patrick.net

FP says

2. There is empirical evidence showing that CPM is inferior to the "traditional" approach.

Could you share some of your best sources for this please ?

I get it that People that came up with traditional find it annoying. I did too. And still do with parts of it.

So what is it you think they are trying to accomplish with it ?

@FP

You made me go down the Rabbit Hole... lots of Russian Math Classics here

http://www.cbspd.com/website/index.php/sciences/mathematics-and-statistics.html

marcus says

FP says

It is points 10. and (to a leaser extend) 9. where you want the students confused, stuck for long time thinking and discovering. Not at points 1, 2, 3,..

True. But it was in an Algebra one class. Many don't even see the simplest right triangle trig until geometry. So is it so wrong to be exploring ? They will see more in trigonometry geometry, Algebra 2 and Precalc or trig.

What I was talking about in a paragraph above was graphing something like sin(3x + pi). Intentionally no altered amplitude or vertical shift.

Method one: it's sin(3(x+pi/3)) so the period is 2pi/3, and the horizontal shift is pi/3 to the left.

Method two: solve 3x + pi = 0, and 3x + pi = 2pi to get a starting point and end point for one full sin wave and graph the rest from there. Fool proof. Both methods assume an understanding of the function sin(x) .

Graduate in the US with a STEM degree as a US citizen, and the most likely outcome is that your application to STEM-related jobs that you actually want will be ignored. A few years later, even if industry does start hiring again, they'll write you off because you weren't able to find a job sooner.

Its a real vicious cycle. Lots of great US citizen talent is destroyed this way.

marcus says

I could not delete this comment. Invalid nonce.

Thanks for telling me. Will look into it.

From my experience as a teacher, the biggest threat to education in the sciences is the removal of all desktops in the science lab and replacing them with chromebooks.

marcus says

Could you share some of your best sources for this please ?

Here - in no particular order and apologies is some of the links are not working any more; it has been awhile since I was reading them
(I have more sources, but they are scattered over emails that I've exchanged):

http://bonniewren.com/2005/cpm-math-vs-traditional-math.htm/comment-page-1
http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/study1.htm
http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth00m/riley.html
https://patch.com/connecticut/fairfield/letter-data-shows-pilot-math-program-is-detrimental-t551c25d6ec
http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/polycmp.htm
http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/cpmwb.htm
http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/programs.htm
http://fairfieldmathadvocates.com/one-size-does-not-fit-all/
https://medium.com/@TP.Political/cpm-math-controversial-in-westerville-oh-9f8eb975cc40

Lashkar_i_Trumpi says

You made me go down the Rabbit Hole... lots of Russian Math Classics here

http://www.cbspd.com/website/index.php/sciences/mathematics-and-statistics.html

@Lashkar_i_Trumpi,

Thanks. I didn't know this site. Looks good. Only wished they were showing the contents + a few sample pages.

I you read Russian, check this out:
http://www.mccme.ru/

StrictReason says

Are we really that bad in Math? If so, how come we are doing so well in International Mathematics Olympiad?

International Math Olympiads have very little to do with math education in general. Believe me, I have been there.

It is all about training a few motivated students. A large part of this training is classifying the type of problems that appear at the competitions and learning/memorizing approaches to solve them.

We can save STEM. We just need more videos like this:

www.youtube.com/embed/46h-LfNWPn8

www.youtube.com/embed/Wllc5gSc-N8

If you don't like having bisexual orgies, you are backwards barbarian.

^^ I'd really like to see the conversation wherein a producer agreed to this idiocy.

I couldn't imagine a better parody of the insanity within today's regressive left.

I've always felt our culture works against us. Math & science are strongly associated with being a nerd, which has negative connotations tied to it. Some people have enough self confidence to be proud & exclaim that they're a nerd, but most people feel it's a label they don't want attached to themselves, and so they avoid any behaviors that might lead to someone calling them one - and that means avoiding math, science, and sometimes just plain using your head.

How many times have you heard someone on TV disclaim themselves before doing a tiny bit of math? Like: "Hang tight folks, we're gonna get a little nerdy for a moment - $4 a day times 5 days a week times 52 weeks per year times 10 years = $10,400".

It's sad that someone ballpark-estimating how much they spend on Starbucks feels the need to disclaim themselves before they do some extremely basic math. Children pick up on these cues, and it affects them.

CBOEtrader says

^^ I'd really like to see the conversation wherein a producer agreed to this idiocy.

I couldn't imagine a better parody of the insanity within today's regressive left.

The thing is 90% of the people cringe, including liberals. So it's self correcting. We're not going to follow Canada's bill c-16.

goat says

I've always felt our culture works against us. Math & science are strongly associated with being a nerd

You have a point. But in public schools with enough academic diversity, that is with a high enough population of academically strong college bound students, many of the most respected cool kids are nerds. So you don't have that phenomenon.

But in low income and "inner city" areas, where too many kids are behind grade level, and long since not buying in to education as the best way out of poverty (parents not buying it either - in part because they are uneducated and think it's harder than it is (psychologically more complicated than that)), they don't have a critical mass of higher performing kids setting an example for the others.