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posted by mrpg on Saturday May 13 2017, @04:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the 2x²+x+64 dept.

If you've ever had to help your child with math homework, you really appreciate their teachers, who do it every day. "Math anxiety" isn't something only kids experience.

Maybe you haven't seen an algebra formula in years, and weren't that comfortable with them when you were a student. Maybe you're a skilled mathematician, but don't know how to explain what you're doing to a child. Whatever the case, math homework can leave parents feeling every bit as frustrated as their children. Homework doesn't have to lead to unpleasantness, though.

What I've learned through my own experience—as a teacher, a researcher, from helping my own children, and now watching my daughter work as an elementary school mathematics teacher—is that communication is (excuse the pun) the common denominator when it comes to making math homework a positive experience.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), where I work, is dedicated to research. We support scientists across the country who study learning and education systems. But we're also teachers at heart. On lunch breaks in the past, a group of us gathered to help our NSF peers with their own questions about how to help their kids learn math.

Here are a few tips from what we've learned:

Do Soylentils have better tips, things that have really helped their own kids learn math?


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday May 13 2017, @09:56AM (2 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday May 13 2017, @09:56AM (#509070) Journal

    The other main fear I have is

    Quadratic equations?

    Infinitesimals parading around as integers.

    Irrational relations, Pi, Theta, and their kin.

    Prime numbers, how do they work? Is it like magnets?

    And you are afraid of divorce law? Wow, just wow.

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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by maxwell demon on Saturday May 13 2017, @10:16AM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday May 13 2017, @10:16AM (#509071) Journal

    I never heard for someone whose private life failed because of the failure to solve a quadratic equation. On the other hand, the consequences of a a divorce can certainly lead to a failed life.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @04:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @04:30PM (#509199)

    I'm affraid of The Donald. He's an irrational number.