“Play the water tank video clip in front of a class of students of any age between 12- and 30-years-old. The video is best served cold. No music. No text. No introduction.

Your students will start to inventory their surroundings. They’ll identify the crucial elements of the scene. Again, you shouldn’t say anything.

Twenty seconds into watching the hose dribble water into the tank, ask “how long do you think this is gonna take?” Ask for guesses. Just guesses. Write them on the board next to the guessers’ names. Whenever anyone raises the maximum or lowers the minimum, point it out.

Then turn the clip off. Turn off the projector and proceed to whatever else you had planned for the period.

At least one student will ask what 90% of the class will be thinking:

“Well … who was right?!””

‘Math’s power to hurt is based on the perverse culturally taught belief that accomplishment in math is a manifestation of some important inborn intellectual attribute and struggle to understand is evidence you don’t have it.’

This is so true, and that thought is so harmful. I want to come from a premise that every child can do well at math. Pursuing a math/science-related career is a matter of choice, not math ability. I strongly feel that if I can pass Calculus, anyone can. :) (At night school, working full time.)

During a Teacher’s Geometry class where I had the opportunity to write a paper about ancient mathematicians, I can see how math came to be such an erudite subject – they meant it to! They were very into the special, secret abiltities of mathematics then – but now, that’s just bad for our nation.

I’m wondering about this because of the universality of problems by students in this area – almost everyone I meet and talk to, had problems in this subject and I recall how difficult it was for me then, yet how easy it is now.

As a student who used to consider myself bad at math, I wonder if the children are really ‘math-averse’ or, rather, ‘failure and confusion-averse’.

When I took a standardized test and realized I had a good score, that I really did know some math, my confidence and interest in it rose. When I understand the math, I really like it, and with the new confidence, when I don’t understand it I think it’s challenging but that I can eventually get it.

Before I used to think it was frustrating and I would never be able to get it, so why try? Looking back, I can see how my brain actually actively disengaged and I distanced myself from the problem.

So, I’m thinking, the students need to really have a good background in mult, div, fract and percents before they can do well in higher math, feel really comfortable with it. So, so many don’t and it ruins math for them.

I’m really worried about the person who said the students move on too fast, because I believe her and I think it’s highly detrimental. Somehow, the students need to get the extra practice, maybe for homework, some incentive if they do extra work (remedial and/or challenger) and turn it in, come in early or stay after school, but it has to be done so that they can understand the material.
I’m thinking that the TED.com lecture about using points like in gaming might be a good idea to try.

I run into a problem of “sustained focus” with some kids in my math clubs. Dan wrote about “math averse” students not even wanting to engage with media in the first place – not finding these choice tidbits interesting /?p=4024

My kids usually do find the introductory cool media, hands-on activities, jokes and explorations interesting. We do math at the level of mild engagement, and then… some aren’t willing to go any deeper than that. Actually, quite a few.

We all filter media all the time, only pursuing a few of the paths beyond the initial interest sufficient to lightly check them out. How do we support kids who similarly want to filter math content we offer?!

The general point that it’s advantageous to interact with applications in the real world: You won’t get any argument from me there.