Having said this, it seems to me that the criteria for being realistic falls in line with cognitively demanding tasks (something that I am a big fan of). I wonder if a lot of what we would deem as worthwhile mathematical tasks is encompassed by the criteria of cognitively demanding tasks. In my experience, such tasks are at least engaging from a problematic standpoint and they allow students to argue, discuss, and create a number of different solutions.

I stumbled upon what I think is a great idea for my remedial math class. In a nutshell, I need my walls painted and wanted to tie it into class. I realized that, I think, I can teach most, if not all, of the linear portion of the algebra curriculum through this, all while making it “real”.

Anyway, I’m going to try to document it at http://benjaminclaymorris.blogspot.com/.

As soon as I started blogging in 2012, the rug got pulled out from under me. I want to be able to chronicle this, however. I think there is a TON of potential here. I’d love for some of y’all to give some constructive criticism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teRMsxMLVkY

They inquire into why the boys are so into Comic-con and comic books. So they sit down and peruse some. At first they see no use for the books, until one makes a statement, and someone contradicts it. From there they are pulled in, and a humorous discussion ensues.

I like seeing my students productively create arguments especially when it comes to “realistic” concepts comparing unit rates, percentages and discounts, the use of tax or interest.

The challenge, as stated above is to find things that draw the kids in (even if they don’t realize it at first), and to question.

Probably this got commented on when you first posted it, but the chart mainly seems to reinforce students don’t need Algebra II (unless they want to be math teachers!)

Problem (roughly translated):
You have a flat piece of metal 24 cm x 6 cm and would like to cut a 1 dl measuring cup from this. You will cut the sides and the bottom (there is a picture showing the basic ideas of a circle next to a rectangle and an image of an aluminum measuring cup).

Is it possible to do this? Support your conclusion with calculations and reasoning.

As a chemist, I think the chemistry exercise might be a good one. You could look up physical and chemical properties. Boring? Perhaps, but no more or less meaningful than the mathematics question to the non-expert in each field.

Exactly my point. Only I’m trying to keep the lingo consistent here so instead of “meaningful” I’m going to swap in “realistic” or “real in your mind.”

If I knew my periodic table any better (or at all) I’d probably be able to make an argument about those four elements. Because they’d be real in my mind.

Mike Caulfield:

The real question is given this is what you have to do, how do you make it a meaningful experience for the students *now*; real-world is one way into that, but there are many others.

Right. Charts like this will do very little for a kid having a meaningless time in math now. (I mean, what kind of value proposition is that? “Do this stuff you hate for 16 years and we’ll reward you later with a job.” Yikes.)

This is a really poorly formed thought, but I do wonder if “developing good and pleasurable habits of mind” might be a better frame than “real-world”.

How sad and small that seemed, compared to the year of my 14 year-old life she wanted to take away with nightly exercises. I promptly failed the class.

Why we teach students math and why students might want to learn math are two separate questions, but neither is answered by our weird fixation on cabinet building as a potential future. Broadly, the social reason why certain types of math exist in high school tends to be that by the time a student finds out what types of math will be relevant to what they want to do in life (e.g. engineer or reporter? etc) it’s really too late to backfill more advanced mathematics. So kids learn calculus in high school (as opposed to, say, discourse linguistics) so that options can be kept open until they are old enough to decide.

The real question is given this is what you have to do, how do you make it a meaningful experience for the students *now*; real-world is one way into that, but there are many others.