Comments on: Yesterday’s Other Moment Of Clarity:

By: Johan

Johan — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:06:40 +0000

Interesting. In Finland, at the school level resembling high school (classes 10-12, non-compulsory), the students are allowed the benefit of a whole book of formulas and data from maths, physics and chemistry. However, few and far between are the students who actually know how to use it…

By: Brian Cormier

Brian Cormier — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:57:49 +0000

I have my students memorize the formula when I feel the formula reflects the concept I want them to understand, like area of a rectangle and triangle, and even the pythagorean theorem. Otherwise, they’re just memorizing letters, numbers and symbols in a seemingle arbitrary sequence.

Furthermore, if you make them memorize the formula and they write it incorrectly, but otherwise plug in and solve correctly, how much credit should they get?

By: TheInfamousJ

TheInfamousJ — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:26:05 +0000

My state gives the Chemistry students a reference tables and I give them one in class as well. Regardless, my students keep asking whether or not they need to memorize the periodic table. :: sigh ::

By: Glenn

Glenn — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:06:30 +0000

Well, we don’t post more because we are just getting around to realizing how awesome a tool blogs are!

You discovered that years ago, which is why we look up to you and steal so much from you.

By the way, just started my blog at mrwaddell.edublogs.org, and just posted the graphs I used for a graphing lesson.

Feel free to take a peek and let me know what you think.

By: dan

dan — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:38:03 +0000

Hmph. Thought I was being pretty subversive here but apparently I’m the last to board this train. Why don’t y’all post more?

By: JackieB

JackieB — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:07:37 +0000

I gave a test/quest/quiz/assessment on the laws of sines/cosines last week. The formulas were up on the screen the whole time. Some of the cherubs thought I forgot to change the slide. :)

I gave the seniors a sheet on card-stock with the trig identities. Heck, I don’t even remember the half-angle formulas, why should they?

By: Clint H

Clint H — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:30:40 +0000

@Steven – I don’t think the internet will break any time soon, so no worries there. And if it does break, then we have bigger issues…

In my IB math course, students are given a comprehensive formula booklet at the beginning of the year. They are told that it can be used on any test, including the Exam. My rationale: I’m testing your math skills, not your memory skills.

@Steven again – And, on those IB Exams, you are still given marks for choosing to use the correct formula.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:56:54 +0000

I just finished reviewing about 400 vocabulary words that have been plastered on my walls since September. A bunch of the terms are people throughout time period we studied, many of which my students won’t remember next year. Even I had to refresh my memory on some of the words. How am I supposed to convince kids that they need to know all of these concepts, when I find myself in need of a refresher course before their refresher course?

By: Steven Peters

Steven Peters — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:37:01 +0000

It’s actually a bit more intimidating when I go into a test and they give you an equation sheet or make it open book. If you spent time memorizing, you were hoping for a couple points just for writing down the right equation correctly, but having the equation for free takes the wind out of those free-loading sails.

So the value of “equation dropping” goes down while the value of equation using goes up. Win win. Unless you didn’t study.

Nice work though, I wonder how much cumulative stress temporarily memorizing things like the law of cosines has caused us. On the other hand, I can still remember the phone numbers of my friends from 4th grade that I dialed by hand, but I don’t really know anyone’s phone number now because it’s in my cell phone. Does it matter? I guess if my cell phone breaks…

By: Scott Elias

Scott Elias — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:07:48 +0000

I’m sure there are others, but the AP Stats test has never required memorization of formulas. It’s all about, “Yes, but what can you do with that formula? Do you know when to use it and when to use another one?”

If I need to use the Law of Cosines in my daily work (heaven forfend…) then I know where to find it and what to do with it.

A lot of good it did me in college stats to memorize the (ridiculous) formula for standard deviation. I mean, does anyone calculate s.d. by hand?!?

BTW – the same goes for the periodic table and historical dates (other than a select few, perhaps).