In response to the "feel for the numbers" idea, I am currently stressing that to my summer classes.
Most of them are extremely math phobic. I am trying to get them to use their common sense or real life experience to look at a word problem and see if the answer makes sense.
Now I tell them I don't expect them at this point to have a great feel for the numbers but they are able to look and see that an extreme value may be wrong.
An example would be a cheetah running. If you get the cheetah running faster than an airplane, perhaps there is a mistake somewhere.
Or if you buy something on sale and it rings up more than the original price...
I try to encourage the students to look at the answer and ask themselves, is this reasonable?
They are convinced they have no common sense when it comes to math but I am trying to convince them otherwise.
Tina F.
Tina Fanetti
Physics Instructor
Western Iowa Technical Community College
4647 Stone Ave
Sioux City IA 51102
712-274-8733 ext 1429