Thursday, November 30, 2006

Pick Any Number

- Choose a number.
- Multiply your number by 3.
- Then add the sum of your number and 8 to the number you got when you multiplied.
- Now divide by the sum of your number and 2.

Was your final result 4?

Okay, if you hate math then you probably didn't participate. This is what we are talking about in Algebra II today - Dividing Polynomials. Sound fun? I think so!

5 comments:

Jenny said...

I'm sure if you had been my math teacher I would have had way more fun and probably would have learned more...way to go, Kelly!

Kelly Glupker said...

Thanks Jenny! Unfortunately most kids don't think math is fun. I don't know what their problem is! :) They think math is soooo much work.

Unknown said...

Woo-hoo! Way to promote the fun of math! When I taught math i was constantly looking for ways to make it exciting since so many of the kids had a math phobia or suffered from math boredom.

Chris said...

I don't remember this in Algebra II. I think it's a magic trick...or maybe I was sleeping.ZZZZ!

Jenny said...

I know my main problem was that I had an impatient teacher who only knew one way to explain things. I remember a speech class in college that a fellow student gave a speech on geometry and brought in a model of a cone, and it was as if a light had dawned. I didn't get what we were trying to find in all those months of trying to figure out those problems. I am sure if I had known what it was we were looking for it would have been so much better. I was convinced it was impractical (my teacher could never explain the "why" behind it - he always thought I was asking why I had to do my work, not trying to understand the workings of it) and because of that, waaaay too hard. Math was a REAL struggle for me...MANY KUDOS to all you brilliant math teachers out there who make math make sense to all us non-mathmatically minded!