Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

[ChrisL]

Interesting.

Crystal ACTUALLY sold 15 cookies (112-97).

If you use the preferred 'estimate', you come up with an estimate of 30 cookies. If you use the estimate preferred by the test taker, you come up with 10 cookies.

It would seem that 10 is closer to 15 than 30. If I didn't know better, I'd guess the teacher is the one who does my taxes.

Crystal actually sold 97 cookies...there were 15 that were not sold

If the exercise is to show the process of estimating or doing it in your head

97 is three less than 100
112 is 12 more than 100

3+12 = 15 unsold cookies

I have no idea what the exercise was trying to teach

Educated people that know how to do math can do it in one step. 112-97. Why take three steps to do what can easily be done in one?

Because most of the math you do in your life does not require a precise calculation and comparison

You are just estimating and picking the better option

Do I have enough gas to make it home?
Do I have enough money to pay for this?
Do I have enough of a gap to merge into traffic?

You do not take precise measurements and compare two options. You make a quick estimate and then a choice based on those estimates

Actually, it does.

Perhaps that's why so many file bankruptcy because they estimate rather than calculate but miss it.

If you are selling cookies you need to know "about" how many cookies you have left

If you have "about" 15 cookies, you need to go get more
If you have "about" 100 cookies, you do not

Students are learning you do not always need a precise answer to make a decision and are learning how to estimate

Approximately dammit!!!

 

[Conservative65]

Crystal actually sold 97 cookies...there were 15 that were not sold

If the exercise is to show the process of estimating or doing it in your head

97 is three less than 100
112 is 12 more than 100

3+12 = 15 unsold cookies

I have no idea what the exercise was trying to teach

Educated people that know how to do math can do it in one step. 112-97. Why take three steps to do what can easily be done in one?

Because most of the math you do in your life does not require a precise calculation and comparison

You are just estimating and picking the better option

Do I have enough gas to make it home?
Do I have enough money to pay for this?
Do I have enough of a gap to merge into traffic?

You do not take precise measurements and compare two options. You make a quick estimate and then a choice based on those estimates

Actually, it does.

Perhaps that's why so many file bankruptcy because they estimate rather than calculate but miss it.

If you are selling cookies you need to know "about" how many cookies you have left

If you have "about" 15 cookies, you need to go get more
If you have "about" 100 cookies, you do not

Students are learning you do not always need a precise answer to make a decision and are learning how to estimate

Approximately dammit!!!

Approximation gets people in trouble when precise numbers are needed.

 

[rightwinger]

Educated people that know how to do math can do it in one step. 112-97. Why take three steps to do what can easily be done in one?

Because most of the math you do in your life does not require a precise calculation and comparison

You are just estimating and picking the better option

Do I have enough gas to make it home?
Do I have enough money to pay for this?
Do I have enough of a gap to merge into traffic?

You do not take precise measurements and compare two options. You make a quick estimate and then a choice based on those estimates

Actually, it does.

Perhaps that's why so many file bankruptcy because they estimate rather than calculate but miss it.

If you are selling cookies you need to know "about" how many cookies you have left

If you have "about" 15 cookies, you need to go get more
If you have "about" 100 cookies, you do not

Students are learning you do not always need a precise answer to make a decision and are learning how to estimate

Approximately dammit!!!

Approximation gets people in trouble when precise numbers are needed.

Most of your math related decisions in life do not call for precise calculations
You only need to decide on the better option

For brain surgery you need precise calculations
In deciding if you need to get more cookies, you do not

 

[Conservative65]

Because most of the math you do in your life does not require a precise calculation and comparison

You are just estimating and picking the better option

Do I have enough gas to make it home?
Do I have enough money to pay for this?
Do I have enough of a gap to merge into traffic?

Perhaps that's why so many file bankruptcy because they estimate rather than calculate but miss it.

If you are selling cookies you need to know "about" how many cookies you have left

If you have "about" 15 cookies, you need to go get more
If you have "about" 100 cookies, you do not

Students are learning you do not always need a precise answer to make a decision and are learning how to estimate

Approximately dammit!!!

Approximation gets people in trouble when precise numbers are needed.

Most of your math related decisions in life do not call for precise calculations
You only need to decide on the better option

For brain surgery you need precise calculations
In deciding if you need to get more cookies, you do not

Actually, they do.
Many times estimating can make the options appear to be something they aren't.

 

[Muhammed]

My ex sister in law says this makes sense...of course, she's a teacher

Apparently, the word "about" means an estimate so the child would need to round up or down to get the right answer. Nothing was said on the work paper about rounding off. Seriously?

"About" implies a rough guesstimate.

I don't think that's a good way to teach kids.

 

[rightwinger]

My ex sister in law says this makes sense...of course, she's a teacher

Apparently, the word "about" means an estimate so the child would need to round up or down to get the right answer. Nothing was said on the work paper about rounding off. Seriously?

"About" implies a rough guesstimate.

I don't think that's a good way to teach kids.

Most things in life only require a guestimate

In selling cookies, the woman in the back who makes the cookies needs to know exactly how many cups of flour and how many cups of sugar she needs to use

The woman in front only needs to know that she started with 112 cookies and now has "about 10" and needs the woman in back to bake more

 

[ChrisL]

My ex sister in law says this makes sense...of course, she's a teacher

Apparently, the word "about" means an estimate so the child would need to round up or down to get the right answer. Nothing was said on the work paper about rounding off. Seriously?

"About" implies a rough guesstimate.

I don't think that's a good way to teach kids.

Most things in life only require a guestimate

In selling cookies, the woman in the back who makes the cookies needs to now exactly how many cups of flour and how many cups of sugar she needs to use

The woman in front only needs to know that she started with 112 cookies and now has "about 10" and needs the woman in back to bake more

Yeah, but you could tell you had only "about 10" left by looking at them. No need for the math. But you are right in that a lot of times we do use estimations instead of exact figures.

 

[Bonzi]

My ex sister in law says this makes sense...of course, she's a teacher

Apparently, the word "about" means an estimate so the child would need to round up or down to get the right answer. Nothing was said on the work paper about rounding off. Seriously?

"About" implies a rough guesstimate.

I don't think that's a good way to teach kids.

Most things in life only require a guestimate

In selling cookies, the woman in the back who makes the cookies needs to now exactly how many cups of flour and how many cups of sugar she needs to use

The woman in front only needs to know that she started with 112 cookies and now has "about 10" and needs the woman in back to bake more

It's ok to teach estimates, but it is worded poorly, especially in light of the fact that the work sheet did not specify it was about rounding or estimates

 

[rightwinger]

My ex sister in law says this makes sense...of course, she's a teacher

Apparently, the word "about" means an estimate so the child would need to round up or down to get the right answer. Nothing was said on the work paper about rounding off. Seriously?

"About" implies a rough guesstimate.

I don't think that's a good way to teach kids.

Most things in life only require a guestimate

In selling cookies, the woman in the back who makes the cookies needs to now exactly how many cups of flour and how many cups of sugar she needs to use

The woman in front only needs to know that she started with 112 cookies and now has "about 10" and needs the woman in back to bake more

It's ok to teach estimates, but it is worded poorly, especially in light of the fact that the work sheet did not specify it was about rounding or estimates

I agree it was poorly worded and did not understand it when I first read it. None of the answers seemed to make sense

It also appears the student answering the question was confused

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

It was worded terribly. Using the word "about" would throw some people off. They should have asked which estimate is correct instead.

The term "about" is what tells the student to estimate. The answer also requires the student to know the rules of rounding. It is an excellent question because it tests more than one area of knowledge.

That is like a slang term. Even approximately would have been a better choice of terms. The person who wrote that sentence sounds like an uneducated goon.

"find about" can have two different meanings

It can reflect what you are finding or mean approximately

But usually students have been doing these type of problems all week and they are familiar with what they mean by "about"

Well I think that math teacher needs to take some English classes because that was just a poorly structured sentence to begi with, which makes it confusing, especially if you are just learning. Some teachers are sadists, I think. Lol.

It saddens me greatly to see the level of mathematical ignorance displayed by adults on this page. You people, and you know who you are, need to get back into school for some remediation.

 

[rightwinger]

It was worded terribly. Using the word "about" would throw some people off. They should have asked which estimate is correct instead.

The term "about" is what tells the student to estimate. The answer also requires the student to know the rules of rounding. It is an excellent question because it tests more than one area of knowledge.

That is like a slang term. Even approximately would have been a better choice of terms. The person who wrote that sentence sounds like an uneducated goon.

"find about" can have two different meanings

It can reflect what you are finding or mean approximately

But usually students have been doing these type of problems all week and they are familiar with what they mean by "about"

Well I think that math teacher needs to take some English classes because that was just a poorly structured sentence to begi with, which makes it confusing, especially if you are just learning. Some teachers are sadists, I think. Lol.

It saddens me greatly to see the level of mathematical ignorance displayed by adults on this page. You people, and you know who you are, need to get back into school for some remediation.

It was a poorly worded sentence and not a very practical application of estimating from a math standpoint

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

My ex sister in law says this makes sense...of course, she's a teacher

Apparently, the word "about" means an estimate so the child would need to round up or down to get the right answer. Nothing was said on the work paper about rounding off. Seriously?

Unstructured Grammar Also Leads to Unstructured Thought

The educationists are trying to create a generation of confused and vague minds.

 

[Bonzi]

I don't think they teach phonics anymore either, which I think is a travesty

 

[rightwinger]

I don't think they teach phonics anymore either, which I think is a travesty

Hooked on phonics.....Worked for me!

 

[JoeMoma]

What are your thoughts on this?

The actual answer, there are billions, perhaps even trillions of cookies that Crystal did not sale. The population of the world's "cookies" are not limited to the cookies made by Crystal.