Day 4 26 Sept 2013 Further concepts in learning mathematics

In class today, I was again baffled by the way Doctor Yeap showed us the concept of division and fraction. Recalling from my school days, division and fraction were taught as a matter of fact, no visual and/or concrete manipulation of materials. It was quite a trying time as I recalled to my early days of learning mathematics. In my view, I support the stance that we must build a belief system in the minds of the young learners. They must be given the opportunity to test it out themselves, allowed to play and come to the conclusion to the problems. Mathematics is important as it helps in the development and improvement of young learners. Why so, as one may ask. Looking at the subject of mathematics, it is time and again grounded in numerical logic. The concepts in mathematics can be applied to our everyday lives, the probability of an incident taking place, the calculation In the fraction and also a division exercise, Doctor Yeap showed us that in fraction, for example 1/3 should not be said as one upon three or one out of three. It should be be said as a third or one third. I noticed that learning of mathematics has changed much and for the better of the young learners in comprehending the subject.

I discovered through this problem with Doctor Yeap that there are many ways to derive the answer, for example, in the above problem of sharing the 4 pizzas equally, the solution can also be derived as follows: METHOD 2

In the above method, we will divide the four pizzas into 12 thirds and from there we will divide by three pigs giving each pig 4 thirds or 1 1/3 f from the exercises above,mathematics seem a fun way to learn!