Triad Math Experience?

[Bright Light]

I'm looking for reviews of parents/students experience with Triad Math. Thank you!

[raptor_dad]

I've never heard of this but reading the pitch letter it sounds like a bunch of hokum. "All modern calculus textbooks are obsolete... No STEM professional will do calculus problems the old fashioned classical way.." etc etc... This pitch makes this program sound soft while trying to justify it by being "modern". This makes me suspect the earlier level's minimalist texts.

[kiana]

I've never heard of this but reading the pitch letter it sounds like a bunch of hokum. "All modern calculus textbooks are obsolete... No STEM professional will do calculus problems the old fashioned classical way.." etc etc... This pitch makes this program sound soft while trying to justify it by being "modern". This makes me suspect the earlier level's minimalist texts.

 

The hell they won't.

 

They won't do horribly complicated problems the old fashioned way, but they absolutely will do simple problems by hand.

 

The fact that they appear to (based on the blurb) phase out all arithmetical calculations in pre-algebra in favor of a TI calculator is enough that I would recommend strongly against it for all but the profoundly dyscalculic.

 

Using the calculator when it's not *necessary* results in the students I see in my college math classes who whip out the calculator for calculations like 1 + 0.15 or 2(1/2) or 3 times 1. I am absolutely serious. These students are unable to follow when I work problems with them or when the text works problems because they cannot see how "wait, here you wrote 2(1/2) and here you just wrote 1, where did the 1 come from?"

 

Students should be encouraged to use the calculator for things such as 234235923/312 where no sane mathematician would ever use long division instead of a pocket calculator, but they should be able to do things like 12/6 without one.