MetaFilter posts tagged with school

Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth

davar — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:02:27 -0800

Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth. How children learn (or: don't learn) math today. The video explains the new ways children are taught division and multiplication and what is wrong with new new math (not to be confused with the new math that was taught in the sixties) or whole math. From the textbook in the video:The authors of Everyday Mathematics do not believe it is worth students’ time and effort to fully develop highly efficient paper-and-pencil algorithms for all possible whole-number, fraction, and decimal division problems. Mastery of the intricacies of such algorithms is a huge endeavor, one that experience tells us is doomed to failure for many students. It is simply counter-productive to invest many hours of precious class time on such algorithms. The mathematical payoff is not worth the cost, particularly because quotients can be found quickly and accurately with a calculator.

"We're not supposed to get more than one injury a day. I usually get three or four."

fantabulous timewaster — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:28:12 -0800

The Tinkering School. "A 'real project' is where you make a thing that isn't a pretend something else. If the kids want to make a boat, that's fine, but we're going to take it down to the harbor and put it in the ocean." [via NPR, no transcript yet] Compare (previously) and contrast.

Better to limbo under a stick than become one...

OhPuhLeez — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:36:43 -0800

See Nemo fetch. Want to train your comet to join the Comets? Your Shubunkin to do some dunkin'?

Goldfish training.

A school of fish or a school for fish? You be the judge.

Why Learn Algebra? I'm Never Likely to Go There.

jabberjaw — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:27:39 -0800

EducationFilter: California becomes the first state to mandate all 8th graders take Algebra; in part because U.S. students constantly trail their peers from other nations in mathematics. At least one person thinks it's a bad idea ("If only 25 percent of this nation ever earns a college degree, why insist that all children take algebra in eighth grade?"). Here's the algebra curriculum 8th graders will have to learn. Here's a more in-depth story on it from the L.A. Times. This post's title is a paraphrased quote from comedian Billy Connolly: "I don't know why I should have to learn Algebra. I'm never likely to go there."

Blue Collar Babies

swift — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:59:28 -0800

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town.

He keeps Bopping his Boppo!

Del Far — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:08:30 -0800

In 1961 Albert Bandura published a study titled "Transmission of Aggression through Imitation of Aggresive Models," better known as the Bobo Doll Experiment, in which young children were shown video of a woman beating up on an inflatable Bobo doll in various ways, the video of the woman and the results is quite interesting/shocking and sums up the general experiment quite nicely if you don't want to do too much reading.

Smoke and mirrors

MrMerlot — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:03:47 -0800

Meet Joules the climate change-sceptic robot. Joules is employed to teach 8-14 year-old school children in the UK about energy use. Joules says: "oil and gas could be in short supply in about 50 years time. The earth is believed to be getting warmer and sea levels apper to be rising. Energy Chest is funded in part by the world's biggest oil company: ExxonMobil. Energy Chest follows a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, entitled “Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air” [PDF] which demonstrated how the "oil giant has adopted the tobacco industry’s disinformation tactics", (as well as some of their personnel), to "cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue". While in the UK, the Royal Society has complained about ExxonMobil campaign to fund groups that attempt to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change. Not that the kids are being told all that when they stumble across Joules or - worse - are being shown him by their teacher.

We are weird. And somewhat echoey.

divabat — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:01:21 -0800

KnowHow2Go wants you to take on the tough classes - such as Biology, Foreign Languages, and Algebra II - to prepare yourself for college.

3 to 10 classroom hours

Artw — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:09:59 -0800

16% of US science teachers believe human beings have been created by God within the last 10,000 years. 25% of science teachers spend some time teaching about creationism or intelligent design. 12.5% teach it as a "valid, scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations for the origin of species". 2% say they do not cover evolution at all. Teachers who have taken more science courses themselves devote more time to evolution - "This may be because better-prepared teachers are more confident in dealing with students' questions about a sensitive subject."

The Kids are Alright

not_on_display — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:07:36 -0800

Are you sick and tired of telling those darn kids to "get off your lawn" because their "favorite band sucks?" Next time, instead of handing out snark, hand them a brochure for the Paul Green School of Rock Music! Before you know it, you'll be wishing that you had a bigger lawn. Since Paul Green founded the school in Philadelphia in 1998, kids ages 7 to 17 in cities all over the USA have been invited to live out their ~~parents'~~ dreams: to be in a rock band. Paul Green's story has spawned a documentary (which explores the bi-polar nature of his teaching style), and has inspired a popular movie (directed by Richard Linklater and starring Jack Black). The curriculum draws from a variety of rock styles, from the ubiquitous Led Zeppelin to the Damned, Captain and Tenielle to Devo, System of a Down to Nena, RATM to P-Funk. I've selected the following examples from the massive amount of footage available on YouTube to illustrate the variety of styles taught and performed, the different levels of talent, and the overall spirit of the whole she'bop. (Plus, seeing kids sing inappropriate lyrics they may not fully understand is a kick, too.) This is the summer camp I only wish my parents could have sent me to. Led Zeppelin - Travelling Riverside Blues (My favorite clip) Parliament/Funkadelic - Maggot Brain (My second favorite clip. The rest are in no particular order.) The Vapors - Turning Japanese House of Pain - Jump Around Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party Soft Cell - Tainted Love Black Sabbath - National Acrobat B-52's - Rock Lobster Prince - Let's Go Crazy Rage Against the Machine - Killing In The Name Of Frank Zappa - Keep it Greasy Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side Slayer - Reign in Blood David Bowie - Moonage Daydream Van Halen - Hot for Teacher Average White Band - Cut the Cake Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant Chris Isaak - Wicked Game AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap King Diamond - A Mansion in Darkness Devo - Whip It | Sloppy (not to be confused with Devo 2.0) Parliament/Funkadelic - Tear the Roof Off Nena - 99 Red Balloons Eagles - Hotel California System of a Down - Aerials Herbie Hancock - Chameleon The Damned - New Rose King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King The Captain and Tenielle - Love Will Keep Us Together The Knack - My Sharona Steely Dan - FM