Math is Figure-Out-Able!
Math teacher educator Pam Harris and her cohost Kim Montague answer the question: If not algorithms, then what? Join them for ~15-30 minutes every Tuesday as they cast their vision for mathematics education and give actionable items to help teachers teach math that is Figure-Out-Able. See www.MathisFigureOutAble.com for more great resources!
Math is Figure-Out-Able!
#MathStratChat - October 9, 2024
In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on October 9, 2024.
Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.
Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.
Twitter: @PWHarris
Instagram: Pam Harris_math
Facebook: Pam Harris, author, mathematics education
Pam 00:00
Hey, fellow mathers! Welcome to the podcast where Math is Figure-Out-Able. I'm Pam.
Kim 00:06
And I'm Kim.
Pam 00:07
And this episode is a MathStratChat episode where we chat about our math strategies. Every Wednesday evening, I throw out a math problem on social media and people from around the world chat about the strategies they use and comment on each other's thinking.
Kim 00:19
Okay, so this Wednesday, our math problem was 15% of 50. How would you solve this problem? Pause the podcast. Solve it however you'd want. The problem is 15% of 50.
Pam 00:31
Okay, so I have to tell you. The first thing that has to happen is I have to get this hair out of my eye.
Kim 00:36
Ooh. That sounds horrible.
Pam 00:36
Do you ever have that when you're just like... Well, it's not like in my eye. It's like like in my eyelash maybe is a better way to.
Kim 00:42
Yeah, (unclear).
Pam 00:43
You know, I just can't. It's like sitting in front of. I can't find it. Anyway. Okay, I'm better now. Okay, 15% of 50. I don't care. Do you want to go first?
Kim 00:55
Sure.
Pam 00:56
Okay, go.
Kim 00:56
I'm going to go 10% of 50.
Pam 00:59
Alright.
Kim 01:00
Is 5.
Pam 01:01
Yeah.
Kim 01:02
And so, 5% of 50 would be 2.5.
Pam 01:06
Nice.
Kim 01:06
So, I say 7.5.
Pam 01:09
So, you added those together. Okay, cool.
Kim 01:10
Mmhm.
Pam 01:11
I'm going to use these the communitive... Associative? Not the associative. I'm going to use the commutative property to say that I can think about 15% of 50 as 50% of 15. And half of 15 is 7.5.
Kim 01:26
Nice.
Pam 01:26
Yeah, so I was trying for a problem here that you could really do nicely either way, so that people kind of had a couple of choices. Yeah. Hopefully.
Kim 01:36
You know what we don't do?
Pam 01:37
Hmm?
Kim 01:38
We don't name our strategy very often. Like, I would say used Five is Half of Ten.
Pam 01:46
Okay, okay.
Kim 01:47
I don't know.
Pam 01:47
And I use the commutative property and then just found half. I don't know.
Kim 01:50
Yeah.
Pam 01:51
Yeah. Alright, cool.
Kim 01:52
I don't know. It just occurred to me. We can't wait to see what you all did, and we love to see it every week. Join us on MathStratChat and let us know how you think about the problems. Comment on each other's strategies while you're there.
Pam 02:03
Yeah, we post the problems on Wednesdays around 7:00 pm Central Time. When you answer, tag me and use the hashtag MathStratChat. Then join us here to hear how we're thinking about the problem. We love having you as part of the Math is figure outable movement because Math is Figure-Out-Able!