Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The Ultimate Bad Homework Question Thread!

What is BEYOND ironic is that on some level, there is some understanding of this concept.

For example:

to be a math tutor at DD's school (meaning, you help students with math in CC course 3 through geometry, live, via a virtual meeting with a whiteboard, mic, etc.) you MUST:

a) be an ace student-- THROUGH algebra II. Minimum.

b) be handpicked by your teacher and approved by the teacher that runs the national tutoring program (and she definitely has her favorites).

The bottom line is that these are kids that know this material COLD-- and well beyond it, in fact. Not only that, but most of them can LEARN new material very, very rapidly and thoroughly-- so that anything quirky, they can figure out in a hurry if a student asks.

Why doesn't tutoring run through calculus, Hmmm? Some of these kids who are tutors are well into that level (or beyond it).


So they DO know. It's because of the effect that Val describes.

Reviewing a test with DD8 last night, we found a word problem describing a rectangular field 8 meters by 9 meters, calculate the area and perimeter. It was multiple choice, and two of the answers were:

B - Area 72 meters, Perimeter 34 square meters
C - Area 72 square meters, perimeter 34 meters.

DD incorrectly chose B, because they're apparently telling the children to memorize that square units apply to area, without bothering to explain WHY. I gave her a 5-minute intro to exponents, and she gathered why the terms "squared" and "cubed" apply to the second and third powers two minutes in.

So, my outrage over area and perimeter continue. Last year when DD was in 2nd grade, I was outraged because they were teaching how to calculate area before they'd introduced multiplication. Now it's because they're focusing on proper unit terms before they've introduced exponents. This is why I don't remember covering area and perimeter until I got to Geometry in 9th grade... because back in the olden times they had this silly idea that it was necessary to understand the underlying concepts first.

/vent

For this question, we need to know the definition of an aneroid barometer in DS's textbook. It is, "Aneroid Barometer: Aneroid means without liquid. An instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure; based on the movement of the lid of a metal box."

Q. An aneroid barometer is an instrument used to measure ___?

a. Atmospheric pressure
b. Liquid Pressure
c. (Something else.)

The correct answer was b.

Augh. That's bad.

Here's what I am sure is a prize winning entry:-

George has a bag of marbles. There are 9 red marbles, 4 blue marbles and 5 black marbles in the bag. What is the likelihood that George will pick a red marble out of the bag?

a) Impossible
b) Certain
c) Least likely
d) Most likely

Here's the second part of the question. There are x holes of diameter d in the bottom of the bag. Three of the marbles have diameter = d. It is Tuesday. What is the probability that a red marble is drawn now?

The answer choices are 1 to 5 on a Lickert scale, with 1 being "strongly probable" and 5 "strongly improbable".

The marble question seems clear to me. Most Likely. If Equally Likely was also an option, then it would be a mess.

But it's not most likely. It's equally likely.

The reading that excludes equally likely as an option is that red's probability is being compared to blue's probability and to black's probability. Which appears to be consistent with how likelihood is presented in elementary math classes.

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Gosh, I just really get hung up on these, because it just always seemed to be asking someone to explain something SOOOO obvious, it would be almost as bad as asking a child to spell a word by sounding it out...and then asking them how they knew to use those letters. Aaarg.