Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Mental Math & Time

In yesterdays class the first thing that Mr Kuropatwa said to us was how it is important to learn and not to be afraid of asking questions. Mr Kuropatwa had a example on how it is important to learn. Like a doctor it takes hard work and years to become a doctor. If you had 50% in all of your subjects in school you wont be able to become a doctor because you have low marks. Only the people that really wants to learn and gets 90% or over can become a doctor. In mental math he explain the things we had learn from the past like finding 10%. If the number is 2004, 10 percent of that number is 200.4. All you have to do is put a dot one place from the left. Also we learned how to round to the nearest quarter of an hour. So there are 60 minutes in a hour. 4 quarters add up to a dollar so its like a clock but its not 25 quarters its 15 quarters. Because 15 +15 = 30 min that's half an hour of the clock+15+15 = 60 min which equals up to 1 Hour or 15x4 = 60 min as well. Just REMEMBER 4 equal sliced pizzas when your looking at a clock. Now pushing to the nearest quarter. If the time is 7:09 you push it to the nearest quarter of an hour. So it would be 7:15. If it was 7:07 you have to push the clock back and it would be 7:00 because its the nearest quarter to that time.



The next scribe will be Mary

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I think Mr. Kuropatwa has great thinking for his intrinsic motivation theory of learning. A teacher can only carry a student so far, but it is up to the student to take it out of the classroom and apply it to their life. Teachers can help, but even talking about using the clock for math class helps with that application. Mental math is extremely helpful, for an example of this, wait until a cashier punches in your cash into the till, and then hand them some change to make the change you get back "easier" for them. A lot of times, they are confused and unsure because they don't have the skills to figure out the change without the use of the till! It's cruel, but is an example of how this could help in life.

Scott G. (Mentor)
University of Regina

Anonymous said...

I would like to agree with Scott's comment. The amount of students that do not know how to count change without the use of a calculator or cash register is large. What Mr. Kuropatwa is teaching you will be something that you use in your life all the time. Mental math will be a big part of your future and you need to make sure that you fully understand and grasp the concepts. Your teacher has done a very good job of contextualizing the ideas and relating them to your life in order for you to understand the concepts of mental math.

Josh L.
Mentor
University of Regina

Unknown said...

Hi Justin,
I am so glad you commented on the importance of asking questions. My teachers always emphasized the importance of asking questions, but I never did. I was afraid my questions were "dumb" and maybe I didn't know the answer because I wasn't paying attention. Well, I am here to say, even in university, the professors still say, if something is unclear, just ask. Just last week, before a guest speaker presentation, our teacher said, try and ask one question. If there is one thing I have learned, it is, if you have a question, someone else most likely has the same question.
Great job,
Michelle M (mentor)
University of Regina

Irma said...

It seems that this student really grasp the idea of the topic discussed in class. It is important to understand the concept of finding the 10%. I see it so often when my children like to buy something and need to add the tax to know if they have enough money. The first thing I taught them was how to add 10% so they can see if they have more or less enough money to buy it. When they are a bit older they will see tax is not only 10% but we will leave for later. It is a quick mental math to do and they can apply it to more things as they grow up.

I also like to agree with Michelle on how important it is to ask questions. If you don't ask a question the teacher will not know that you don't understand or that you need some more information. Teachers will teach with a certain speed but if you don't keep up you need to slow them down and the one way of doing it is by asking questions.

Irma M (Mentor)
University of Regina

Unknown said...

I like how you color coded the important parts of the problem. We talk about doing questions like that in our University classes about teaching math. We call it Reading for Understanding and Reading for Analysis. It works well because it slows down your thinking and reminds you what things are most important in question. Good work!
Jenelle K. (mentor)
University of Regina

RJC said...

Thanks everyone