Need for a Mixed Mathematics Curricula
School and college calculus and pre-calculus courses may develop as
easily and as much possible, the algebraic and logical reasoning skills
that the rigourous axiomatic derivation or codification that pure
mathematics requires, without insisting on nor striving for a full
logical codification. Ease of exposition should be the guide in course
design. Calculus and pre-calculus courses should not only prepare
students for possible studies in pure mathematics, but more importantly,
these courses should provide an empirical axiomatic framework and
sanction for a thought-based, operational command of calculus, trig,
Euclidean geometry and the calculations with units and coordinates that
appear in economics and technical trades or disciplines.
Mathematics education is a service industry which aims, we hope, to
develop confidence and comprehension of rules and patterns, steps and
methods, practices, with repeatable, reproducible and hence verifiable
results and conclusions.
Besides taking or developing the properties of real numbers as
axiomatic basis for algebra in senior high school mathematics, we
may assume rules and patterns (more axioms) to support and sanction the
role of the role of pure numbers and quantities in the applied
mathematics that arises from accounting, physics, chemistry and the use
of coordinate systems in single and multiple dimensions. The result
should be an education oriented codification and thought based derivation
not of pure mathematics, but of the applied mathematics needed for the
-
the manipulation of units of measurement in applied calculations;
-
the geometric role and use of real numbers and units as
coordinates.
-
the development of coordinate-free Euclidean Geometry
The rigorous, context free, diagram-free development of pure mathematics
is not for students learning trigonometry, complex numbers and calculus,
and meeting there-in application involving items 1, 2 and 3. Those
applications require some empirical, geometric or physical assumptions
about working with units, coordinates and geometry for the sake of
consistency and completeness not in pure mathematics, but providing a
framework for confidence and skill in basic applied mathematics.
Any full Euclidean style axiomatic codification and derivation of
pure mathematics from assumptions about real numbers or sets, and
optionally, some applied mathematics extension with units and coordinates
might be left to after a mixed mathematics mastery of mathematics
in and before calculus.
Further Reading: See the discussion in Volume 1B, Mathematics Curriculum Notes,
of barriers to comprehension and the failure in pure mathematics
currricula to sanction the use of decimals and coordinates needed
to geometrically introduce and develop analytic geometry, trigonometry
and calculus. It is not possible to have a consistent modern
mathematics curriculum which includes and introduces trig, analytic
geometry and calculus geometrically with the aid of coordinates and
diagrams. That inconsistency implies the need for a mixed mathematics
curriculum dedicated to providing an operational command of skills and
concepts, axioms included, as prequel to any modern axiomatic
development.
|
|
Teachers & Tutors: Site pages offer better or best practices for providing skills -
simpler than expected & comprehensive but for exercises. For your charges, your duty is to study them alone or in
groups and develop skill building exercises & activities to share. Start now. The effort here is the best I can do.
Others are welcome to refine or exceed it. Please do.
Secondary
Mathematics for Ages 11+, A Practical Approach for home-tutoring or -schooling, or for schools & colleges
with local curriculum control. Study how to include site content - its skill development how-TOs and innovations
into present or future lesson plans - some reading required.
Road
Safety Messages and Questions: When and why should you face
traffic when walking along a road or cycle path? Is it a good
idea to hang limbs outside of cars etc? What gives more
protection in a crash: a car, motorbike or bicycle?
See too, the BBC-Belgium story Texting and
Driving - texting & the impossible test - the article links to a gruesome utube video on the subject
The Logic of Injustice:
How Texas sent
an innocent man to his death - The wrong Carlos. Some judgments are irreversible. Procescution: Where and when prosectors play to win rather than for
justice, guilt beyond a reasonable doubt goes unrespected due to prosecutors who putting winning
first, those innocence before the law may be convicted. Some procescutors offices in continuing to accuse after a pardon
due to reasonable doubt or innocent being shown, may sucessfully oppose compensaton for false convictions
by asserting a pardon individual is still under suspicion. Then the pardoned individual or the latter's estate
is not compensation for years or decade
of improper or false imprisonment, or for execution. Site chapters on Logic
and some in Pattern
Based Reason may slowly lead to greater precision in reading, applying and
writing laws.
May 2012, Composition Starting:
Pre-School and Primary Mathematics - Quantitative Skills, An
Intellectual View, Feedback Welcome:
The 8 Most Popular Site Inlinks
Parent Center: Help your child or teen
learn:
Parent-friendly
Work Booklets for ages 3+ to 13 Use these or others to check
or build skills. Other booklets are available but these booklets
allow parents unsure of themselves in mathematics to help their
children. The selection acquired in Canada is published in the
USA. So it has a US orientation. In retrospect, the selection
shows parents what to check with the booklets or by other ways,
the choice is theirs. But in retrospect, the selection does not
cover integral and fractions liquid weights and measures - ask
the publishers to correct that! For ages 9 to 12 say, parents may
compensate by showing boys and girls how to use weights or mass,
and further measures in food preparation. Beyond that children
may be shown how to measure and calculate angles, lengths and
areas [proportional amounts too] directly or by using maps and
plans drawns to scale. Learning how to gather and measure all the
ingredients, pots and pans for a dish or a meal, along with
cleaning up sets the stage for like activities or experiments in
science courses, and in developing organizational skills,
gives boys and girls a head start. Good luck. At the other
extreme, more comprehensive than light, if your motto is
McCainian: drill, drill, drill then Toronto
mathematician and actor John Mighton's jump math organization has jump math
workbooks for at least grades 3 to 8 for at-home and in-school
use - training sessions for teachers available. Jump math has
been expanding to cover older students. Jump Math Samples: plus
Fractions for
Grades 3-4 & Grades 5-6 [Read] Free Resources grades 1 to 8
[unread - likely to be good]. and
Mathematics
Skills For Ages 3 to 14 - technical!
Skills with take
home value - A few ideas
Basic skills include
time-date-calendar Matters; money matters; map, plan and
scale diagram matters;counting, measuring and figuring;
decision making with logic and likelyhood; being careful and
being aware of the domino effect of mistakes; reading and
writing with precision.
Is your child able to add, subtract and multiply amounts
of money, work with fractions, work with clocks and calendars,
work with maps and plans, and measure length, weight-mass and
volume? Schools may promote your son or daughter without
providing basic skills in reading, writing and
arithmetic.
Arithmetic
and Number Theory Skills
Algebra
Starter Lessons
Geometry
- maps plans trigonometry vectors
More
Algebra
70
Calculus Starter Lessons
Calculus Lessons Elsewhere:
-
How to Ace Calculus: Street Wise Guide - Mostly
Text.
-
Flash
Video for Calculus Phobics
They cover basic topics in ways likely to complement your
notes, your textbooks and site material. When Goldilocks
trespassed in the house of the three bears, she found three bowls
of porridge, two not to her liking, and one just right. Different
bears have different tastes. As invited guest here and elsewhere,
if one or more explanations is not to liking, try another. It may
be better or just right.
Unsolicited Advice
Learning to do and high marks if it comes to easy is often
deceptive - light rather than deep. For that reason, students
with learning difficulties determined not to let it get in their
way may go deeper and farther than those with none. High marks,
if the come easy, may be deceptive - provide a too light and not
a deep mastery. That could have been your problem in secondary
school, one that leads to comprehension shock or difficulties in
calculus and more generally in the first year of college. Bon
Appetite.
|
|