Re: teaching 'em to learn, to think, and to decide what's important

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

I may here, I believe, promote my favo. book on the subject:  Innumeracy,
Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences; by John allen Paulos

bc


Tina Fanetti wrote:

> In response to the "feel for the numbers" idea, I am currently stress=
> ing that to my summer classes.
>
> Most of them are extremely math phobic.  I am trying to get them to u=
> se their common sense or real life experience to look at a word probl=
> em and see if the answer makes sense.
>
> Now I tell them I don't expect them at this point to have a great fee=
> l for the numbers but they are able to look and see that an extreme v=
> alue may be wrong.
>
> An example would be a cheetah running.  If you get the cheetah runnin=
> g faster than an airplane, perhaps there is a mistake somewhere. =
> =20
> Or if you buy something on sale and it rings up more than the origina=
> l price...
>
> I try to encourage the students to look at the answer and ask themsel=
> ves, is this reasonable? =20
>
> They are convinced they have no common sense when it comes to math bu=
> t 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