15 August 2013
In order to solve a math problem, we need to understand the
meaning of the problem and the what the is it asking for.
Three general semantic categories of addition and subtraction word problems
- Before and After
- Part and Whole Situation
- Comparison
Children need to be given a variation of semantics to learn
better. This is to provide them with many versions of problems to solve rather
than having only one dimension of a problem and when there is a change or twist
in a problem, they get stuck.
Variation is important, repetition is pointless.
For the lesson on fractions, we did 2/3 divided by 5.
We came out with 2 methods to solve it.
- Drawing a model and divide it into 15 equal parts so that the whole portion is easier to be divided by 5.
- To invert 5 into 1/5. This is because if we are sharing a portion of something into 5 people, it means that each person will get 1/5 of the portion.
We also learnt that 2/3 x 1/5 carries a different meaning
compared to 1/5 x 2/3 even though both sums gave the same answer.
1/5 x 2/3 – we are interested in 1/5 out of 2/3
2/3 x 1/5 – we are interested in 2/3 of 1/5
Math is all about understanding.
And I agree!
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