Education today

[Dr W]

I prefer 5318008

[MC]

As opposed to

 

55378008

[Floating Chamber]

I am a retired maths teacher. I can understand the frustration of Christy. When I was at the 'Chalk Face', I taught Maths with Meaning. Application. Not just number-crunching.

 

I have neen criticised many times by anti-shooting parents for bringing sniper calculations and trench-warfare into Geometry, (sines, cosines, tangents and more) BUT the kids LOVED it!

 

Over thirty years ago, I abandoned ONE lesson and sat with the group discussing how the (then) 'new' technology would develop. We discussed laser applications for measurements, 'smart' supermarket trolleys that would 'know' what was in them and could automatically adjust stock. I predicted that soon there would be calculators where you could send a message to a similar device. Little did I realise, at the time, that it would be a mobile phone! A parent phoned the head and complained; he replied with, 'You should have been there, like me, it was fascinating!'

 

Newton's Iterative Method for calculating square roots is itself fascinating and, with a calculator and several function keys to take out the laborious calculations of average, it shows how smart the teenager Newton was all those years ago. It also sharpens up their calculator skills. When the kids asked, 'How on Earth did he figure this out, and so young?' I'd reply, 'Because he loved his maths. Remember, if you're are smart, and NOT a smart ****, it (maths) is the EASIEST subject in the world!'

 

The kids were thrilled when I'd take in a loading press and SHOW how many skills were needed. Even the loading scales gave a good application of moments.

 

The connection between SAFE homeloading and meeting St. Peter too early in your life, is all to do with understanding numbers!

 

Here's some teasers for you folk out there:

 

What does dividing a number by 0.0648 OR multiplying it by 15.432 achieve, and why does it work like that?

 

Why is 7000 important to me and some of you out there?

 

What is the connection between 437.5 and 28.4?

 

Maths is the daddy!

 

FC

Edited February 18, 2010 by Floating Chamber

[MC]

I am a retired maths teacher. I can understand the frustration of Christy. When I was at the 'Chalk Face', I taught Maths with Meaning. Application. Not just number-crunching.

 

I have neen criticised many times by anti-shooting parents for bringing sniper calculations and trench-warfare into Geometry, (sines, cosines, tangents and more) BUT the kids LOVED it!

 

Over thirty years ago, I abandoned ONE lesson and sat with the group discussing how the (then) 'new' technology would develop. We discussed laser applications for measurements, 'smart' supermarket trolleys that would 'know' what was in them and could automatically adjust stock. I predicted that soon there would be calculators where you could send a message to a similar device. Little did I realise, at the time, that it would be a mobile phone! A parent phoned the head and complained; he replied with, 'You should have been there, like me, it was fascinating!'

 

Newton's Iterative Method for calculating square roots is itself fascinating and, with a calculator and several function keys to take out the laborious calculations of average, it shows how smart the teenager Newton was all those years ago. It also sharpens up their calculator skills. When the kids asked, 'How on Earth did he figure this out, and so young?' I'd reply, 'Because he loved his maths. Remember, if you're are smart, and NOT a smart ****, it (maths) is the EASIEST subject in the world!'

 

The kids were thrilled when I'd take in a loading press and SHOW how many skills were needed. Even the loading scales gave a good application of moments..

The connection between SAFE loading and meeting St. Peter is all to do with number!

 

Her's some teasers for you folk out there:

 

What does dividing by 0.0648 OR multiplying by 15.432 achieve? ounces to grains or vice versa

 

Why is 7000 important to me and some of you out there? Grains in a pound

 

What is the connection between 437.5 and 28.4? they are the same thing just different units

 

Maths is the daddy!

 

FC

[gixer1]

Her's some teasers for you folk out there:

 

What does dividing by 0.0648 OR multiplying by 15.432 achieve?

 

Why is 7000 important to me and some of you out there?

 

What is the connection between 437.5 and 28.4?

 

Maths is the daddy!

 

FC

 

Isn't this something to do with grams and then the figure is divided by 7000? think i read this in a mag about reloading but to be honest i'm not too sure

[Floating Chamber]

I am a retired maths teacher. I can understand the frustration of Christy. When I was at the 'Chalk Face', I taught Maths with Meaning. Application. Not just number-crunching.

 

I have neen criticised many times by anti-shooting parents for bringing sniper calculations and trench-warfare into Geometry, (sines, cosines, tangents and more) BUT the kids LOVED it!

 

Over thirty years ago, I abandoned ONE lesson and sat with the group discussing how the (then) 'new' technology would develop. We discussed laser applications for measurements, 'smart' supermarket trolleys that would 'know' what was in them and could automatically adjust stock. I predicted that soon there would be calculators where you could send a message to a similar device. Little did I realise, at the time, that it would be a mobile phone! A parent phoned the head and complained; he replied with, 'You should have been there, like me, it was fascinating!'

 

Newton's Iterative Method for calculating square roots is itself fascinating and, with a calculator and several function keys to take out the laborious calculations of average, it shows how smart the teenager Newton was all those years ago. It also sharpens up their calculator skills. When the kids asked, 'How on Earth did he figure this out, and so young?' I'd reply, 'Because he loved his maths. Remember, if you're are smart, and NOT a smart ****, it (maths) is the EASIEST subject in the world!'

 

The kids were thrilled when I'd take in a loading press and SHOW how many skills were needed. Even the loading scales gave a good application of moments.

 

The connection between SAFE homeloading and meeting St. Peter too early in your life, is all to do with understanding numbers!

 

Here's some teasers for you folk out there:

 

What does dividing a number by 0.0648 OR multiplying it by 15.432 achieve, and why does it work like that?

 

Why is 7000 important to me and some of you out there?

 

What is the connection between 437.5 and 28.4?

 

Maths is the daddy!

 

FC

 

MC is the DADDY!!!!! ...and gixer1.. I take my hat off to you! Reading and Maths! Continue with your studies!!

Edited February 18, 2010 by Floating Chamber

[Floating Chamber]

I am a retired maths teacher. I can understand the frustration of Christy. When I was at the 'Chalk Face', I taught Maths with Meaning. Application. Not just number-crunching.

 

I have neen criticised many times by anti-shooting parents for bringing sniper calculations and trench-warfare into Geometry, (sines, cosines, tangents and more) BUT the kids LOVED it!

 

Over thirty years ago, I abandoned ONE lesson and sat with the group discussing how the (then) 'new' technology would develop. We discussed laser applications for measurements, 'smart' supermarket trolleys that would 'know' what was in them and could automatically adjust stock. I predicted that soon there would be calculators where you could send a message to a similar device. Little did I realise, at the time, that it would be a mobile phone! A parent phoned the head and complained; he replied with, 'You should have been there, like me, it was fascinating!'

 

Newton's Iterative Method for calculating square roots is itself fascinating and, with a calculator and several function keys to take out the laborious calculations of average, it shows how smart the teenager Newton was all those years ago. It also sharpens up their calculator skills. When the kids asked, 'How on Earth did he figure this out, and so young?' I'd reply, 'Because he loved his maths. Remember, if you're are smart, and NOT a smart ****, it (maths) is the EASIEST subject in the world!'

 

The kids were thrilled when I'd take in a loading press and SHOW how many skills were needed. Even the loading scales gave a good application of moments.

 

The connection between SAFE homeloading and meeting St. Peter too early in your life, is all to do with understanding numbers!

 

Here's some teasers for you folk out there:

 

What does dividing a number by 0.0648 OR multiplying it by 15.432 achieve, and why does it work like that?

 

Why is 7000 important to me and some of you out there?

 

What is the connection between 437.5 and 28.4?

 

Maths is the daddy!

 

FC

 

OK Let's look at MC's answers and refine them:

 

0.0648 is the INVERSE of 15.432. ('one divided by 15.432 = 0.0648')

 

Example: The inverse of 2 is 1/2 (0.5) so, 6 x 1/2 is the same as 6 divided by 2. The answer in both cases is 3. We use 0.0648 and 15.432 to CONVERT grams to grains.

 

There are 7000 grains (Avoirdupois) in 16 ounces (one pound)

 

 

437.5 grains = 28.4 grams = 1 ounce.

 

FC

Edited February 18, 2010 by Floating Chamber

[Aled]

Got to say that i've enjoyed reading this thread, not much to do with shooting but a lot to do with life.

The skills we pick up in school which we use in our day to day life and never though we would are surprising.

Quick example: There was a large rock in the middle of our lawn which i was re-eseeding, moved it using levers, where did i learn about levers, Physics class in school, a subject i failed!

 

However as a parent of young children i can also see Christy point, Mam really pushed school, (pushed a little too hard sadly) and went through Biology and History tests etc with me, but i wish she'd sat me down and shown me how to budget manage a weekly/monthly income, or how to make a cheap but healthy meal (spag bol etc), skills which i now have but i picked on the way rather than was shown. Skills which most Mams the world over have in abundance!

These are skills which i will show my children.

Finally i have a degree and a HND both were enjoyable to study but are very rarely applied to my work place, with one exception, how to manage budgets which is of course maths!

Tigt Lines

Aled

[gixer1]

More teasers -

 

PPTF - what unit of measurement is this?

 

0.052 - what is this constant used to calculate?

 

Why is 8.33lb/gal or 1.0SG important?

 

how can 14.7psi be represented?

 

Regards,

 

Gixer

[DSPUK]

FC

 

Blimey mate I wish you could have been my math's teacher - I went to a factory fodder school in rough part of Birmingham and hated math's till I moved school's then got new teacher - he was good and I enjoyed it but like rest I was kicked out of school at 15.

Might even have taken up shooting earlier in life -

 

Dave

[fortune82]

Apart from the obvious importance of maths in our society, qualifications are also going to be ever more important. I was at the Department for Education on Friday and the meeting threw up some interesting facts / predictions:

 

China's next 5 year plan is to DESIGN and make products. At present WE (wealthy countries) design these products.

 

This is expected to cost up to 5 million jobs in the UK

 

The top ten most in demand jobs at present did not exist 10 years ago.

 

We are education kids to do jobs that do not exist at the moment.

 

The number of unskilled manual jobs will continue to decline at an ever faster rate.

 

The era of a job / career for life is over. The vast majority of economically active people in the future will change jobs / careers every 3 - 5 years apparently.

 

The only way a person can prove to an employer in the future they can do the job required is to have a nice big set of qualifications. Therefore proving they can learn quickly and in detail. They will have to prove this due to the fact that no one will be trained in that particular job due to new areas of emplyment emerging so rapidly.

 

Not my words - the words of the DCSF

 

Most I agree with however.

[KFC]

I was useless at maths at school and I couldn't understand it.

 

When I was in the mob I never took the promotion exams that I should have because of the maths, and I was really good at my job.

 

Who in this world needs to know what 3.142 means?

 

When I started my own business as a Stained Glass Artist and Glass Engraver then I used Pi most days and I had to teach myself all the maths that I didn't learn at school like areas, volumes, proportion and percentages.

 

The big change for me was when I did a resettlement course before demob.

The maths teacher there just kept telling me that it wasn't that I couldn't do the maths but that I didn't want to.

 

Once I could see a reason for it, and what it would help me achieve, then I got my head stuck into the books and learned.

 

I'm glad that I did because, these days, I could even tell you how long it will take to fill a bath with the plug out. Only thing is it's too late and I've no need to any more

[Alpha Mule]

I want a dry stone wall built round a field, it's 300 yards by 120 yards (I'm making it easy here, MY fields aren't rectangular).

I want the wall to be 1 meter wide at the bottom and 30cm thick at the top.

I want a gateway 9ft wide at one end.

Stones cost £20 a tonne.

How many tons do I need?

 

Or should I just plant some brambles and wait a while?

 

(I understand that I have mixed measurements and that the above is full of gramatical errors, but hey, I'm just a house husband [with a B SC (Hons) in Computing Science and am a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer {Microsoft Certified Professional 6 times over}]) - by choice(ish).

 

My teachers said I should work with my hands

I was left to rot and had to dig myself out. If only my folks and teachers had put in a bit more effort when I was young,,,,,

 

Also:

I was taught that 22/7 is just a rough (but close enough for most things) approxomation for Pi.

Edited February 18, 2010 by Alpha Mule

[Ricko]

Speaking as a Maths teacher, the pupils that I teach regularly ask me, "What is the point in this?"

For brighter pupils I reason with them that they will need GCSE Maths to enter 6th form and Uni.

For lower ability problems I point out that they need to show employers/college admission tutors that they have follwed an appropriate course in Maths.

 

The content is prescribed by the government via the National Curriculum (which is long overdue to be reviewed IMHO)

 

From my point of view more needs to be made of the 'functional' maths courses

[KFC]

Speaking as a Maths teacher, the pupils that I teach regularly ask me, "What is the point in this?"

For brighter pupils I reason with them that they will need GCSE Maths to enter 6th form and Uni.

For lower ability problems I point out that they need to show employers/college admission tutors that they have follwed an appropriate course in Maths.

 

The content is prescribed by the government via the National Curriculum (which is long overdue to be reviewed IMHO)

 

From my point of view more needs to be made of the 'functional' maths courses

 

I'm not picking fault with your terminology or your posting but this is exactly the thing that blighted me for years because I considered myself thick so I didn't try too hard.

 

I know alot of so called 'bright' people who can't carry out what I would call a simple practical task and I know lots of people without qualifications who are fantastically skilled in practical tasks and very 'bright'.

 

Because everything is now measured by academic qualification then I'm not surprised that lots of pupils feel demoralised and don't want to go to school any more.

In Holland and Germany it has long been the case that at twelve or thirteen a pupil could choose a practical career and then be placed with an employer to learn the trade alongside usual school work. When they leave school at 18 then they are qualified and useful to an employer.

[shaun4860]

Try as I might, I could never get my head around all that algebra.

 

 

Its a country in Africa isnt it....

 

shaun

[Floating Chamber]

al-jabr wa'l-muqabalah (Arabic)

 

 

..... is what we now call 'ALGEBRA'.

 

Algebra, ('Using symbols instead of numbers') is a fascinating branch of maths and, combined with Newton's Calculus (Latin for 'stone'), you can calculate how long a bath will fill with the plug left out.

 

..and before some clown says 'What's the point in that?'.... it's very important for an engineer to do so!

Edited February 18, 2010 by Floating Chamber

[KFC]

al-jabr wa'l-muqabalah (Arabic)

 

 

..... is what we now call 'ALGEBRA'.

 

Algebra, ('Using symbols instead of numbers') is a fascinating branch of maths and, combined with Newton's Calculus (Latin for 'stone'), you can calculate how long a bath will fill with the plug left out.

 

..and before some clown says 'What's the point in that?'.... it's very important for an engineer to do so!

 

Yes, that's what I suddenly realised I was doing when producing stained glass projects, I was using the same calculation

[ShooterTom]

Most things involve maths! I have just done an Alevel in physics and a lot of everyday stuff has formulas that explain it

[-oXo-]

Everything in life revolves around maths really.

[Paladin]

I want a dry stone wall built round a field, it's 300 yards by 120 yards (I'm making it easy here, MY fields aren't rectangular).

I want the wall to be 1 meter wide at the bottom and 30cm thick at the top.

I want a gateway 9ft wide at one end.

Stones cost £20 a tonne.

How many tons do I need?

 

Or should I just plant some brambles and wait a while?

 

(I understand that I have mixed measurements and that the above is full of gramatical errors, but hey, I'm just a house husband [with a B SC (Hons) in Computing Science and am a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer {Microsoft Certified Professional 6 times over}]) - by choice(ish).

 

My teachers said I should work with my hands

I was left to rot and had to dig myself out. If only my folks and teachers had put in a bit more effort when I was young,,,,,

 

Also:

I was taught that 22/7 is just a rough (but close enough for most things) approxomation for Pi.

 

 

I was thinking along the same lines,

Adding to it. Time spent on the job, How many days pay or £x per hour.

Cost of travel? Distance x fuel consumption.

Cost of consumables?

Wear and tear of tools and vehicle?

 

 

Paladin

[Doggone]

Yesss arithmatic...times table-no calculator-no ask jeeves. Simple 96 x 100. Easy peasy-base. If they have no basic understanding, computers, whatever thier guise, are a hopeless way to learn maths. 343 x9? Do it my way and the answer will be almost instant. 10 x =3430 -43 obviously, take 50 add 7. Pure arithmatic. Teach them that. How many A grade students could I ask 56 x9 and expect an accurate answer? Ver few cos they are not taught 56x10 = 560 -56...

 

Uh ?

[bruno22rf]

If your kids end up in most modern manufacturing industries they are going to need this stuff.The universal introduction of CAD/CAM and CNC machinery makes the understanding of tangents and pi e.t.c. essential.