…is probably looking like an unfortunate name for adding monomials when you see a mistake like this one. Right?
Or wrong? Speak up in the comments. And more thanks to John Weisenfeld for the mistake.
…is probably looking like an unfortunate name for adding monomials when you see a mistake like this one. Right?
Or wrong? Speak up in the comments. And more thanks to John Weisenfeld for the mistake.
Clearly the kid doesn’t have a deep conceptual understanding of how to solve equations or simplify expressions. True, the kid probably learned some stuff proceduraly as opposed to conceptually. (Though, I can confirm, that in this classroom nobody ever said anything, like, “When you have an equation you need to add something to each side to isolate the x.” The balanced-scale model was used at first.)
There’s still two interesting, deeper questions, to consider. (Possibly more: bring it up in the comments.)
a) Would this kiddo always make this mistake, when presented with an expression to simplify?
b) If not, then what exactly is it about this problem that prompts the kid to employ a basic move from equations?
Why is this mistake so enticing, and how might you help students avoid it?
[Compare: http://mathmistakes.org/?p=396]
Thanks again to Anna Blinstein for the submission. Follow her! Virtually! Not literally!
Would the student have made this mistake if she were just given to evaluate? If yes, then what’s the misconception. If no, then what’s going on?
Oh, and go check out Chris Robinson’s stuff, and go follow him on twitter.
I’m sitting on a bunch of Khan Academy questions from users that I marked as very interesting. I never posted them, and I feel a little cheap giving them all their own posts. So I figured I’d just dump the whole lot on you all. These questions reveal interesting things about the way these students are thinking. If you think that you’ve got something interesting to add, either on the diagnosis or prescription side of things, dig into the comments below.
The first is a nice probability puzzler. How did this student get 3/8?
I love this conceptual question.
Not sure exactly why I clipped the first question here, but the second question is great. “Why do they call it a limit?”
A good reminder: some vocab is tricky. Why are these two vocabulary words the one that this student confused?
This is a great point from a kid about variable use.
A little bit of context for this next one: we’re talking about protractors here.