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Making Science and Math Kid Friendly?
mtspim asks: "I work for a non-profit organization that creates interactive math and science curriculum materials for kids and their instructors. Even though we have seen kids learn difficult topic more easily by using a computational approach to learning, most instructors are reluctant to introduce these new ways of thinking into their curriculum. What do Slashdot users think are the best ways to help revitalize math and science programs in our schools, or should we stick to the old conventional methods to learning?"
The one thing i asked of all my teachers, even into high school. Sock puppets.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Leave our kids alone. We can fill our universities with foreign students, and get top-level math/science done that way. It's cheaper to pay for 1 foreign genius than to train 100,000 american kids and get 1 genius that way.
Sock Puppet 1: "Hello there, Mr. Function. How are you doing today?"
Sock Puppet 2: "Not so good... I'm kind of scared."
1: "Why is that?"
2: "Well, I've heard that there's a derive operator running around here somewhere."
1: "Oh, is that so?"
2: "Yes, and I'm just a constant function, if anyone derives me, I'm zero!"
1: "Ha! But I don't have to worry about that!"
2: "Why not?"
1: "I'm the exponential function e^x. You can derive me all you want, it doesn't hurt me at all!"
Sock Puppet 3: "Hello there. I'm the partial derivative with respect to y!"
You are downloading some torren and you have leeched 764 megabytes and seeded 432.
How many megabytes before it's even?
What are your leech/seed ratio?
So, what's needed is a way to make simple homework problems interesting, so that the student sticks with it.
_ ____________________
Replace "interesting" with "relevent to the kids life", and you get the following:
City of Los Angeles
High School Math Proficiency Exam
Name:__________________________
Gang:_____
1. Johnny has an AK-47 with an 80-round clip. If he misses 6 out of 10 shots and shoots 13 times at each drive-by shooting, how many drive-by shootings can he attempt before he has to reload?
2. Jose has 2 ounces of cocaine and he sells an 8-ball to Jackson for $320 and 2 grams to Billy for $85 per gram. What is the street value of the balance of the cocaine if he doesn't cut it?
3. Rufus is pimping for three girls. If the price is $65 for each trick, how many tricks will each girl have to turn so Rufus can pay for his $800-per-day crack habit?
4. Jarone want to cut his 1/2 pound of heroin to make 20% more profit. How many ounces of cut will he need?
5. Willie gets $200 for stealing a BMW, $50 for a Chevy, and $100 for a 4X4. If he has stolen 2 BMWs, 3 4X4s, how many Chevies will he have to steal to make $800?
6. Raoul is in prison for 6 years for murder. He got $10,000 for the hit. If his common law wife is spending $100 per month, how much money will be left when he gets out of prison and how many years will he get for killing the bitch that spent his money?
7. If the average spray can covers 22 square feet and the average letter is 3 square feet, how many letters can a tagger spray with 3 cans of paint?
8. Hector knocked up 6 girls in his gang. There are 27 girls in the gang. What percentage of the girls in the gang has Hector knocked up?
9. Thelma can cook dinner for her 16 children for $7.50 per night. She gets $234 a month welfare for each child. If her $325 per month rent goes up 15%, how many more children should she have to keep up with her expenses?
10. Salvador was arrested for dealing crack and his bail was set at $25,000. If he pays a bail bondsman 12% and returns to Mexico, how much money will he lose by jumping bail?
Talk about buzz kill.
Those that _want_ to learn science and math.
Screw the rest - they can go into management.