What’s Goin’ On In Room 133

Posts Tagged ‘Classwork’

The following shows last week’s series of assignments that had to be covered while I was away:

Enriched Math 7 – Period 1: Pre-Algebra (GREEN Text)

1 – Read Section 5-2 beginning on page 205. 

2 – Study the diagrams on page 205 and answer the questions (a., b. and c.) on rational numbers. 

3 – Study Examples 1, 2, 3 and 4.  Study Concept Summary on Rational Numbers

4 – Do all questions from 1 – 53 (pages 207-209)

5 – Do all questions 1 – 24 (page 733)

6 – Students will need their individual workbooks in the bookcase at the front of the room (Measuring Up to Virginia SOLs)

Do Lessons 7 and 8 (pages 30-37)

7 – Do all questions 54 – 75 (page 209)

(You are looking for a good grade, aren’t you?  Well, if you need to git yerself caught up, then git yerself caught up – and right quick!)

So, our colleagues in Math 7 have homework on text page 560, ques #26 – 37 and on page 562 with ques #12 – 22.  And they have to review class notes and examples. 

Why?  Because we care that much about you – and you need the practice!  Not just on the process, but also on how to lay out your work.  You need to be able to follow what you did today later on, no matter how far ‘later on’ is from today.  That is why I emphasize that you ALWAYS start with writing out the original problem – ALWAYS!  (Did I say ‘always’?  Good.)  Then you start working on the problem (your computations) line by line.  It makes for a much better product, especially when you are making a case to calculate a commission or make a presentation to land an account – this is where you learn those skills.

Rock on, colleagues!

The Decimal Point, that is?  We have looked at fractions and ratios and we now turn our attention to another fashionable form of a fraction, the dashing, the debonaire – the Decimal.  Yes, nation, even though this formidable fraction has been stripped of its elegant fraction bar, it is still considered a fraction, one that has gone through a unique transformation.  Yes, it has distinguished itself by actually dividing the numerator by the denominator – using long division, no less! – and for that we award it the noble Decimal Point.  The number that results from our division takes its place (or places) in our mathematical pantheon of heroes otherwise known as our base-10 system.  And the places that it holds are the tenths (1/10ths), the hundredths (1/100ths), the thousandths (1/1,000ths) and so on.

Wow, what would we ever do without it?  So take a look at page 556 in the text and run through questions 1- 28.  We’ll also have a few worksheets to keep ourselves in shape as we prepare to do the heavy lifting to come!

Remember that song, colleagues?  Sorry, uh, might be a bit before your time, as they say.  Ask me about that tomorrow.

Anyway, we have accomplished much on our number line.  We have always known that the sum of 2 + 3 = 5, but now we know why as we start out at zero and move to a given coordinate on our number line (positive 2), and, always going to the right to add, we move three spaces and read the new value (5).   And we know that when we are adding negative numbers we remember that they behave, well, negatively.  So instead of adding and moving to the right, they add and move backwards to the left.  (Remember my moonwalk?  Michael Jackson couldn’t have done it better…)

We have used absolute value with absolute certainty as we added our integers, both positive and negative.  We have seen that, when adding two numbers, the number with the largest absolute value is the one that determines what sign the answer will be: positive or negative. 

We have practiced and practiced and we shall practice again.  You have worksheets on the adding and subtracting of integers, and you are asked to examine the relationship between the two operations.  That is because, my dear colleagues, we are entering new territory.  We are entering a world where proof exists in the mind….a world where addition rules and there really is no such thing as subtraction…it is the world of…the Additive Inverse.  And life as we know it will never be the same!  (Cue the music: “Don’t mess with Mr In-Between!”)

Once again, we peel another layer off of the things we already know.  The simple number line is now just like a ruler.  No, not like King Solomon – like a measuring ruler!  And we know that ruler extends out to infinity on the positive side – and on the negative side. 

We already knew that numbers on our number line increase from left to right – and now we are reminded that they decrease from right to left!  We see positive numbers on the right side of zero, and we see negative numbers on the left side of zero.  The set of numbers that are on the right side of zero are the same set of numbers on the left side zero; it’s just that the right side is positive and the left side is negative.  Looking at them, it’s almost like setting up a mirror right at the point of zero, huh?  

Well, we saw that, on the number line, the distance between any number and zero is called the number’s absolute value.  And since we are talking about the distance from point A to point B, this absolute value is always a positive number. 

Makes sense?  Check this out.  The absolute value of 6 is equal to the absolute value of -6.  That’s because the distance between 6 and 0 on the positive side of the number line is the same as the distance between -6 and 0 on the negative side of the number line.  The only difference is that one is on one side of zero and the other is on the other side of zero.  Going in opposite directions, yes, but the distance is still the same. 

Can you dig that?  Positively!  So check out the practice session we laid out today on page 59, questions #1 thru 19.  More practice to come when we meet again – absolutely!

We have reveiwed and massaged fractions almost to the point of no return.  So now, knock out questions #35, 43 and 50 on page 230.  Tomorrow we’ll review it and move on to addition, subtraction and mixed numbers.

Section 1-2 starts on page 12.  Homework questions begin on page 14.  Do all questions #13-24 and any two questions between #25 and #28.  Section 1-3 starts on page 17 and questions are on page 20.  Questions #13 – 27 are shown on the page stacked in in three columns.  Pick out any three questions from each column.  AND do #28, 29 and 30.

Also reflect on the differences between a verbal expression and a numeric expression.  So what is an algebraic expression?

What is the fraction “16/33,336″ in its’ simplest (reduced) form?

Sec 1-2 Numbers and Expressions.  Read and work the examples from page 12 to the top of page 14.