tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91463869392785637392024-03-08T03:48:16.227-08:00Math; construction, education, industryAlanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13462931069576035585noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9146386939278563739.post-32672981520670629082012-04-02T14:04:00.000-07:002012-04-02T14:04:12.395-07:00Lower Than Higher Math<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
</style> <![endif]--> <br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
</style> <![endif]--> <div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Lower Than Higher Math</span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Albert Einstein</i></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-indent: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Math class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fond memories?</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The valuable lessons that could have been learned in grade school math were squandered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teachers, some of whose abilities were better suited to selling door knobs, and textbooks that seemed entirely irrelevant, made for a miserable experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The outcome was predictable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Didn’t learn much.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That was then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, some of that math would be handy in real life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time lost on the job site due to math inability can become frustrating and costly.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Hey Jim, how much rock do we need to bring in?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s a math question disguised in an on-the-job conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jim needs to bring a hole up to grade with base rock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using a tape measure and lot level, Jim and co-worker see an 8 ft. by 12 ft area that needs to be raised 6 inches.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The fellow at the rock plant won’t appreciate hearing that you need 8 by 12 by 6 worth of rock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, he had the same math teacher that you did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He only wants to know how many cubic yards of what material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Period.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Uh oh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know, I’ll buy one of those construction calculators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what buttons do I push?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tick tick tick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There goes some profit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">How did it come to be that you missed this life lesson?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marginal math literacy is a common shortcoming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are not alone.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Think back to grade school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was it that untalented teacher who droned on about the water cycle, Christopher Columbus, or fractions?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It all sounded the same.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Or there was an important math fundamental that you just didn’t quite understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps you were a little sick, or distracted, or bored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You unknowingly missed something crucial and never quite recovered from that moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This may have happened in fourth grade. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">All through the next many years of school, you got by in math class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, you never were going to actually need this stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, how much rock does that hole require? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Let’s see, 8 feet times 12 feet times 6 inches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s 8x12x6, punch into calculator, that’s 576.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That hole isn’t big enough to be 576 cu yards or cubic feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know I can do this.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Okay class, turn to page 123.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jim what’s the answer to number 6?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Fourth grade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Miss Tedium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yucko.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who needs number six or this class?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s for jerks and brainiacs like Arthur Cerebral over there who seems to know all of the answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Probably he gets his head stuck in doorways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wish someone could really explain this to me.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“We need to fill this hole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s start again.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taking the time to confirm your measurements, you are confident that the rock needed is 8 ft x 12 ft x 6 inches deep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately, there is one fellow in the crew who can answer this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More in a hurry than embarrassed, you ask for help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your coworker solves the problem in a few moments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can see that there is no magic here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Damn.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“No Jim, that’s not quite right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does anyone else know the answer to number 6?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Darn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so it goes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lost and frustrated in fourth grade through to the present. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For a moment, forget about the math class memories; Miss Tedium, Arthur Cerebral, number 6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would your life be easier, less stressful, or more lucrative if you were adept with math?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For many of us, the answer is, yes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The benefits of math competence on the job should be clear; the ability to solve the question at hand, with confidence, and in an efficient time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This translates to greater work status and more production in a given day.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alan Cook</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Copyright ©2010</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.thenumberyard.com/">www.thenumberyard.com</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="mailto:info@thenumberyard.com">info@thenumberyard.com</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Alan Cook is a carpenter, cabinet maker, and solar installer who has seen, first-hand, the problems with math deficiency in the trades. He authored <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Trip to the Number Yard: A Fun and Easy Guide to the Math You Need for Construction</i> to help trades people become more proficient in math and thereby do better in their jobs. <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span>Alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13462931069576035585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9146386939278563739.post-71751061882912248582012-03-25T19:37:00.002-07:002012-03-30T15:55:35.355-07:00Math Failure; The Missing Tool<div class="MsoNormal"><i>“A lie can be halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”</i> Mark Twain</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Math Failure; The Missing Tool</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Carpenters put on their pouch carrying a measuring tape, square, chalk line, chisel, hammer, and more. All of these are now ready to use. Sometimes the most needed tool is math.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Concrete has to be ordered in cubic yards. Roofing is measured by the square. Finished flooring is bought by the lineal foot, square foot, or square yard. All of the bills are paid with dollars and cents.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Missing math skills are not only seen in construction. Large and small businesses across the country find it difficult to fill positions with qualified people. This, in spite of 9% unemployment.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Why isn’t the tool of math at the ready? The simple reason is that math, as it is currently taught, seems irrelevant to large numbers of kids. They are not interested and, therefore, not motivated to learn. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Students are bad at math. Approximately one out of every two high school graduates isn’t proficient in grade-level math. The <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> ranks among the lower one third when considering international math testing. This sounds like an epidemic.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Across the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, standardized math test scores are generally disappointing, and in too many cases, alarming. But this has been true a long time. The product of this situation is a marginally competent student population and equally poorly trained adults. This inertia needs to be displaced.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">School administrations and curriculum writers debate like vipers. Arguments over Traditional vs. Reform vs. New math curricula are waged. This, too, has gone on for years.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Continual attempts are made to systematize math education. These attempts make the assumption that all teachers should, and are able to, teach in a generic fashion. Also assumed is that all students will learn exactly what is taught at the necessary pace using a rigid format.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">With federal and state curricula becoming more structured and nearly impossible in their demands, much of teachers’ creativity will be lost. This breeds teacher overwhelm and apathy. Students are bored. Bored students don’t learn. Remember those test scores?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Longer school days and a longer school year are suggested. A different textbook, an iPhone application, and budgetary threats are recommended to improve our faltering math education. Student motivation is often the limiting factor.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Perhaps we should focus on making math relevant and more interesting to students. What fascinates them? Odds are, many of their pastimes involve math.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Music? Sports? Travel? Math is relevant to portions of each of these pursuits. The lessons must be integrated with the students’ interest. Failing this, we see student disinterest. Cramming lessons down their throats hasn’t worked. Why not try something else?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">After some student successes in their areas of interest, a teacher can easily demonstrate how the same techniques of math can be applied to other fields of study. This fosters creativity and allows many styles of teaching, thinking, and learning to participate.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Math associated with a student’s genuine interests and the techniques of problem solving should be the emphasis. Problem solving, a lifelong endeavor, is not a matter of logical deductions from memorized formulas, but a cultivated ability to use one’s imagination. Math lessons must stop stifling a student’s education.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">At least part of the motivation for this, and many articles, is anger. It is distressing to have agreement on the enormity of our collective problems with math as is stated by educators, standardized testing results, employers, and authors. It’s even more exasperating because we are pummeled with statistics, on-the-job problems, and depend upon math and yet seem so indifferent to actually improving our situation. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Alan Cook is part-time faculty at College of the Redwoods, co-owner of Solar Hot Water Plus in Arcata and author of A Trip To The Number Yard; A Fun and Easy Guide to the Math You Need for Construction.<br />
<br />
www.thenumberyard.com</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div>Alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13462931069576035585noreply@blogger.com0