Saturday, October 01, 2011

Screening: THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH ABOUT WAITING FOR SUPERMAN – Mon. 24 Oct @ 6:30PM

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman
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1 comment:

fractalman said...

in superhero comics, exposure to radiation often leads to superpowers-the more

exotic the radiation, the better.

Why not find out if we can create classrooms full of "math-supers" by exposing

them to more exotic math in the first four grades? in particular, I imagine

first graders learning to factor simple quadratics-first with algebra tiles,

then without.
Then, I imagine second graders learning about lessthan/greater than, fractions

(fraction circles work great for the initial process), comparing fractions,

then adding them together.

third grade gets to learn about y=f(x) in my vision, and sometimes gets to

solve explicitly for x.

fourth grade gets an early introduction to infinitesimals.
Lastly, ever grade in my vision should be given a review of how we go from

counting to addition as a shortcut for counting, from addition to it's

inverse(subraction) and creating negative numbers, from addition to

multiplication (as repeated addition, then the more compressed form), then

using multiplication as a shortcut, multiplication to division, creating the

rational numbers, multiplication to exponentials, and finally exponentials to

square roots-reviewing up to wherever is appropriate.

worst case scenario? slow the whole thing down by a factor of two.

Above all, make sure every wannabe-teacher can demonstrate much of the procedure of getting from addition to exponents.

Ambitious? You bet-it's based on my hypothesis that first graders can learn to factor quadratics more readily/deeply/easily than eigth graders. if that is correct, my plan can succeed. if not, it will fail-but can always be adjusted to start a bit later.

5:08 PM

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