more math

My math assignment is particularly difficult this week. It's a good thing I started early! Just how much do you remember about sets and intersections of sets and equivalent sets? Can you draw a venn diagram to represent the following? Cause I can't! (A n B) u (A n C) Or, use a venn diagram to determine if the following is true: A u (B n C) = (A u B) n C I admit I find myself asking the question kids so often ask: Why do we have to do this? Unfortunately, our professor isn't helping us remember how to do it - I did used to know, I'm sure. Also, it seems we aren't spending our class time on what we should be spending it on. Afterall, I'm in a program for curriculum development, not for math education! But, according to the following video, math classes these days are pretty screwed up all around! In this video, a parent who is also an atmospheric scientist demonstrates how multiplication and division problems are done with new-fangled math. Incredibly confusing stuff for a kid, done to avoid standard algorithms. She refers to the Everday Math program, which is what public schools in New York use, as well as what my school in Shanghai uses.



I followed links through some other teachers' blogs, and I came across this funny video about math, too. It's Ma & Pa Kettle!