Name: Anonymous 2009-03-16 0:36
I teach high school chemistry, and have seen an unsettling trend in recent years in the math skills of my kids. Who better to ask than you math folks! Most of my kids are juniors who have passed Alg I and Geometry, are taking Alg II, but simple things like averaging and finding percents throw them for a loop. And I'm not talking about just a few kids. Even in my honors classes, for example, they will be asked to average the results of 2 experimental trials -- many will multiply, then divide by 2. And it never occurs to them that the average of 15 and 18 cannot possibly be 135! Another ex: "a compound contains 40 g of calcium and 16 g of oxygen. What % of the total mass is calcium?" I get the "deer-in-headlights" look -- then they decide to divide 40 by 16. If they're given the formula D=M/V, then asked to solve for V -- well, that's gonna take full class period! Is anybody else seeing highschoolers who lack the simples of skills and concepts? What is causing this? I'm spending as much time teaching basic math as I am teaching chemistry -- and it's getting worse each year. I can't tell you how I dread teaching the math required for pH or the gas laws or heat. (wouldn't dimensional analysis be an Alg 1 level skill?) It's easy to point the finger at the middle school teachers, so I hate to go there, but has there been some change in the way math is taught at those grades that is leaving such gaping holes in the skills? Is it that they just learn a set of steps to get "the answer" for that day's test, but have no real concept of what they are doing and why? Just looking for some explanation. (and, yes, to vent a bit!)