2016-12-26

On Famous Things

A quip from Stack Exchange back in 2014 that still fills me with glee on a daily basis:

A poster asks how to convince other people when he's developed an as-yet ignored, revolutionary, world-beating result...
e.g., you solve the P vs. NP problem or any other well known open problem.
 Pete L. Clark writes as part of his response:
 It's like saying "i.e., he found the Holy Grail or some other famous cup". 

 More gifts of wisdom at Stack Exchange.

2016-12-12

Michigan State Drops Algebra Requirement

This summer, Michigan State announced that they will drop college algebra as a general-education requirement, replacing it with quantitative-literacy classes:
Michigan State University has revised its general-education math requirement so that algebra is no longer required of all students. The revision reflects an increasing view on college campuses that there is no one-size-fits-all math curriculum -- and that math is often best studied in connection with everyday life...

Now, students can fulfill the requirement by taking two quantitative literacy courses that place math in a real-world context. They also still have the option of taking algebra along with another math course of their choice -- whether a quantitative-literacy course or a more traditional course like trigonometry.


2016-12-05

Observed Belief That 1/2 = 1.2

Last week in both of my two college algebra sections, there came a moment when we had to graph an intercept of x = 1/2. I asked, "One-half is between what two whole numbers?" Response: "Between 1 and 2." I asked the class in general for confirmation: "Is that right? One-half is between 1 and 2, yes?" And the entirety of the class -- in both sections, separated by one hour -- nodded and agreed that it was. (Exception: One student who was previously educated in Russia.)

Now, this may seem wildly inexplicable, and it took me a number of years to decipher this. But here's the situation: Our students are so unaccustomed to fractions that they can only interpret the notation as decimals, that is: they believe that 1/2 = 1.2 (which is, of course, really between 1 and 2). Here's more evidence from the Patricia Kenschaft article, "Racial Equity Requires Teaching Elementary
School Teachers More Mathematics"  (Notices of the AMS, February 2005):
My first time in a fifth grade in one of New Jersey’s most affluent districts (white, of course), I asked where one-third was on the number line. After a moment of quiet, the teacher called out, “Near three, isn’t it?” The children, however, soon figured out the correct answer; they came from homes where such things were discussed.

Likewise, the only way this makes sense is if the teacher interprets 1/3 = 3.1 -- both visually turning the fraction into a decimal, and reading it upside-down. We might at first think the error is the common one that 1/3 = 3, but that wouldn't explain why the teacher thought it was only "near" three.

The next time an apparently inexplicable interpretation of a fraction comes up, consider asking a few more questions to make the perceived value more precise ("Is 1/2 between 1 and 2? Which is it closer to: 1 or 2 or equally distant?" Etc.). See if the problem isn't that it was visually interpreted as decimal point notation.