"Why are You Sweating?"

Teacher Lance Chapman:

I asked all 140 of my eighth-grade students to divide 10 by 2. Just eight of them wrote down 5.

I knew my students would need remedial work, but I had no idea it would be to this extent. One of the first standards for eighth-grade physical science is manipulating this equation: speed equals distance divided by time (S = D/T). This is a foundation for upper-level skills in physical science. Next come velocity, acceleration, and gravity. I knew that many of my eighth-grade students would have trouble converting fractions into decimals, but I never fathomed that 10 divided by 2 would give so many of them trouble.

They made comments such as, “Mr. Chapman, this is science class, not math class. I hate math.” Almost half of the first periodic assessment given in November will be based on division, multiplication, and addition to solve for a scientific term. Division remedial work was a must.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 26, 2007 10:18 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas