I don’t know about this “What without the how and why.” Every time it happened to me—finding the inflection point of a quadratic equation, for example—I was pissed off about how much time I had wasted on stupid crap. Re-deriving Calculus would have been entertaining and educational, and loads more useful than memorizing a formula so I could draw ugly graphs over and over and over again.
What about ‘this is what an inflection point is’; here are some ways to find them on specific equations. Now, here is how to find the inflection points of arbitrary equations.
The great majority of students aren’t capable of re-deriving calculus, even with guidance, let alone in the third grade. There’s a difference between letting the capable ones do it, and asking a whole class to do it.
I wasn’t graphing quadratic equations in third grade. Actually, I never did third grade. In fourth grade I was doing fractions, and that only because they let me take math classes with the fifth and sixth graders.
It’s not important that they succeed. It -is- important that they try.
I don’t know about this “What without the how and why.” Every time it happened to me—finding the inflection point of a quadratic equation, for example—I was pissed off about how much time I had wasted on stupid crap. Re-deriving Calculus would have been entertaining and educational, and loads more useful than memorizing a formula so I could draw ugly graphs over and over and over again.
What about ‘this is what an inflection point is’; here are some ways to find them on specific equations. Now, here is how to find the inflection points of arbitrary equations.
The great majority of students aren’t capable of re-deriving calculus, even with guidance, let alone in the third grade. There’s a difference between letting the capable ones do it, and asking a whole class to do it.
I wasn’t graphing quadratic equations in third grade. Actually, I never did third grade. In fourth grade I was doing fractions, and that only because they let me take math classes with the fifth and sixth graders.
It’s not important that they succeed. It -is- important that they try.