Re: query

[George Sheridan <gsheridan@bomusd.k12.ca.us>]

A high school student who already understands the concepts of variables and 
functions (and is reading at or above grade level) can probably make 
his/her way through the language to discover that it is saying what he or 
she already knows. Then the student's question becomes, "Why are they 
wasting my time with reading this?"

A student (no matter how skilled a reader) who began with less than a 
complete understanding of variables and functions would almost certainly 
find this text befuddling.

It is amazing that anyone would think this is a helpful introduction to a 
problem or series of problems. If there will be multiple-choice questions 
such as "Which is the dependent variable in a given equation?" the last 
three sentences contain all the information necessary to remind students of 
the meaning of these terms. The preceding sentences are frustrating because 
they require effort to decipher but yield no necessary information.

Of course, one may also wonder why the test makers thought multiple choice 
questions of the sort this text apparently introduces would be a good 
measure of students' knowledge of mathematics.

At 10:57 AM 5/10/2003 -0400, Gerald Bracey wrote:
> This is not a set up for a gotcha.  I'd like people to tell me what level 
> they think the following text is pitched at.  Any other commentary about 
> it would be welcome as well.
>
> "Each of the graphs in the preceding article shows a definite relation 
> between two  quantities such that when one is known the other can be found 
> either by experiment or by computation.  These quantities are usually 
> represented by certain symbols such as p,v,x,y, etc, and are called variables.
>
> DEFINITION:  a variable is a symbol which may represent an indefinite 
> number of values throughout a particular discussion.
>
> For example, in the equation A =pi X R squared, A and R are variables and 
> represent the area and radius, respectively, of a circle.  When A is 
> expressed in terms of R, R is called the independent variable and A the 
> dependent variable or function of R.  In general, we may give the 
> following definition:
>
> If a variable y depends another variable x, so that whe a value of x is 
> known, y is determined, then y is called a function of x.
>
> That's it.