maths homework

[surveyor]

Yes easy. But I'd multiplier the rate...

[Einion Yrth]

surveyor said:

Yes easy. But I'd multiplier the rate...

Both methods are equivalent. Why care?

[Einion Yrth]

Jimmyarm said:

he starts off with 30 inches of wood.

Popular with the girls, I imagine.

[can't remember]

The questions in the OP have obviously been set as maths problems and someone has come along and said 'Make it relevant to life.', at which point the mathematician has panicked and come up with the most tortuously unnatural questions ever put to paper. That said I have to admire the correct use of mass and kilos.

The second question about overtime will teach kids an important life lesson i.e. that Asian guy in the top right hand corner is prepared to work seven days a week and that's why ten years from now you will be working for him.

[Einion Yrth]

[Vaud]

rover 623gsi said:

Homework is a complete and utter waste of time for teachers, pupils and parents. The sooner it is consigned to history the better for everyone.

Too much homework is bad. But the right kind & amount of homework is important.

[sidicks]

rover 623gsi said:

Homework is a complete and utter waste of time for teachers, pupils and parents. The sooner it is consigned to history the better for everyone.

Let me guess, you didn't do too well at school?

Homework is essential to practice the techniques that you've been taught during the day and how to work things out for yourself (plus to get used to having to do 'work' in your free time)!

Edited by sidicks on Wednesday 7th December 20:32

[sidicks]

Vaud said:

Too much homework is bad. But the right kind & amount of homework is important.

[QuickQuack]

krisdelta said:

bigandclever said:

MitchT said:

Why aren't schools teaching kids about things that are actually useful, like how to run a household budget, how pensions work, how mortgages work, how personal loans work, instead of crap like this that you'd never use in real life?

I agree, we're in danger of producing chartered surveyors who can't do basic, primary school maths

This is teaching methods of tackling "stuff", not direct "things you need to know". It's a foundation skill to be able to divide / multiply / add / subtract to be able to manage a budget / understand a mortgage in the future.

It's exactly as krisdelta said; these are the principles of being able to understand simple mathematical functions and fractions. If you can't understand or work fractions out, you wouldn't be able to understand much about mortgages or loans other than the monthly repayment figure. Being able to understand pensions, and I mean properly understand, not just the usual horse manure people come up with, demands a decent understanding of maths, which cannot be taught without the elementary level of maths in these questions. You can't go from learning how to add 2 and 2 together to understanding pensions, mortgages or personal loans without the intermediary steps.

[ooid]

rover 623gsi said:

Homework is a complete and utter waste of time for teachers, pupils and parents. The sooner it is consigned to history the better for everyone.

With that logic, no great musician, painter or even athlete would ever exist today! homework = Exercise. To understand and apply specific skill/knowledge to a certain condition, we have to first exercise the situation. A decent homework/exercise is great for this, what makes human different than any other animal. We can formulate actions or better, we can design robots or software to proceed repetitive actions

To OP's question, it would be better if you can visualize the maths problems to your kids. (Visualise meaning, draw diagrams or use even geometry. At first, this might take a while but later it would be much more better than memorizing some shortcuts.)

I do use maths everyday on my work and teach in higher education, so not claiming to be an expert but probably not an amateur