Comments on: WTF Math Problems /2015/wtf-math-problems/ less helpful Mon, 25 Jan 2016 04:43:12 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 By: Matt /2015/wtf-math-problems/#comment-2403632 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 15:04:49 +0000 /?p=22804#comment-2403632 I was just reading something from Dan Willingham that reminded me of the WTF problems.
http://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/summer-2004/ask-cognitive-scientist
He points out that four elements of stories (Causality, Conflict, Complications, and Character) increase people’s ability to remember and learn (and elsewhere, he links retention to engagement).

I wonder if the WTF problems are the math class’s version of a story: there is conflict between assumptions and surprises, and of course, there is causality.

]]> By: Dan Meyer /2015/wtf-math-problems/#comment-2401870 Sun, 01 Feb 2015 17:54:56 +0000 /?p=22804#comment-2401870 @Ingólfur, Love Watson. Love Mason. Love Swan. Holy triumverate of UK math(s) education. I’d never read that article, though. Thanks for linking it along.

]]> By: Ingólfur Gíslason /2015/wtf-math-problems/#comment-2401856 Sun, 01 Feb 2015 10:55:22 +0000 /?p=22804#comment-2401856 People like Anne Watson, John Mason and Malcolm Swan (and perhaps more) from England have written about these kind of problems. For example: Watson, A., & Mason, J. (2007). Surprise and Inspiration. Mathematics Teaching Incorporating Micromath, 200, 4-5. http://www.atm.org.uk/write/MediaUploads/Journals/MT200/Non-Member/ATM-MT200-04-05.pdf

]]> By: Dan Meyer /2015/wtf-math-problems/#comment-2401276 Wed, 28 Jan 2015 14:26:22 +0000 /?p=22804#comment-2401276 @Julia, your comment may simplify the matter conceptually but, practically, it’s very hard to baffle students productively. Much easier to baffle them destructively.

]]> By: Julia /2015/wtf-math-problems/#comment-2401038 Tue, 27 Jan 2015 07:32:41 +0000 /?p=22804#comment-2401038 Isn’t this just the ol “see the point of the mathematics you’re about to develop”? That necessity could come from a problem students cannot yet solve, or a pattern students are baffled by. Both have driven mathematics forward, historically. Both have their place in mathematics teaching and learning.

]]> By: paul bogdan /2015/wtf-math-problems/#comment-2400423 Wed, 21 Jan 2015 15:40:03 +0000 /?p=22804#comment-2400423 Great activity. I suggest using the yarn (I use thread) to make a diameter. Then, ask the students how many diameters they think it takes to make a circumference. The answer (of course) is three and a ‘little bit’. The ‘little bit’ is the point one four part of pi.

]]> By: Stacie /2015/wtf-math-problems/#comment-2400375 Wed, 21 Jan 2015 03:29:08 +0000 /?p=22804#comment-2400375 My favorite aha moment for my students involved a compass, a ruler, string, and a trip to the computer lab. We started by constructing a circle, then marking off the arcs around the circle keeping the compass the same distance open. It didn’t quite make it around 6 times -there was a gap. We took a piece of yarn and laid it on the circle. We measured the radius, then counted how many radii there were when measuring the string. Again just over 6.

Then we went to the lab and constructed the circle there and measured the arc length of a semi circle divided by the radius. Guess what number we arrived at. Suddenly a few students eyes lit up. They were told what pi was and memorized it to a dozen or more decimal places but had never contemplated where it had come from or those who had struggled with the fact that it wasn’t a nice neat number contemplated getting more and more precise of a measurement. I dug out the old activity and posted it here http://systry.com/how-far-is-it-around-that-circle/. There is nothing like the thrill of discovery.

]]> By: MrSteve /2015/wtf-math-problems/#comment-2400107 Sun, 18 Jan 2015 05:51:03 +0000 /?p=22804#comment-2400107 Alan Kay described a WTF problem where kindergardners pick a shape they like — like a diamond, or a square, or a triangle, or a trapezoid — and then they try and make the next larger shape of that same shape, and the next larger shape. They then recorded how many shapes it took and how many they needed to add at each stage to get to the next size shape. The two progressions are a first-order discrete differential equation and a second-order discrete differential equation, derived by six-year-olds!!!

You can see a video of him explaining this here: http://www.ted.com/talks/alan_kay_shares_a_powerful_idea_about_ideas?language=en

If you go to 9:30 in the video you will see the explanation.

Cheers,
Stephen

]]> By: Clara Maxcy /2015/wtf-math-problems/#comment-2399768 Wed, 14 Jan 2015 10:25:55 +0000 /?p=22804#comment-2399768 I noticed that Michael P and I were lumped together with regard to how often one should use WTF problems, but I demur. I love WTF because for me, math is all about these incredible circular realizations. I try to evoke this wonderment every time we explore an idea. This week we are looking for holes – those marvelous places that “x” cannot be, and yet there is the “zero”, the “root”. And they are the same thing! How can that be? Why does the graph suddenly run from itself, Change course and leap the other way? These lessons create lovely questions, exclamations, conversations, and, yes, a little learning! Do not ration such a thing as keeps us learning! (My earlier response to Michael was actually a reason to use these marvelous creatures, so that children would come in “expectant”, and ready to learn something new….like us, when we read your and other blogs!

]]> By: Rebecca /2015/wtf-math-problems/#comment-2399717 Tue, 13 Jan 2015 21:26:07 +0000 /?p=22804#comment-2399717 Reminds me of Confuse-A-Cat. (Credit: Monty Python)

http://youtu.be/B2Je1CEPkUM

“Mrs B: It’s our cat. He doesn’t do anything. He just sits out there on the lawn.
Vet: Is he … dead?
Mr A: Oh, no!
Vet: (to camera dramatically) Thank God for that. For one ghastly moment I thought I was… too late. If only more people would call in the nick of time.
Mrs B: He just sits there, all day and every day. Almost motionless. We have to take his food out to him. He doesn’t do anything. He just sits there.
Vet: Are you at your wits’ end?
Mrs B: Definitely, yes. […]
Vet: Now, what’s to be done? Tell me sir, have you confused your cat recently?”

Anyway, I like your theory. Is your WTF hypothesis testable?

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