Re: More on (Derivations)

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

        I agree with most of what Joel says, but would go a bit further.
One way of getting students "into" derivations is by requiring them to
memorize a few.  That seems to be a new and unworldly concept in the
high schools my students came from when I taught calculus.  Not one
student even attempted the memory assignment.  So I gave a weekly 10
minute quiz on that same assignment until everybody "got the word".
        Memorizing a derivation "implants", I think, a pattern for
a student to follow.  The derivation need not be part of the subject;
Euclid's theorems can be useful for exemplifying logical thinking.

                                Regards,
                                        Jack
Adam was by constitution and proclivity a scientist; I was the same, and
we loved to call ourselves by that great name...Our first memorable
scientific discovery was the law that water and like fluids run downhill,
not up.
                          Mark Twain, <Extract from Eve's Autobiography>

On Mon, 21 Aug 2000, Joel Rauber wrote:

> I am trouble by a couple of the comments on derivations:
>
> e.g.
>
> > This avoids the need to rely on derivations which are
> > mysterious and tedious to  algebra-challenged students
>
> One of the more important reasons for covering derivations (besides helping
> in learning where a lot of the stuff comes from, and fits into the scheme
> of
> things, and isn't just a collection of facts), assigning some derivations
> as
> HW and even having them every now and then on tests (not to be memorized,
> because often its a similar but different derivation from the assignment;
> in
> fact as long as there aren't numbers most students view a problem as a
> derivation, or worse as "theory"): is to address the "algebra-challenged"
> nature of the students.  Derivations requires that they try to develope and
> enhance their skills with algebra and algebraic reasoning to solve
> problems.
> If nothing else, I hope my students develope these kind of skills and the
> cognitive abilities that come from developing them.