The night classes on our main campus are taught 2 nights a week and on a
satelite campus are taught 1 night a week. There seems to be little or no
statistical difference in student success rates of students in the two
formats. We have informally polled students in the 1-night a week classes.
Most of them think it is a hard way to take math, but overwhelmingly would
choose the 1-night a week format again because they deal with traffic,
parking, rushed dinner and baby sitter only once.
Martha
>Last month I re-read the NCTM standards. I am thoroughly convinced that
>estimation is something that very few students know anything about. We used
>to do an estimation lab in our beginning math class. I believe that
>students should make good use of calculators but must be able to interpret
>results.
>
>At the Science Olympiad held each March at Terra, students are asked to
>estimate volumes, areas, lengths, temperatures, etc. of certain objects.
>The first step is to go to one room and estimate then go into another room
>with the same objects and actually compute the necessay information (a
>calculator is allowed here). It is amazing how far off these junior and
>senior high school students are!
>
>Switching gears ****************************
>I am also concerned about how students will perform in distance learning
>courses. I have developed a course on video which is a "self-help" course
>for the TI-85. Students have the videos, a video guide book, and a text
>book, and work at their own pace. This seems to work (however, some
>students lack the motivation to finish the course during a normal quarter).
>I am wondering how students can take an intermediate algebra course or a
>precalc course through distance learning and really get as much out of it as
>they would in a regular classroom where group work is done.
>
>At Terra we have begun Sunday evening courses. I believe that one night a
>week courses for mathematics would be quite difficult. For the spring
>quarter, since Easter and Memorial Day cause the school to close two
>weekends, the time frame for each five hour class must be extended on Sunday
>evenings to account for the lost of that time. (Essentially, one hour of
>class time must be added each week to make up for the lost days.) I voted
>for no math classes on a single day. What experiences do you have with that
>idea? Do you believe it to be educationally sound? I would appreciate your
>input!
>\
>Nancy J. Sattler
>nsattler@terra.cc.oh.us
>Terra Community College
>Fremont, OH 43420
>
>
>At 06:21 PM 1/23/97 -0500, you wrote:
>>In a message dated 1/23/97 4:34:24 PM, ssmith@ADMIN1.AUGUSTA.TEC.GA.US
>>(Sharon Smith) wrote:
>>
>>>Somehow I feel out in left field. I just graded an exam on decimals for an
>>>arithmetic course used in our diploma programs. Is the concept of rounding
>>>important? Should a student know how to do that? Should they know how much
>>>money the company would save on 500 of something if the price drops by so
>>>much? My students have calculators and have grown up with calculators, but
>>>still struggle with these problems. I can hardl wait till we get to
>>>applications with fractions! The calculator can do the calculations, but
>>>unless students have an idea of what is going on they are still in trouble
>>>even if dealing with real data. For many of my students their world is so
>>>small they don't even have a bank account and many feel numbers have no
>>>place in their real world - even when they are faced with real world
>>situations.
>>
>>I teach 7th grade math and part of the 7th grade curriculum requires them to
>>know how to round from millions to millionths and I think it IS important for
>>kids to know how to round. Some kids come to me not even understanding that
>>if you have $23.6758 and need to round it to the nearest cent (hundredth)
>>that it would be $23.68. Some also do not know how to estimate answers which
>>I also feel is very important. I think people use estimation pretty much on
>>a daily basis and you need to know how to round to estimate.
>>As for calculators, I don't let them use them to do basic facts, such as 9 x
>>8 (but they do try!!! - ugghhhh!). After they have mastered certain things
>>(like multiplying decimals) I do let them use calculators to do multi-step
>>story problems but they have to show me how they set the problem up. I use
>>calculators more with my talent developement classes than the others.
>>