Discussion: Keynote Part 2

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posted by: Jim Vanides on May 19, 2003 at 8:49PM
subject: "What does it mean..."
The first mathematical issue I see is the question of what the "bottom
number" really means. Towards the end of the video, the teacher asks if
this means "4 in a group" or "4 equal groups".

I see another subtle math issue regarding what is meant by the
horizontal line that separates the 3 from the 4. The girl up front
said, "3 groups of 4". In thinking of where she could have come up with
this, it occured to me that she is interpreting the LINE as the word
"of", which could have been drawn from previous discussion (not shown)
that the fraction reads "3 of 4". She could have misunderstood that
this as "3 groups of 4" instead of "3 out of 4 groups". So the math
meaning of the LINE becomes very important.

Of course, I don't teach math, so I'm VERY interested in what other
people see in the video!

- Jim Vanides (jimvanides @ att.net)
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