martinnoon.bsky.social

A double-dip weekend. Hasn’t been this flat for a long time. #roker

I’ve never understood why anyone would teach it with that formula. Equivalent fractions or ratios is always the way forward.

That’s my point - anyway I’m off to a guitar lesson , where I will be using capo because I’m yet to learn all the chords! #seewhatididthere?

I’m using as an argument to not never use it. I’ve had resit GCSE students never able to get trig, and then be able to get the right a month before the exam using a FT.

The trick has been around for a while. I’ve even had a few tutees use it to my surprise. They also used that cross factorising method that I never liked.

We just need to make sure that if they are using a RT that they haven’t seen a weird trick online and remember it wrong!!!

I agree that it’s better, and it has its faults!

See it’s the other way around for me, there are many that can remember the triangle because they remember the abstraction and the formula! And yes, as always there are some that can’t and get it all wrong!

They may just succeed enough for them. And yes if they have the right understand they won’t need them but it might speed things up for them. I guarantee there are maths teachers, scientists and engineers in their 40s & 50s who were taught with them at school and still use them in their head.

Feels like the good old days of Twitter #mathscpdchat, we should do a controversial take on things every month!!

I’m pointing out that everything can be misused without proper instruction. And EVERYTHING can be used well WITH proper instruction.

I’m being controversial on purpose. Trying to have a good debate like the old Twitter days!!

But I’m still reluctant to throw formula triangles out of the window. There are some students that use them very well and succeed because of them.

And yet if it was used alongside the understanding of the formula, and students were taught why it works alongside rearranging a formula, it could be seen as just a diagram that shows the relationships. I’m a huge fan or ratio tables and have used them pretty much since I stated teaching, ..

You make a U shape first you divide, then you times then you end up with the missing value. The process is not too dissimilar to “cover the one you need to find” it works and therefore you will have teachers doing it - they have been for many years, probably before 2012.

I did say I was being controversial - there is a bit more you ca do with a RT, agreed. They are better to use - agreed, but can also be misused in the same way as a FT, and therefore has similar faults. Maybe we should all be less snobby about the poor FT.

I saw the U method for a RT used in a mathshub meeting probably about 12-13 years ago, and it was been used with low set student for things like speed and higher set topics like trigonometry - the school were getting excellent grades.

Both shouldn’t be used without full understanding of the processes and why they work, AND both can be used as a quick trick method to help those student in need of a grade 4.

They require more understanding because of the extra term. But fundamentally they can both be misused and both be used to deepen understanding. The FT is just a simplified RT.

It’s a formula triangle with an extra box making it a square. That’s all I’m saying. Both can be used deep understanding and both can be used as a quick trick method. It’s all about how they are used.

Controversial view - A ratio table is basically a square version of a formula triangle. #runsaway

Sunderland (or north east) based peeps - my daughter recently progressed to a 2 hour Tuesday lunchtime show on Spark Radio. Soon she’ll be adding to this show when she co-presents a Friday home-time show 3-6pm. Check it out live or listen again on the app!

Draw an XY table - show them the 7 jumps of 4 from -6 to 22, and then work backwards from 18. Basically that MathsConf presentation that you watched me do.

And both councils we dealt with were really good and wanted to help. They have normally collated lots of local resources and can point you in the direction of home ed groups and educational trips.

This looks great!

Good thread about home education. ⬇️

Follow mackemlife_ on Instagram or Facebook and they will have recommend loads of nice places.

We have to remind the scientists of that sometimes when they pipe up!

I uninstalled it and just use a browser version. I have to sign in with different accounts anyway and was fed up with it starting up when not wanted.

Previous comments from high attaining FM drop outs that I taught included phrases like “it’s relentless sir!” , “insanely hard, and I can’t be arsed”. They clearly were not “the chosen ones”.