When my friend Alisa Bowman asked me to answer some math questions for a health blog she writes for, I didn’t quite expect what she sent over. In terms of health, I’m usually asked how to find BMI or how to calculate the perfect caloric intake. Here’s what Alisa wanted to know:
I’ve heard that treadmill readouts are notoriously inaccurate. Is there a way to figure calories burned in your head?
I’m at book club. How many glasses of wine can I drink and still be safe to drive home?
If I am at high altitude, how do I figure out how long to boil an egg to make sure I don’t get salmonella?
I had no idea how to answer these, so I put my reporter cap on and did some research. I was especially interested in the last question, as I’ve had zero experience cooking at high altitudes. And I found the answer really interesting! Maybe you will, too.
(By the way, Alisa is the author of an amazing book, called Project Happily Ever After, that her story of how she went from wishing her husband dead to falling back in love with him. Check out her site.)
I loved Alisa’s random questions. They made me think, and I learned something — which is the best part of being a writer. Do you have random math questions? Have you been in a situation when you think math could help, but you’re not sure how? If so, post your question in the comments section or drop me a line. If it’s a good fit, I’ll answer it in an upcoming blog post!
If you’ve started down the frugality path, you have probably already been smacked in the face with one unavoidable fact: there’s math involved in living within or below your means. For some, this is no biggie. For others, this could very well be the difference between saving a little and saving a lot.
But even if your basic math skills are rusty, you can handle these calculations, no problem. A few simple tricks will help you stay frugal and even take it up a notch!
How has math helped you be frugal? Share your ideas in the comments section here or at Suddenly Frugal!
Would you like me to guest post at your blog? Or do you know of a blog that I would fit right in with? I’ve got lots of ideas to share with anyone who will listen! And I promise I’m a good guest. I wipe out the sink after I brush my teeth and don’t mind if the cat sleeps on my pillow. Get the details here.
Things that make many kids anxious: a new school, big dogs, the deep end of the swimming pool, bees, strangers, nightmares, math.
Did you notice something there? For many children, math and bees are equally frightening or at least nerve-wracking.
Not all kids have math anxiety, but it’s not uncommon for elementary, middle or high school students to express nervousness about learning math or taking math tests. At the same time, these students may also feel less confident in their math skills or even say that they hate math.
Want to know how to eleviate math anxiety–for your kids and yourself? Check out my guest post at Imp3rfect Mom. You could win a free copy of Math for Grownups!Would you like me to guest post at your blog? Or do you know of a blog that I would fit right in with? I’ve got lots of ideas to share with anyone who will listen! And I promise I’m a good guest. I wipe out the sink after I brush my teeth and don’t mind if the cat sleeps on my pillow. Get the details here.
Today, I’m a guest on Arin Greenwood‘s FIRE podcast at The Heartland Institute and Out of the Storm News. We talk about the expected stuff at first–how math can keep more money in your pocket and how grownups pass down our anxieties and hatred of math to the next generation. But then we get into what I thought was a cool discussion about math and politics. Having some math sense may very well make us a smarter and more responsible electorate!
So now I have another trick up my sleeve–podcasts. I’d love to chat with you for your blog or radio program. Or if you know of a reporter, journalist, blogger who needs a mathy person to talk about this stuff, I’m the gal! I’m guest posting all over the place, too. Get the details here.
Those suits in the corner office–what do they do anyway? Well, they manage employees, set budgets and goals and plan for growth. Oh, and some math.
Gina Foringer is an executive vice president for Versar, a publicly held, departement of defense contracting companyin environmental, construction management, engineering and emergency response. She heads up the Professional Services Group (PSG), a division that provides professional services for government, private and non-profit entities throughout the world.
I also feel obligated to tell you that Gina doesn’t have a corner office.
Can you explain what you do for a living? My division is responsible for marketing our environmental contracting expertise, which means I spend a lot of time estimating the costs of projects. Then I help my team manage the projects we already have.
When do you use basic math in your job? Always! Part of my work involves writing proposals for work that is estimated in hours. I use estimation, then drill down to the details by adding varying fees to an hourly rate. At the end, I have to “reality check” the bottom line.
Do you use any technology (like calculators or computers) to help with this math? While on the phone with customers, I use mental math to approximate percents for labor. That gives me a ballpark figure. When I do the estimate, I use Microsoft Excel with linked tabs rolling into a master spreadsheet. It’s fun!
How do you think math helps you do your job better? If I didn’t know the basics of percentages and applying them, I’d be lost. I’ve done it so much, I do it in my off-time, too. If someone tells me an annual number (salary, car insurance premium or groceries), I have to stop myself from generating an hourly rate in my mind that has nothing to do with the conversation. Crazy, I know.
How comfortable with math do you feel? I feel comfortable with it now. I still have to check myself because the rates we use change. Basically, I calibrate my math skills every fiscal year.
What kind of math did you take in high school? I didn’t take much in high school, maybe basic trigonometry. I had low self esteem in high school. I think math actually made me feel better. It’s how I think, and was probably the beginning of discovering my self. I ended up getting a degree in math, and when I got my MBA, I was surprised by how much calculus I got to use.
Did you have to learn new skills in order to do this math? I developed the process. The hardest part for me is guiding others between estimating, calculating, then coming back to estimating for cost quotes. Oftentimes, the calculation comes in too high or low, and we have to change things that don’t make sense. The numbers are not right or wrong, but have to come to an intuitive place where we know it’s just right for that particular situation.
Do you have a question for Gina? Ask it in the comments section. (I can tell you that she has some really interesting ways to figure out percents!)
Turn “Goodnight Moon” into a math book by counting selected items on each page.
When my daughter was born more than 11 years ago, I knew a few things: Physically connecting with her would help us bond, breastfeeding is best, and reading to her—even at a very young age—was critical for later language development.
Even when she was a mere four months old, she had an established bedtime ritual, which included at least 10 minutes of reading. But no one mentioned math. Apparently, infants can appreciate Goodnight Moon, but not Euclid.
My kid was lucky, though. With a math educator for a mom, she got a great foundation in math well before she could even walk. I didn’t have special plans to introduce math early; I just did it.But what’s a non-mathy parent to do?Find out in my guest post at One Mama’s Daily Drama. (Psst… it’s not hard at all!)Would you like me to guest post at your blog? Or do you know of a blog that I would fit right in with? I’ve got lots of ideas to share with anyone who will listen! And I promise I’m a good guest. I wipe out the sink after I brush my teeth and don’t mind if the cat sleeps on my pillow. Get the details here.What kinds of math activities have you done with your kids? Share your ideas in the comments section!
You probably find it pretty darned easy to encourage literacy. In fact, there are countless magazine articles and books and workshops out there on this very subject. And so all good parents read to their kids every night, play word games with them, give them magnetic letters for the fridge.
But what about math? If you’re like most parents, the idea of working math into the day probably seems down right daunting. Scary even.
It’s not as hard as you think, especially if you’re willing to give into your children’s demands for a regular allowance. Money is an instant math lesson—and can motivate even the most reluctant student (adult or child).
Would you like me to guest post at your blog? Or do you know of a blog that I would fit right in with? I’ve got lots of ideas to share with anyone who will listen! And I promise I’m a good guest. I wipe out the sink after I brush my teeth and don’t mind if the cat sleeps on my pillow. Get the details here.
According to the headlines, we were born either good or bad at math. At least that’s how this study is being interpreted by bloggers and news outlets. Except that’s not necessarily what the study concludes.
This makes me mad. Really mad. I have not read the full study, but nothing in the abstract–or even the stories and blog posts about this study–suggests that people are born with or without math ability. Instead, it seems that the cheeky headlines were just too good to pass up.
Here’s what the study author, post-doctoral student Melissa Libertus, does say:
The relationship between ‘number sense’ and math ability is important and intriguing because we believe that ‘number sense’ is universal, whereas math ability has been thought to be highly dependent on culture and language and takes many years to learn… Many questions remain and there is much we still have to learn about this.
And here’s the nitty gritty on the study itself. A group of 200 children, with an average age of 4 years old, was given a number sense test. (You can take the exact same test here). These children were then asked to perform a variety of age-appropriate math tasks, including counting, reading numbers and computations. The results make a lot of sense: children who performed well on the number sense test did better on the math tests.[pullquote]No one says that we’re born good or bad at reading. We’re all expected to learn to read–and read well. So why do we say that about math?[/pullquote]
But the results seem to be misrepresented by media and others. These kids were selected precisely because they haven’t had any formal math education. They’re preschoolers. So, according to many news reports, kids are either born with number sense or get it from formal education.
Rubbish.
If you had a child in the last 10 or 15 years–or know someone who has–you are probably familiar with the big, big push for early literacy. Parents are encouraged to read to their kids, even when they’re babies, which research has shown helps the children develop age-appropriate literacy skills. In fact, kids who have had access to pre-reading experiences as infants, toddlers and preschoolers do much better with reading in elementary school. (This is one of the tenets of Head Start programs around the country.)
No one says that we’re born good or bad at reading. We’re all expected to learn to read–and read well. So why do we say that about math?
Just like the researcher, I think this study raises more questions. And here’s the really big one: What can parents do to boost their kids’ numeracy before formal education begins? (I actually wrote about this earlier this week.)
I still maintain that we are born with an innate understanding of math–just like we’re born knowing something about language. But without stimulating this understanding, kids can fall behind their peers or at least not reach their full potential. We read to little children so that they can learn to read on their own. And we should be doing something similar with kids so that they can do math.
A friend and fellow math blogger, Bon Crowder has launched an amazing program she’s calling Count 10, Read 10. It’s a simple idea: Parents should spend 10 minutes each day reading to their young kids and 10 minutes doing some sort of math with them. But nobody is saying flash cards, worksheets or chalkboards are necessary. The trick is to sneak the math into everyday activities, which can be as simple as counting the steps your new walker takes.
So here’s what I think happened with the news reports of this study: reporters, editors and bloggers simply tapped into their own misconceptions about math–and even their own math anxiety–and distorted the message. For many people, it’s a “fact” that some people are just naturally bad at math. I hope you’ll help me challenge that notion.
Meanwhile, be careful what you read.
P.S. A great math educator, David Wees has also chimed in on this topic, and shares–more eloquently–some of the same concerns I have. Read it!
So what do you think? Are people born good or bad at math? Can parents help develop numeracy in their children? How? Share your ideas in the comments section.
So you think you don’t use math on a daily basis? Think again.
You may not be solving for x, and the distance formula may not roll off the tip of your frontal lobe—mainly because you haven’t used it in years and years. But if you can put “parent” among your titles, you do math. I promise.
Just look at a typical day:
Read the rest of my guest post at Math is Not a Four Letter Word. You might be surprised by how much math the average parent does in a day!
By the way, would you like me to guest post at your blog? Or do you know of a blog that I would fit right in with? I’ve got lots of ideas to share with anyone who will listen! And I promise I’m a good guest. I wipe out the sink after I brush my teeth and don’t mind if the cat sleeps on my pillow. Get the details here.
My daughter just bought a hot-pink slap watch. She thinks it’s cool because it’s a slap watch, that’s pink–with tiny Diamonique stones encircling the face.
I think it’s cool because it’s not digital.
Like most middle school kids, my daughter is not so good at reading an analog clock. In fact she resists it like crazy. But today, as I sit in the Philadelphia airport waiting for my 5:55 pm flight to Seattle, I’m thinking about how useful her new watch will be.
Read the rest of my guest post at www.TravelSavvyMom.com. Then share your opinions on digital vs. analog clocks. Which one helps you calculate time fastest?
Boy, do I remember those early days of parenting my daughter. I was working full time, coddling a strong-willed toddler, trying to serve balanced meals, selecting great books to read to her and trying to keep my house and yard clean enough that my neighbors wouldn’t call Child Protective Services on me.
Adding one more thing to the list would have made my head blow off of my shoulders.
And yet, today, we are being asked to do that one more thing: introduce numeracy to our little Janes and Johns. In other words, math.
Want some tips on how parents can develop numeracy in their little kids–and keep their own heads on their shoulders, right where they belong? Read the rest of this post at Words To Eat By, where I guest posted today.
By the way, would you like me to guest post at your blog? Or do you know of a blog that I would fit right in with? I’ve got lots of ideas to share with anyone who will listen! And I promise I’m a good guest. I wipe out the sink after I brush my teeth and don’t mind if the cat sleeps on my pillow. Get the details here.
A pattern snippet from one of Marie Grace’s original designs.
If you don’t knit, a knitwear pattern probably looks like a random selection of letters and numbers. But that special code actually reveals beautiful creations–sweaters, hats, booties and blankets. Marie Grace Smith is the founder ofMarie Grace Designs, and she lives these patterns. You might be surprised to learn how much math is involved in developing these patterns. Marie Grace was!
“If I had known how much math I would need to do to make a living playing with yarn I would have become a painter or something. Just kidding. Sort of.”
What does a children’s knitwear designer do? I design and write patterns for hand-knitting. I have my own pattern line and have had patterns published in various knitting magazines.
When do you use basic math in your job? I use math for almost every aspect of what I do. It takes a lot of math to get from an idea and a ball of yarn to a written pattern somebody else can follow to make a finished sweater (or hat, or blanket, etc…)
The first thing I have to do to work up a new design is figure out the stitch and row gauges–or the number of stitches and rows in an inch of knitting with the yarn I’ve chosen for the design. To do this, I knit a square and then measure it, dividing the width measurement by the number of stitches across and the length by the number of knit rows. This gives me the number of stitches per inch (stitch gauge) and the number of rows per inch (row gauge). Every measurement after this–chest width, sweater length, sleeve circumference–all must be converted from standard inch measurements to stitch and row gauge. That means lots of math. Additional things like fancy stitch patterns, button and buttonhole placement, and shaping for armholes and necklines mean even more math.
Maggie Knit Blouse, one of Marie Grace’s designs
Once I’ve worked out all the counts and directions for my sample sweater I also need to figure all those same counts and measurements for various other sizes of the same design… sometimes as many as 8 sizes total. That way when you buy one of my knitting patterns you can knit sizes 2, 6 or 10 and have all the accurate directions and counts needed for the final product to turn out just like my original design sample. I also include how much yarn you’ll need for any given size which means–you guessed it–even more math.
Along with all the design stuff, I also have all the same responsibilities as any other business owner as far as figuring my incoming and outgoing funds, expenses, and taxes. More math!
Do you use any technology to help with this math? Spreadsheets! Lots and lots of spreadsheets. I’m sort of a spreadsheet junkie. Most of the math I use is basic math, but its very repetitive so spreadsheets save lots of time and cut down on mistakes. It would take a ridiculous amount of time and effort to work up a new design from beginning to end if I didn’t have tools like spreadsheets.
How do you think math helps you do your job better? I couldn’t do my job with any sort of accuracy without math.
How comfortable with math do you feel? I’m relatively comfortable with day-to-day math but I wouldn’t say I’m good at it. I have to stop and think things through one step at a time and I often scribble things down on paper even for simple calculations, just to be sure I’m on the right track. I’m much more comfortable with the math I do for work, simply because its so repetitive. Its sort of like doing multiplication drills on a regular basis.
Marie Grace Smith
What kind of math did you take in high school? I went through Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus by the time I was out of high school. I didn’t like math, and I don’t think I was naturally good at it. But I can figure things out given time and scrap paper. I think that’s how I managed through all the math in school.
Did you have to learn new skills in order to do this math? The math I do for designing is all pretty much basic math (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), along with some algebra and percentages. It’s all stuff we all learn in school.
Do you have questions for Marie Grace? Ask them in the comments section, and I’ll be sure that she sees them.
I’m still on my virtual book tour, visiting a variety of interesting spots all over the blogosphere! Due to a technical glitch, my scheduled podcast at Out of the Storm News is postponed to next week, but you can catch up on last week’s travels at these links:
