TA: Antonio Kirson
Office: Padelford C-541
E-mail address: aakirson@math.washington.edu
Office hours: Mondays after class and Thursdays 2:00 – 3:45

Short answers to Problem Potpourri

If you disagree with any of these, e-mail me. I'll double-check as soon as time permits.


1 a) Caterpillar b) Bear

2) 3/20 of a pound

3) 7 1/8 pounds

4) 7/24 of the pie

5) 37 13 seconds

6) yes for base 2 and 4; no for base 3

7) 84 years

8) 31 cookies

9) a) No conclusion b) 7 c) 24

10) 45 miles

11) 3065seven

12) 4421six -101110two 888nine 4500six

13) 1/3 of the trip

14) 55 ways to do 45¢

15) 12 1/2 miles per hour

16) 2 1/4 pounds; 2 3/4 pounds

17) No

18) a)233 bees b) 144 female bees c) 89 male bees d) 2584 bees

19) in book

20 6 2/7 days

The first video reports should come in on Monday, Nov. 20 if possible (I know some need extra time to get together for viewing). The report should consist of

1) a transcript of the thoughts you yourself had after seeing the video (that part can be pretty scrappy as far as the prose goes)

2) a somewhat more carefully written summary of the discussion with your partners and your thoughts thereafter. That part should probably run about two pages, but could be longer or shorter without disaster.

There will be two m more such viewings and reportings. I plan to have the first set of CDs available on Monday.

I BY SUNDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 1: E-mail me a brief mathematical autobiography. It needn't be particularly thorough or detailed—what I would like to know is roughly your current level and roughly your current feelings about mathematics and, insofar as you can trace them, how you arrived at those feelings. Put on the subject line: "Math autobio for [your name]" and send it to warfield@math.washington.edu, with a cc. to aakirson@math.washington.edu.

II FOR MONDAY, OCTOBER 3: In the textbook, read the Message to Prospective and Practicing Teachers and §1 of Chapter 1. Turn in (on paper!) the answers to the following questions:

1) What (if anything) surprised you in the reading?
2) What that they describe (if anything) do you particularly look forward to working on?
3) What that they describe (if anything) makes you a little uneasy?

III THE EXTRA QUESTION: Read the problem below and list as many quantities in it as you can. Give the value of each quantity (complete with unit) if you know it. If you don't (i.e. it is not given) say so.

You have a bunch of boxes, all weighing the same amount, but you don't know what that amount is. You do know, however, that on a balance scale, three of the boxes plus a one-pound weight exactly balance two of the boxes plus five one-pound weights.

For Wednesday, October 4: Read actively the next section of the book (1.2). By this I mean that after reading a problem, such as the hot dog problem and the sisters and brothers problem, you should close the book and work on solving it. When you feel as if you have made all the progress you can (really made it – don't let yourself fool yourself into going on because you don't feel like thinking any more!), read the next chunk of the book until you get to something unanswered, then stop and work on it again … etc.

Then do as many problems from the end of the section as you feel will benefit you.

Turn in Problems 4, 8 and 9

Come prepared to discuss Problems 3 and 6. You will be handing in 4,8, and 9 at the beginning of the hour, so have your quantitative analyses, etc. written out on a different piece of paper.

For Monday, Oct. 9: 1) Read the rest of Chapter 1 [Norte that all sections should always be read actively -- if a problem is offered, work on it before you go on to the follow-up; when there's a "Think about it" , do!]
2) Do all of the Learning Exercises at the end of 1.3 and turn in #1 - 3.
3)Prepare to discuss #4 [keep your notes separate from what you are going to turn in]
4) Turn in carefully written solutions to the bathtub problem on page 14 and #3 from the Learning Exercises at the end of 1.2.

For Wednesday, October 11:

Read Chapter 2, section 3 up to the example on page 43 (note that we are postponing the first two sections). From the Learning Exercises on page 44-5, do and turn in #2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17.

For Monday, October 16

Read 2.4 and 2.5
Note: 1) typo on p. 47. Beside left hand version of 351 + 250 Questions should be "How many tens? How many hundreds?"
2) Of the "you should be able to's" on p. 54, we have not yet hit #3, 5 and 8

From Learning Exercises for 2.4 (p. 50)
Do #1,

then #6 and #7 (DO use cut-outs for bases 2 and 5. If you feel secure, just draw what they would be for the other bases),

then #3 and 4.

Turn in a and d from #6,7,3 and 4.

For Monday, October 23

Read 2.1 "lightly" -- don't turn your brain off, but it's OK if you don't delve too deeply.

Read 2.2 actively and thoroughly.

Come in prepared to discuss the Money and Place Value questions on p. 35.

From the Learning Exercises for Section 2.2 (p. 35) turn in all parts.

For Wednesday, October 25
Read the introduction to Chapter 3 and section 3.1.
Turn in all of the Learning Exercises at the end of the section.

Note: It is my intention to make you think hard and work hard, but not to drive you nuts. If you get hung up on a problem, do NOT bang your head against a wall. Write up as much as you can figure out and come discuss it with your group on Wednesday.

For Monday, Oct. 30

Read 3.2 and 3.3 attentively. From the Learning Exercises for 3.2, do all. Turn in 3, 8 and 11.

From the Learning Exercises for 3.3, do all. Turn in 2 and 5.

Be prepared to discuss the Activity : Children's Ways, on p. 73

For Wednesday, Nov. 1

Read 3.4 and 3.5

From the Learning Exercises for 3.4, do all. Turn in 2, 3, 4 and 14 a and b.

From the Learning Exercises for 3.5, do all. Turn in 1, 2 and 7.

Finish the work your group began on the NIM-style thinking worksheet.

Read 3.6 and 3.7.

Also read all the learning exercises for 3.6. You do not have to turn anything in, but you should expect to discuss several parts (either learning exercises or discussion sections or both.)

For Monday, Nov. 13

Read all of Chapter 4 and turn in all the Learning Exercises at the end of 4.1

For Wednesday, Nov. 15

Read Chapter 6 section 1 (we are skipping Chapter 5)

Typo alert: On page 139, the example that has three shaded circles and an unshaded trapezoid should have an unshaded circle instead.

Do all the Learning Exercises except for #6-8

Turn in #4,13,14,16,22

For Monday, Nov. 20

Read 6.2. Turn in LE #1,2,4-6, 8-10.

For Monday, Nov. 27:

Read 6.3. Turn in LE #1 – 4 and 10

Note: I am late getting this onto the web page. If you looked earlier and didn't find it, you may have an automatic extension to Wednesday.

For Wednesday, Nov. 29:

Read 7.1 Do all the Learning Exercises; turn in #1-3, 9, 12

For Monday

Read 7.2 Turn in all the drawings for the Activity on p. 174 (Juanita and Jaime Again) Also turn in 1,2,4,6, 9,13,15,18

For Wednesday

Read 7.3 Do as many of the problems as you can. Turn in 1,6,7,9,15