Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Simultaneous Equations

Hi There,
anyone got a link to a youtube clip (or similar) that demonstrates solving simultaneous equations in a super fun and practical way.
There's heaps of them on the world wide web but they are so boring and impractical for an 8 yr old.
Thanks in advance

Boring and impractical? How, out of curiosity? It's algebra... it's all fun and practical. It's hard to know what you're looking for, though these may help.

I love algebra too--> by boring I meant the presenters on the videos were incredibly monotone and dry and by impractical I meant it would be nice the simutaneous equations being solved in the clip were linked to a practical problem of interest to an 8 yr old girl (I found some about driving and banking and not very 8yr old friendly topics)

Thanks for your links.

But if she isn't spontaneously interested in simultaneous equations, why introduce them to an 8yo? My DS was hooked by the idea of finding out where straight line graphs intersect, but if that doesn't do it for her, I opine that it's a sign that it would be better to leave it for now, rather than find some artificial "real world" example as motivation.

I think driving and banking are actually fine problem topics for an eight year old who's studying algebra. That sort of material comes with the territory, and a student needs to be able to do such problems if any sort of traditional mastery testing is performed.

On the other hand, I think it might actually help if these sorts of abstract concepts are presented without a concrete word-problem context early on. They're really pretty simple. I don't know what child interested in and ready for algebra wouldn't grasp at least the substitution method quickly with a clear and simple example, since the substitution principle is so basic to algebra in general. My son loved learning how to deal with systems of equations, even without dancing bears , because he found the techniques interesting and very practical for solving the equations.