bks@alfa.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) (12/07/89)
Copied [without permission] from letters section of _NEW_SCIENTIST_, 25 November, 1989 | ... | The project [Calculator Aware Number, CAN], was set up with the | objective of trying to develop a number curriculum for | primary mathematics which would take account of the new technology. | Guidelines were issued to the schools taking part: | * to encourage the development of mental facility; | * to have a calculator always available in the | classroom for free use by the children; | * and -- the most controversial -- no longer to | teach the four basic standard arithmetical | algorithms learned by most people hitherto. | ... | The children ... demonstrate an understanding of [negative | numbers and decimals] which is superior to that of many | secondary-school children. | ... | The children learn to recognise patterns created by number | sequences of all kinds because because are able to generate | them so much more quickly with a calculator; they also | make attempts to generalise the patterns in "rules" | for continuing them, a good prelude to later algebra. | ... | [And lots of other good reports.] | Janet Duffin, Numeracy Tutor, School of Mathematics, U. of Hull At first, I thought WHAT, no addition, subtraction, multiplication and derision? But, paper and pencil are homo-sapiens-made objects, so why shouldn't they be replaced by an alternate technology? I spent a lot of boring hours in primary school just cranking out answers to arithmetic problems. Anybody know anything more concrete about the results of this type of experiment in primary math ed? How do the kids do in estimation of answers to problems? -- -Brad Sherman (bks@alfa.berkeley.edu) If sometimes I want to insert text and sometimes I want to overwrite text and sometimes I want to mark text and sometimes I want to copy text and sometimes I want to move text and sometimes I want to delete text, the text editor had goddam better be modal or I'm going to trade it in for one that is.
koomen@cs.rochester.edu (Hans Koomen) (12/12/89)
Anthony Finkelstein <acwf@doc.ic.ac.uk> writes in article <1989Dec6.224935.1817@agate.berkeley.edu>: >Copied [without permission] from letters section of >_NEW_SCIENTIST_, 25 November, 1989 >| ... >| The project [Calculator Aware Number, CAN], was set up with the >| objective of trying to develop a number curriculum for >| primary mathematics which would take account of the new technology. ... >| The children learn to recognise patterns created by number >| sequences of all kinds because because are able to generate >| them so much more quickly with a calculator; they also >| make attempts to generalise the patterns in "rules" >| for continuing them, a good prelude to later algebra. ... >| Janet Duffin, Numeracy Tutor, School of Mathematics, U. of Hull ... > -Brad Sherman (bks@alfa.berkeley.edu) It's just one data point, but a pretty illustrative corroboration nonetheless: Our seven year old son (bright but no genius) received a small calculator as a St. Nicholas present last week. Within minutes he inquired what the "/" was for. After a verbal explanation (but no demonstration) he went off to experiment some more. Half an hour later he came back to me and said, "Dad, did you know that when you take a number made up of a bunch of the same digits and divide that number by that digit, you get the same size number made up of 1's? See, take 8888888 and divide by 8, you get 1111111!" Shortly thereafter he figured out the inverse rule, using multiplication. In the space of 30 minutes (counting time spent on other presents :-) he went from trial and error to deliberate experimentation to rule formation, verification, application and demonstration. The calculator clearly helped him in both random probing, experimentation and verification in ways that would have been hard if not impossible with paper and pencil. -- - - - /-/ a n s