper2012 04/10/2019 at 14:13

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My math teachers were lousy. Absolutely pathetic. Mrs. Roper, however, I thought was all kinds of cute...

I would not graduate from high school by the standards I work under today.

I joined the Army, got out after six years, and went to school. I began with Elementary Algebra and then finished with a BS degree in mathematics. I am highly qualified.

I also remember ALL of my math struggles and I also remember what math I DID NOT NEED, and I don’t emphasize that much.

Children learn from people they love and I strive for that.

So you needn’t be terrified.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > TorqueToYield 04/10/2019 at 14:40

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I was building a slanted thing once and I went to Home Depot to buy the material. I knew the rise and the run, but I did not use the hypotenuse, so I asked the guy for his calculator. I used the radical key to apply the Pythagorean theorem and figure out how much material I needed.

It’s a good thing that you are an engineer and not a teacher because if you were the latter, with that attitude, we’d have fewer of the former.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > jminer 04/10/2019 at 14:42

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The Big Idea here is that sqrt(63) would be really close to, slightly less than, 8. That’s all we’re trying to accomplish. (Negative roots notwithstanding...)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > facw 04/10/2019 at 14:47

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I’ve heard it said that we do a poor job teaching children to estimate, so this sort of exercise could be good for that?

Also, only a certain few numbers work nicely under the radical (square root symbol). So SQRT(15) is a tiny bit less than 4 because SQRT(16) would be 4. (There’s also a negative root, but we’re glossing over that fact.)

So it’s number theory and squares and square roots, and it’s estimating, and it’s rational and irrational numbers. And it’s a state Common Core standard.

But yes: estimating, primarily, with properties of real numbers baked in.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Azrek 04/10/2019 at 14:47

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Thank you. I’ve been writing numbers for a living for about 16 years.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > razorbeamteam 04/10/2019 at 14:51

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There’s “doing math,” as you say. There’s arithmetic . And there’s numeracy . As a banker, and referring to yourself as such, rather than “teller,” or whatever, I am assuming that you are highly numerate . The exercises above, apart from being a state Common Core standard, develop numeracy and number sense.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Svend 04/10/2019 at 14:54

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NEWSFLASH: You’re still a weird kid.

What your story illustrates is how public education is like a factory and some kids don’t fit the form. As for showing work, I’m a bit of a stickler there. I insist that my students create a product that a reader can follow easily.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 04/10/2019 at 14:54

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Thank you.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap 04/10/2019 at 14:55

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https://oppositelock.kinja.com/1833948823

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > random001 04/10/2019 at 14:58

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Maybe. It’s sort of like the pilot who’s an expert flying an airliner on autopilot, but how are his stick-and-rudder skills?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RallyWrench 04/10/2019 at 15:04

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Except after c.

Svend > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 15:11

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NEWSFLASH: You’re still a weird kid.

I’m no kid, I’m 39.

Our school system has become more about meeting levels in the curriculum such as by a certain point, your supposed to know or understand a certain level in the curriculum, but if you don’t meet that level and continue to drop back after a couple of weeks to a few months then they’ll look at whether you need support either at home, from the school or both. We have careers advisers who can help in directing us into what we want to do after leaving school and show what we need to do to qualification wise to meet the criteria for that job. But in the U.K. we have exams at the end of school on each subject but you don’t have to meet a criteria to graduate. It merely means that if you didn’t meet the criteria for the job you want you can do an Open University course, go to college, redo the exam (it would be a different exam book), evening classes, etc... or go for the job and maybe the company will make you sit a test either written, practical or both. Or maybe just look at doing something else. 

wkiernan > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 15:20

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4. and 8. are false. You can do all of these in your head .

Here’s a bonus question . The description of a parcel of land reads: “ Beginning at such-and-such a corner, thence run N. 78°15'24"E., 100.00 feet; thence S.11°44'36"E., 250.00 feet; thence S .78°13'05"W ., 100.00 feet; thence N.11°44'36"W., 250.00 feet to the point of beginnin g. ” That doesn’t close on paper; t o the nearest 0.01 feet, by how much? As I am an old-skool land surveyor, I can solve that problem in my head as well.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Svend 04/10/2019 at 15:35

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Okay. So you’re a weird grownup.

Or maybe just look at doing something else.

Reply

Interesting to me how the job placement is actually tied to what you do in school. We have a similar testing scheme where they test at the end of each year, receive a score that is meaningless to the kids and doesn’t count for or against their grade, and then they move on and when we put them out,

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > wkiernan 04/10/2019 at 15:40

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You can do all of these in your head.

That was the entire point, and you are the first to realize that.

Trying to develop numeracy in the students. And number sense.

I would like to know how to approach the problem you’ve posed.

Svend > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/10/2019 at 16:04

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I’m wording this wrong I think.

There is no placement as such, though you may get a placement towards the end of school . There is a careers adviser you go to see if say I wanted to be a police officer. They’d tell me the minimum requirements to join the police force such as physical attributes and qualifications, if I was a wheelchair user I would be barred from a frontline rank and file police post, but I could be able to do another job within the police force such as criminal investigation. RE: the qualifications, what courses I would need to study and pass it get in such as English Language, maths, etc... It would then be up to me to choose what electives I wanted to do to give myself the best chance to get that job.

We do sciences (c hemistry, biology and physics (there is now an ‘earth and space science) ), English l anguage and l iteratur e, history, geography , physical education, religious studies, design and technology, art and design, computing, citizenship, music, foreign languages, etc... these are standard subjects. Towards the end of school you can drop some (only certain ones, some are core such as English, maths and science ) and elect to do more in your chosen subjects.

Other compulso ry ones are sex and relationship education and religious education though there doesn’t need to be an exam on it. 

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Svend 04/10/2019 at 16:16

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I think I understood you correctly initially.