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It's the books and the curriculum. Just watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI and cry.
by tylerritchie 17y ago
It's the books and the curriculum. Just watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI and cry.
- flatline 17y agoIt's funny, I do those "cluster problems" in my head to solve most multiplication and division problems...I presume that I invented the method myself at some point during basic education, as these books are encouraging kids to do. The standard algorithms are great on paper but suck to do in your head for anything very complex (at least for me...) I can see the point though about disadvantaged kids having trouble with this. If someone is struggling and does not have good parental support, it would be hard to learn basic math skills reliably this way. Rote memorization of methods and figures is useful at pretty much all levels of math, and if you just want kids to be able to multiply two numbers, drilling them on one method makes a lot more sense than trying to create young mathematicians.
- tylerritchie 17y agoI think every mere mortal uses a variation on the "cluster problems" to do mental multiplication and division. But what about the lattice method, how is that better than the standard algorithm for humans doing math on paper?
- flatline 17y agoYeah the lattice method was pretty cool, I don't recall seeing that before. I can't see any value teaching this to a 3rd grader unless they're absolutely sailing along in math and curious to learn more. Even then, I'm not really sure of the point, how does it reveal anything about multiplication?
- WestSeattleDan 17y agoTry looking at a comparison of Discovering Algebra and Prentice Hall Algebra Here: http://www.mathunderground.net/PHvsDA/PHvsDA.html http://www.mathunderground.net/PHvsDA/PHvsDA.html great ready to cry large tears.