If you were like me, you would have solved this the moment
you saw it. If you’re not like me, you probably scrolled down to see the
comments that people left on the Science Channel’s post sharing this problem
(and the solution). Below is a screenshot of a few of the answers given by
Facebook users. (Hint: Click on the image above to go to the video explaining how to go about solving it. Click on the image below to go to Science Channel's Facebook post.)
This is the type of thing that
infuriates and saddens me at the same time. This is why I decided to become a
math tutor, and why I was a math tutor for two years. This affected me so much
that I even mentioned it in my interview for that position. I was asked why I
wanted to become a math tutor, and I said, I would like to help students master
the basic mathematical ideas taught in grade school and retain their knowledge
for years to come. I wanted fewer wrong answers, and fewer arguments in defense
of wrong answers.
I wanted
children to see math as something they will need all their lives, not just
something to “survive” in school and then forget promptly after graduation. I
wanted children to realize that math can be fun, and I wanted to be that person
who made it fun. I would like to think that I did just that. It wasn’t easy;
there were too many students who had the “I’m not good at math” mindset. There
had to be extrinsic rewards they can earn; there had to be that chance of
saving up rewards cards for Jolly Rancher cotton candy.
Did it
work? It seemed like it did. I can’t count the times we spent the tutoring
session making and eating cotton candy, which cost the student 4 reward cards,
each with 10 punch slots. So that’s 40 punched or stamped slots for cotton
candy. How much work did they have to do for cotton candy? I gave them 1 stamp
for every half hour they were with me, and they spent at least 90 minutes a
week with me. That means 3 stamps if they were present all week. At the end of
the week, I had 2 math questions they could solve for an extra stamp each; it
was a choice, but they all seemed to want to do the work. One of the questions
always was about order of operations…always. The other was based on whatever
was being taught in class at any given point in time. So if they were present
all week, and solved the problems I gave them, they got 5 stamps each week. How
many times does 5 go into 40, or what is the minimum number of weeks it took
them to earn cotton candy? The answer is 8 weeks. Right now, you’re thinking,
that Jolly Rancher cotton candy must have been good. It was.
Do you know
what’s even better? We just did some math.
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