Re: INNUMERACY, was Re: Use of Calculators

[ntganiel@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il (Uri Ganiel)]

> Uri Ganiel shares an anecdite:
>
> > Since all kinds of stories came up, here is my own experience at a
> > supermarket check-out in Clumbus, Ohio some three years ago, while we were
> > on sabbatical...
>
> Uri, is it any better in Israel? Canada is just as bad as the US. Mental
> arithmetic is no longer an admired skill, and it is not encouraged in our
> schools.
>
> Leigh

Leigh   -       " is it any better in Israel?" - depends on what you mean
by "it".  We too have calculators and computers everywhere, which I regard
as a positive trend - technology is good when used well - (personally, I
have been using computers since 1960, when I did my masters thesis and used
the only computer that existed between Rome and Tokyo, at the Weizmann
Institute). However, I think any HS senior here could find out what 5% of a
number was. What we do emphasize these days in our school maths is that
students should be able to estimate and have a feel for orders of
magnitude. So 54 times 303 CANNOT come out to be 362...I personally
advocate to teachers to let their pupils use calculators. I do not think
that the multiplication table is the most important achievement of human
culture. Years ago I had to fight with the (then) inspector on physics to
allow calculators into the final (Government run) physics exams. I thought
that insisting on the length of a pendulum to be an integer multiple of
9.8(g) was silly, as were other components of many of the problems which
were totally artificial just so the numbers were "nice". But I admit that
there is a problem, in that people tend to do ANY calculation on a
calculator, and totally lose their "feel" for numbers (some give it the
fancy name of "numeracy").
Uri

Prof. Uri Ganiel
Head, Department of Science Teaching
The Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot 76100, ISRAEL

Phone: 972-8-9343894
FAX:    972-8-9344115

E-mail:  NTGANIEL@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il