Bang!Zoom! Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 I don't know why everyone is grumpy around here today (well, actually, I do)-we all went and had flu shots yesterday. We are all having slight reactions to them-so I'm backing up the schedule a little for getting the day going a little later than I'd planned. But here's the interesting part from yesterday. Barb is a mom a from the ALE, and she gave me both level above, on and below in Singapore to bring home to study on. So I have the 2, 3 and 4 sets. Each level I have the workbooks, textbooks, teacher guides and Challenging Word Problems. I've already gone ahead and ordered the 3B level...but as I was scanning through the CWP books, we sat and studied the table of contents, covers, indexes, just exploring the topics and subjects. In the level 3 Challenging word problems table of contents it has things like length, measurement, weights, time, area...so as I was gabbing along along asking the kid "hey what looks familiar to you here..do you already know this?" I kept noticing that she wasn't "clicking" on the word right away. So I'd ask her questions like..."Okay, everyone has to know math to do their job, some people have to know different kinds of math to do their jobs, or use it more than others.." She was still not getting it. So, I set about quizzing perfect strangers on how they used math in their everyday lives and jobs. We took notes briefly on each mini-interview. The bus driver talked to her about understanding mathematical time to stay on schedule to do their job, as well as money and capacity. The doctor talked to her about understanding how she has to work with math in kilo and weights and measurements for medications and treatment, and how transferring pounds and ounces to kilo and such as mental math is something she does everyday, and what serious business that kind of math is. Then...we listened to church bells tick off time with the tower and talked about the history of communities that had to stay on a schedule but perhaps not everyone was educated or wearing a watch to keep track of mathematical time... The librarians talked to her about math and file systems in the library. Then the super cool one came up. We were sitting at the pharmacy waiting for our turn for her flu shot. There was a couple sitting next to us, so I struck up a conversation with them and asked them if they'd mind chatting about how they use math in their lives everyday..and the fella of the couple turns out to be a theoretical physics that worked on the Manhattan Project and worked with Richard Fermi. He talked to her about robotics, timing, math, physics, he was on the team which first discovered how to create CD roms, he talked to her about atomic vibrations, reflections and mathematics in glass in optics for astronomy. He was very Grandfatherly toward her, sketching and drawing, asking her questions and then his wife spoke with her also. She was a logistics professional once upon a time and coordinated all the flight plans and was one of the first original card coders for computers. INTERESTING DAY! The couple allowed a photo taken of them with her, she'll be putting that in her portfolio along with her notes of "math in people's jobs" she's making up. So, all told, even though she's grumpy and running late this morning, I'm sure glad we went in there when we did and got the very unusual chance to meet that couple. They were so nice to her and she talked about it all night long. It was good for her to hear from real people doing real jobs with experience in handling different sorts of math in their lives with passion and interest. That was way neat stuff. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 What an amazing day! Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plink Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Love it! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 I am stealing your idea:tongue_smilie:. That's brilliant!!! Did it spark her interest? any changes??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted October 28, 2011 Author Share Posted October 28, 2011 Actually, her biggest "AHA!" moment came when we discussed things at home and I pointed at the book and said, "Look, I know you hate math word problems..but think about it...all the problems we talked about with people today were done with words...words..do you see it yet? Word problems in math in text are the very same thing as spoken words. We talk to each other in math with words, not *paper text problems*-that's why you practice on paper first..to learn the strategies to figure out the spoken ones later in life." --tick..tick...tick... BINGO New brain cell connected and she *got it*. "Oh! Mom! I get it! I get it!" She now understands math isn't just a bunch of numbers in workbooks and paper, but a way of handling life and talking to each other. That was pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 That is supremely awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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