Monday, September 24, 2007
God Help Me
I guess I am not smarter than a 5th grader. Emily brought home a math paper today. Square roots. I have no clue. I mean I get what a square root is but how you figure it out, yeah, I have no idea. The problem was "The square root of 121 is________." She came in and asked how to do it. I was at a loss so, I um, cheated and used the calculator. Then, shame on me, I just gave her the answer and told her to make sure to get an explanation from her teacher tomorrow as to how you actually figure out the problem. This is only 5th grade people. I am going to have to call in my sister Suzanne when we get in to the really tough stuff (like you know, anything beyond adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing). Because math? So not my thing.
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You know, I cannot recall if there was a method. My approach, and what I swear was the school approach but maybe it was the one they told us was wrong before teaching the right one, is the method of coming at it from the closest round square and so forth. Except, come to think of it, 121 IS a round one, so it's a trick question for if you know your multiplication tables. Interesting to note the squares create a pattern, at least up to 12. But anyway, now you have me trying to figure how to do it, like if it's 123, not 121, so you know it's 11 point something.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of 123, the point something is almost exactly the reciprocal of 11 (1/11), which gave me the idea to divide the difference between the target number and the nearest even square below it by two, divide that by the adjacent lower even number, and appending the result after the decimal.
Let's try a random number...
332
18 squares to 324, leaving 8 to work with.
Half of 8 is 4, divided by 18 is .222222222...
So that make 18.222222...
In fact, that squares to 332.049383 close enough.
Calculator says the answer is 18.220867 or so.
If you are in fifth grade and they are making you do eighth grade math, it will be close enough to say "18.22, and why are you torturing me you sadistic yet pathetic product of our twisted teacher education system."
That's probably not the correct method they would teach, or else I wouldn't have extrapolated it from brief examination, but hey, I can at least feel momentarily clever I didn't have to deploy Google.
Aspie? Me? Why do you ask?
ReplyDeleteAnd finally, I can remember Dan bringing home work at that age and beyond and us being like "I didn't see THIS until college!" Or X grade... or never. It's gotten crazy what they do so early now. But then this is why three years after high school, five years after they threatened to place me into advanced math because I was so good in geometry class with an awesome teacher, I started college and had to go all remedial with math courses before I even could dip a toe in calculus and run screaming.
ReplyDeleteOne cannot run from calculus, as one cannot run without it.
ReplyDeleteWell, without the physical forces it so neatly describes, anyway, but it's late. Cut me some metaphorical slack, will ya?
*angelic grin*
I agree...I don't remember square roots being introduced until late middle school/early high school. About the only good thing I can say about math is that my patience level as an adult has gotten much higher.
ReplyDeleteSharon, I NEVER DID THEM. I stopped math in 10th grade at general math b/c i HAD to take it. I cant even figure out my 3rd graders math HELLO!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat program do they use, we use Everyday Math (new) there's acutally a meeting tomorrow nite for it.
Oh and yah we doing square roots times things
3*3*3*3(2squared) *5*5 HELLO?????????????????????????
making rainbow trees i think NOT
Everyday Mathis a great program. we use it in Middleboro. They really try to make math fun by playing Math games and using manipulatives...like pennies and dominoes and other counting type things. Katherine has been there from the beginning...they started it when she was in kindergarten so I really see how well it works with her.
ReplyDelete