Professor Siegel first gave us a cubic glass bottle full of beads. "Pass this bottle, and let's guess how many beads there are in the bottle." I saw this "small skill of carving insects", hi! It's not easy. Soon I counted the number of beads in the length, width and height of the bottle, and then simply calculated the number of beads in the bottle by quadrature method.
Professor Siegel looked at me, smiled and said nothing. She immediately opened the glass bottle, then took out a small cup, filled it and said, "This cup is specially for beads. A full cup can hold 250 pills. Now guess how many beads this glass bottle can hold? "
Everyone watched the teacher pour a whole glass of beads into the glass, and there were about four fifths left in the glass bottle. Most of the answers are around 1000. The actual number of grains is very close, ***950.
Then, the teacher asked several questions on the blackboard:
1) What is your estimated number of students enrolled in the school?
2) How many residents (including students) do you estimate in Lawrence?
What is your estimate of the population of the United States?
What is your estimate of the world population?
5) How many seats do you estimate in the school football field?
6) How many people do you think the school basketball court can hold?
7) How many people do you think the school's opera performance hall can accommodate?
8) How far do you think it is from the eastern end of Kansas to the western end?
How far do you think it is from new york to San Francisco?
After each of us wrote down the answer, the teacher announced the answer:
1) What is your estimated number of students enrolled in the school? 30004 people
2) How many residents (including students) do you estimate in Lawrence? About 92,000 people
What is your estimate of the population of the United States? About 300 million people
What is your estimate of the world population? About 6.4 billion people
5) How many seats do you estimate in the school football field? 5007 1 seat
6) How many people do you think the school basketball court can hold? 16320 people
7) How many people do you think the school's opera performance hall can accommodate? 2020 people
8) How far do you think it is from the eastern end of Kansas to the western end? About 480 miles (780 kilometers)
How far do you think it is from new york to San Francisco? About 2,900 miles (4,700 kilometers)
In these questions, everyone has a high correct rate, or the answers are very close, because they are familiar with some details about this matter.
For example, the capacity of the school's football field and basketball court, as long as someone goes to watch the game, they will hear the announcer proudly announce the number of people present at the stadium that day.
Another example is the distance between east and west Kansas. One of my classmates applied immediately because he lives in the west of Kansas and our school is in the east of Kansas. He drives more than 400 miles every time he goes home, so he knows this place like the back of his hand.
Another example is that I went home from Kansas City via San Francisco last summer vacation. At that time, the distance from Kansas City to San Francisco was 1480 miles, and Kansas City was at the midpoint between new york and San Francisco, so my guess of 3000 miles was quite close.
At this time, the teacher began to sum up this lesson: "Children's initial concept of quantity is a simple concept obtained by comparing with what they are already familiar with." Some children can easily find their own reference, and some children may be slower in this respect, but this does not mean that the child can't learn math well. The most important thing in mathematics enlightenment is to let children be sensitive to numbers first and be able to change the quantitative relationship between objects freely. Let children find their own reference materials, understand mathematics through life, and benefit them all their lives. "
Americans' math class surprisingly emphasizes enhancing students' actual feelings, which makes a subject with little interest full of universal connection with life.