To all those who took high school or college Algebra courses...

[JBroll]

Help a JBroll out.

I've been working on preparation for the classes I'll be teaching, and since I'm doing a developmental math class I need a little help from people who aren't math nuts.

What topic(s) did you wish the course had covered, or what would you change about the way they were covered? I need to pick apart things that people aren't getting already, and that's MUCH harder to do to forty people at a time than it is to do in a one-on-one tutoring section. Basic algebra stuff that never stuck, or an approach you found later that would have been handy, little tricks that helped you catch something... anything.

I've been tutoring for as long as I can remember, but teaching is a whole different thing and I need all the help I can get with this. Also, if you're in the San Antonio area and want to see me get my first gray hair, PM me and drop by sometime.

Jeff

 

[Saculus]

The associative, commutative, and distributive laws(hammer the fuck out of them), and that what ever operation is done to one side of the equation must be done to the other when solving something like 2x+1=9 or x=4. edit:I guess that is the distributive law (must sleep).

2x+1=9
-1 -1
2x=8
/2 /2

x=4

Make sure they show their work. Beyond that get good word problems so hopefully they might see practical applications.

I don't know if this helps you but it made me think about 20 years ago which is fun in a way. Simpler times and a Series 10 guitar.

 

[JBroll]

Yeah, somehow nobody remembers those in high school or college... always have to pull those out and bash people over the head with them. Thanks.

Jeff

 

[AudioPhile777]

wish i could help... i don't remember shit about algebra other than it teaches you to think in an abstract manner...

i really didn't retain ANY of that shit... never was really good at anything above long division... which for some reason i find fun...

but yeah... make it fun so they will remember it... or lie to them and tell them that the only people to ever not be murdered by serial killers (or rapists or whatever) were people that knew algebra...

and sleepy time...

 

[JBroll]

That's what I need to figure out... probably can't use the lemmings and Smurfs analogies so I don't know what's going to happen.

When you were taking the algebra courses, was the content presented and tested in low-level (memorization and regurgitation) or high-level (really going deep into the topics) ways? Did you just plug things into formulas, or were there really deep and wide questions you had to answer?

Jeff

 

[Saculus]

http://www.google.com/search?q=alge...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

edit: Johnny likes weed but he doesn't like to pay for it. His friends will only pay so much more than his cost. How much weed will Johnny need to sell to have free weed.

 

[AudioPhile777]

low-level (memorization and regurgitation) if memory serves me correctly...

 

[kev]

the best advice i got with algebra, 2x+1=9, divide by 2 -1 and then u have x! The good old opposite sign trick oh yes. Please excuse me, im a little bit drunk, fuck it its bank holiday!

 

[LSD-Studio]

I studied physics at a german university.....

and now I've forgotten most of the math (which was quite a bit).....so I wouldn't be able to teach a college class myself (w/o extra preparation)....enjoy the times when everything seems to be easy and obvious....you'll forget most of it in your future life

 

[JBroll]

I'm 20 and allergic to growing up. I have at least another 3 weeks in me, I'm sure...

Jeff

 

[LSD-Studio]

I'm 20 and allergic to growing up. I have at least another 3 weeks in me, I'm sure...

Jeff

hehe, yep, use them wisely

 

[Wolfeman]

Shit, I took honors algebra and AP Calculus, and now that I look back, I don't remember any of it

 

[Chryst Krispies]

I have to take calculus this semester. I'm not looking forward to it. I've never taken a calc class in my life.

 

[dale_a_smith]

Bump of epic proportions...

I'm doing Foundation Engineering Maths. Algebra..

I've got a fairly good grasp of this so far, but I'm stuck on simultaneous equations with 2 unknowns.

My 2 equations are

2x - y = 1
4x + y = 8

so I need to transform the first equation for y

My understanding is to minus 2x from each side which would give

y = 1 - 2x

but this isn't right. the correct transformation is

y = 2x - 1

As far as I'm aware I'm following the rules correctly, but I guess I'm missing something. I can easily work this out on paper, but I can't get it to work if I follow the rules as I understand them..

Any help regarding an absolute rule I've missed would be great.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Wow, I was horrible at math and even I remember this one When you subtract "2x" from both sides, you have to keep the minus sign (operator?) on the left, so it becomes -y = -2x+1; multiply that by -1 and voila

 

[DanLights]

your "y" would be negative if you do it your way, you have to put "y" positive and you'll get that answer you're supposed to get

 

[colonel kurtz]

I have to take calculus this semester. I'm not looking forward to it. I've never taken a calc class in my life.

calculus is easy, bro

people make it seem to be really tough, because it comes after most other math courses, but it's not that bad. trigonometry is wayyyyyyyy worse!

also, my best advice, not to get into anything specific about subject matter, would be to NOT do the online homework thing. i had a math class where a teacher had us do homework online, basically because he was lazy as shit and didn't want to grade papers. i won't get into more specifics, but it was a total disaster.

also, when you end up getting that one guy in class who acts like Genius Gone Insane, and insists on arguing every little point of the work with the teacher in some misguided attempt to show that he's smarter, cut the fucker off and tell him to come visit during office hours. it's one thing to have questions about the subject matter, but it's something else to have one person dominate all the time in class out of ego. i had a trig/precalc class once where this happened, and since the teacher was too much of a pussy to tell one guy to shut the fuck up, the rest of the class suffered. i remember that out of 30 people, 2 got C's...rest were D's and F's, and mostly because nobody else's questions/concerns were ever addressed in class.

edit: just noticed after commenting this was a necro-bump...but fuck it

 

[dale_a_smith]

people make it seem to be really tough, because it comes after most other math courses, but it's not that bad. trigonometry is wayyyyyyyy worse!

I got Trig next.. haha

 

[TravisW]

That's what I need to figure out... probably can't use the lemmings and Smurfs analogies so I don't know what's going to happen.

When you were taking the algebra courses, was the content presented and tested in low-level (memorization and regurgitation) or high-level (really going deep into the topics) ways? Did you just plug things into formulas, or were there really deep and wide questions you had to answer?

Jeff

Plug and Play, to some degree.

I sucked at algebra every time I took it. I'd carry a D average (probably because I was lazy, to be honest) until the section on Parabolas (what is that, differential equations?). For some reason, I'd go from being the worst student in the class to a high A for that section, then return to abject suckery.

So, really I think what others have said - hammer out the basic laws of how stuff works before getting too deep into formulas. I don't know why the Parabola thing was easy for me, but I understood it immediately when everything else always seemed somewhat arbitrarily connected.

Oh yeah, and don't develop a thick Chinese accent. When you're trying to decipher what a "Katchetic Fomura" is, the math just gets harder.

 

[LeSedna]

Bump of epic proportions...

I'm doing Foundation Engineering Maths. Algebra..

I've got a fairly good grasp of this so far, but I'm stuck on simultaneous equations with 2 unknowns.

My 2 equations are

2x - y = 1
4x + y = 8

Two possibilities (the two easiest methods)
- Isolate y or x and inject it into the other line to get the other one
- Transform the equations to add/substract them to each other to remove one of the unknowns, then get the other ones

You can do that with X lines as long as you have maximum X unknown, it just makes the process exponentially longer with the number of lines. Practically, over 4 lines / 4 unknowns it's just annoying to do by hand.

With 2 or 3 unkowns it's really straight forwards and you don't even need to use your brain to solve it, it's mechanical and takes literally just the time to write it, and maybe to correct a mistake if you do : whatever you do on one side has to be done in the other one because otherwise they wouldn't be equal anymore and you are not allowed to keep the "=" sign there... simple no ? If you don't do it, it becomes a >= or an <= !

Method 1
----------

2x - y = 1
4x + y = 8

-2x + y = -1 (multiply by -1, I did it to have y positive, just to make it cleaner but you can do it as step 3 instead)
4x + y = 8

y = 2x - 1 (formula 1)
4x + y = 8 (formula 2)

=> 4x + (2x-1) = 8 (inject in formula 2 the formula 1)
=> 4x + 2x = 8 + 1
=> 6x = 9
=> x = 9/6 = 3/2

y = 2x -1

=> y = 2(3/2)-1
=> y = 3-1=2

x=3/2
y=2

Method 2
======

2x - y = 1
4x + y = 8

4x - 2y = 2 (formula 1, multiplied by 2))
4x + y = 8 (formula 2)

4x -2y - (4x + y) = 2 - (8) (formula 1 minus formula 2)

-2y -y=2-8
-3y=-6
y=2

=> 4x + y = 8
=> 4x + 2 = 8
=> 4x = 6
=> x=6/4=3/2

x=3/2
y=2

Important at the end : check it !
2x-y = 2*3/2 - 2 = 3-2=1... check !