Today was our first word problem day. It will take a few days to get through all this...
Note: the links below are also a Canvas Assignment if you prefer to get to them through Canvas instead of our announcement page.
Here are some resources that might be very helpful:
Perhaps the most helpful homework you can do is look at that graphic organizer and rewrite its first two pages in your own words.
Here are more sources of problems:
Here are some other thoughts:
Today we did a few more topics from the list of what the GED Ready Tests show many classmates needed time with.
We started with the Pythagorean Theorem, using problems from section 4.6 in our nice e-book textbook.
Then we talked about area puzzles. More practice is in sections 8.1 and 8.2 in that textbook.
Then we talked about surface area and volume of 3D shapes. More practice is in sections 8.3 and 8.4 in that textbook.
Remember to practice using the official GED Formula Sheet.
I mentioned two YouTube videos that might interest anyone who cares about where those formulas come from. The first is about the volume formula for a pyramid. The second is about how the volume formulas for a sphere and cone are related.
Remember that our Canvas site has a link to our class photo album, if looking at past whiteboards is helpful.
Today's snack was plain pancakes with jam.
Today we started by looking more at graphing, and practicing using graph paper and rulers.
Our nice e-book textbook does a good job with this material, so we used it a lot during class.
We started with section 9.1 about graphing ordered pairs. Then we moved on to sections 9.2 and 9.3 about graphing lines.
After break, we repeated Tuesday's lesson about factoring, but did not have as much time for as many examples. Please see below for that summary and some useful links.
Please use a text to my cell phone (541) 357-7551 or an e-mail to let me know how you spend your hour of math time outside of class. Nice options include:
Today's snack was more lebkuchengewuerz pancakes.
I got an F for the day, for mixing up students' names. :-( Apologies!
Today we did two things.
First we studied factoring.
This began with considering why we factor. We looked at graphs again, to see what a question such as "When does the graph of y = x2 + 3x + 6 equal six?" is like visually. Then we explained how factoring helps answer those types of questions when the answer is not obvious by graphing.
We compared the traditional way to multiply two-digit numbers by hand with the "box method". Then we used the box method to explain factoring equations similar to y = x2 + 3x + 6.
Finally, we used the Quadratic Formula to answer questions such as "When does the graph of y = x2 + 3x + 6 equal six?" without factoring or graphing. (Here is a video about the Quadratic Formula if that helps.)
Note that our normal nice e-book textbook does not have a chapter about factoring. But you can use chapter 6 of this e-book on the same website, using the same username and password (see our Canvas for details) to log in.
After break, we learned how to combine the GED topic list with ChatGPT to study GED math topics when a math textbook is unavailable.
Today's snack was more mint chocolate pancakes.
Today we did out "midterm" which was a GED Ready test. Thank you to everyone who attended.
If you could not do a math GED Ready test today, please try to have one done over the weekend so Tuesday's class can discuss it. (Use LCC's voucher request form tonight or tomorrow early morning.)
After finishing the math GED Ready test you will get a list of which math topics you should work on. Please have that available on Tuesday. We will compare our lists (anonymously) and plan which math topics deserve the most class time during the next few weeks.
Happy weekend!
Today we went over the history of measurement units, and how to do one-step measurement unit conversion with a memory trick or with proportions.
We also saw a demonstration of unit analysis but did not get to do those on the board in groups.
As a break, we looked at the book Factfulness that uses some charts from this website.
Today's snack was more lebkuchengewuerz pancakes.
There is a new Canvas activity that leads you through the steps in the "heads up!" announcement above.
You can now see the Canvas gradebook, which merely tracks which Canvas assignments are completed. There are no real "grades" in Canvas.
Today we did two topics. We talked about graphing points and lines on the coordinate plane. The nice tool we used was the Desmos graphing calculator website. I am starting to create lecture notes about this topic here but they are not yet complete.
We also folded paper to help see where the geometry formulas on the GED Formula Sheet came from.
The topics from today correspond to sections 8.1, 8.2, and 9.1 in our nice textbook.
Please use a text to my cell phone (541) 357-7551 or an e-mail to let me know how you spend your hour of math time outside of class. Nice options include:
Today's snack was tropical pancakes.
Today's class had time set aside for help setting up your GED.com account. We spent most of the class together using the tutorial that explains the GED Ready Test. Hopefully you are now somewhat comfortable with the various buttons on that website, and the loaner calculators passed out during class.
You can practice with a slightly different looking TI-30XS calculator here.
More GED information is in our syllabus.
We also did a bit with circle formulas and mentioned the one-third in the cylinder formula.
At the end of class we talked a bit more about why math is hard. This is a new Canvas activity if you are interested in pondering a bit more how math is about craft, not knowledge.
Today was cross-multiplying day!
We began by talking about checking if a proportion is true, and then about proportions with variables. Both of those tasks involved cross-multiplying.
Then we applied this to the topic we began slightly on Tuesday: percent sentences. We reviewed the translation method, and now had the cross-multiplying tool to also demonstrate the proportion method.
All those sections have been updated to direct you to the appropriate parts of our nice textbook. Remember to look in Canvas for the e-book login's username and password.
Please use a text to my cell phone (541) 357-7551 or an e-mail to let me know how you spend your hour of math time outside of class. Nice options include:
Today's snack was lebkuchengewuerz pancakes.
Today we started talking about percentages.
We started by thinking about decimal point scoots. This might be good to practice at home, for it is one of the skills that being quick can help on the GED test.
Then we got to the most important foundation: four replacements for the % symbol. So far we have only used two of them. The others will have their moment to shine, but later on.
Using that foundation we could look at going back and forth between fraction, decimal and percent formats.
Then we looked at the two most common types of percent problems: "percent of..." problems and percent change problems.
We barely got started on the translation method for solving percent sentences. More Thursday!
Today's snack was English muffins.
Today we followed a slow progression from simple to complicated fraction stuff.
We started by thinking about fractions being different from ratios. (In a fraction the denominator must be a total amount. But a ratio can compare any two numbers.)
This is very similar to the distinction between probability versus odds. But we did not go deep into that.
Then we reviewed reducing and un-reducing fractions.
At the end of class we introduced a fraction game named Starship, but did not have time to play it.
Remember to use a text to my cell phone (541) 357-7551 or an e-mail to let me know how you spent your hour of math time outside of class. Nice options include:
Overall, today we did sections R.6, 2.1, 2.2, and 5.1 in our nice Prealgebra e-book. (Remember to look at the Canvas site activity about this textbook to see the username and password you can use to log in.)
Today's snack was mint chocolate pancakes.
Today we did topics requested by students.
We started by discussing divisibility and factors. This included playing the board game "The Factor Game".
Then we looked at a few linear patterns and area patterns. The purpose of those sections is to realize how patterns turn into formulas. We looked at some examples from the health decisions part of this website. Often which issues turned out to important for a formula (weight? height? age? gender?) is as interesting as how significant those issues were compared to each other. We also noted that each issue became its own term in the end result formula.
To exercise a different type of mental math muscle, we played a dice game named No Pigs! No Pigs!.
Snack was pumpkin bread waffles.
Thank you for a nice first week of class time!
Today we spent most of our time discussing terms and one-step equations.
Remember to spend one hour outside of class time (before Tuesday's class) on worthwhile activities. So far these include:
Please use a text to my cell phone (541) 357-7551 or an e-mail to let me know how you spent your hour. I enter that time into your attendance record, helping you earn free GED Ready Tests and other benefits.
I am still adjusting this website to fix the textbook section references (which refer to an old book) and improve the links to helpful videos. I have cleaned up the topics above (terms, one-step equations) for you.