NCTM - Principals and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM) * Teacher Notes
Students will: apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving communicate their mathematical thinking coherently and clearly to others
Ohio Academic Content Standards * Teacher Notes
* Mathematical Processess G, 8-10 - Write clearly and coherently about mathematical thinking and ideas.
* Mathematical Processess E, 11-12 - Evaluate a mathematical argument and use reasoning and logic to judge its validity.
The Learning Target
I can accurately communicate the misconceptions of mathematics
The Instructions
First view the video below. The format of the video is mp4 and must be viewed with QuickTime. If your computer does not have QuickTime installed, go to the following link to download the viewer.
The Video
Ma & Pa Kettle Teaching Mathematics
The Task
In the movie you have just watched, Ma & Pa Kettle do their best to convince their business partner that 25 divided by 5 is equal to 14. They use division, multiplication, and addition to show how this is true in thier minds. Your task is to figure out what mathematical property (or properties) they are missing to get their answers. Is it the same property for each computation or is there a similar misconception across all three of their computations? Identify and decribe the mathematics that is the basis of their confusion.
The second step is to come up with a strategy, activity, explanation, etc. that a person could use to correct their misconception. You'll have to think of something better than their business partner tries because that obviously didn't work.
The Product
You may submit the two parts of this problem 1) The mathematical misconception(s) illustrated by Ma & Pa Kettle and 2) how you would propose to correct this misconception(s) in a variety of ways. You can write a paper, create a video, record a podcast, or any other combination of writing and multimedia.
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