Thursday, October 22, 2009

Long division from a boy's perspective

Maestro came up with a new, and very interesting, way of solving his long division today. It's a method which does work, and rings of overtones from "Speed Maths".
He just donned his 'Sherlock Holmes' hat.

It can be tricky rewording a child's logic, so please bear with me here.

Okay, the topic we're studying is volume. He's given the cubic measure and one surface area of a prism. He's asked to find the height. So, this is really algebra.

If the volume is 165cm³ and the area of the base is 55cm², find the height.

Ie: 165 ÷ 55 =

The '5' in 55 has to be multiplied by something that will give an answer that has 5 in the units column.

He sets it out as a detective case. He has to find 165 using the clue 55.

Photos taken by Maestro.



He suspects it could be 3 or 5. So then he multiplies the first 'suspect' number with 55.

55 x 3 = 165.

Ah ha!! So, 3 is the culprit!!

(Yes, the story-telling did make this maths lesson a bit longer, but he enjoyed it and got the answers correct. His mother wonders from where in the gene pool his logic could possibly come! )

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, that is so gorgeous!

My son used his art skills in maths lesson today, drawing mountains and stick figure people climbing said mountain.
Blessings,
Jillian
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Catherine (Alecat Music) said...

Isn't it lovely watching the children get absorbed in the lesson. I'm quite certain that this would be frowned upon in most classrooms.

Mel said...

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