>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 ofrounding
>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 hardly 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.