Quilting helps student pass math test - Page 2

> The problem with the way we teach math to both children and adults is
> that we teach it out of context. =A0When I was teenager, I hated algebra.
> =A0 Thought all those x's and y's were meaningless. =A0In college, I took
> chemistry and we used algebra to solve our chemistry problems. =A0Voila,
> suddenly those x's and y's actually represented something tangible and
> if FINALLY made sense.
> Best regards,
> Michelle

Ain't that the truth <g>. Also helped your French n'est pas?

> wrote:
>> The problem with the way we teach math to both children and adults is
>> that we teach it out of context. When I was teenager, I hated algebra.
>> Thought all those x's and y's were meaningless. In college, I took
>> chemistry and we used algebra to solve our chemistry problems. Voila,
>> suddenly those x's and y's actually represented something tangible and
>> if FINALLY made sense.
>> Best regards,
>> Michelle
> [snip]
>
> Ain't that the truth <g>. Also helped your French n'est pas?
>

>I will have no idea whether it made much difference, but when my niece
>was in 3rd grade and visiting I was planning to make a new pieced
>quilt, and she came over to watch as I sat at the dining room table
>with paper and pencil. I had a full-sized sketch of the block, so she
>took a ruler and measured each piece. Then she counted how many of
>each size and shape and color were in each block. By that time she
>was really interested, so I told her I could use her help figuring
>everything out and handed her a pencil and 2 pads of paper -- one to
>make our shopping list and one for all the math. Then I told her
>there were going to be 81 blocks in the quilt, so together we did the
>multiplication to get the totals of all the pieces we would need.
>When we had all that written down I told her we could go to the store
>and choose the fabric, but we needed to know how much fabric to buy
>--- we needed to get enough for all the pieces, but would buy extra
>"just because quilters always do that" since quilters make mistakes
>and would use extra fabrics for something else later on. So -- then
>came the "how many 2" squares can fit across the fabric", and I told
>her about seam allowances, and she was afraid she would have to figure
>all of that, too, and essentially start over, but I told her we would
>just put the 2" squares on the fabric with 1/2" all the way around so
>each would have the 1/4" seam allowances automatically added, and that
>we would do that with the 1" squares and the 2" HST's, too. And I
>showed her the stencils I use to mark the fabric, which have the
>"holes" for the pieces cut out and spaced 1/2" apart -- she thought
>that would help. So, I told her that the fabric we would get was 44"
>wide, but we would only figure on having 42" and showed her what
>selvages were, and she used the 42" width to figure the "how many
>across". Then came the "how many rows do we need" -- more basic
>math. When that was figured for each shape and color, we could figure
>how many yards of fabric we really needed, and then added plenty of
>extra "just because". (Meanwhile, I was figuring all that out myself,
>of course, hoping that our sets of figures would come out the same so
>we could use her list in the store.) When she thought we had it all
>figured, I told her we also needed more of the blue fabric to bind the
>quilt, so she decided we needed to know how far it was all the way
>around the quilt and how wide the binding would be, used the 42", and
>figured that, too, with very little guidance by that time -- I just
>told her we also needed extra length because of the corners. Next
>came what we would need to get for the backing, so she figured that.
>I told her we didn't need to buy batting since I already had plenty of
>that, and thread, too. And then we went shopping, and celebrated our
>purchases with lunch at her favorite fastfood restaurant. She was
>pretty excited. The next day we began marking the fabrics, and as I
>did the cutting she counted out the pieces for each block for the
>quilt and put each "block" in separate piles and then into separate
>envelopes all ready to stitch. She and her mother had to leave for
>home a few days later, but late one evening I took the extra fabric
>and cut out 2 extra blocks. She called me several times about the
>quilt -- how did the blocks look, how many had I sewn, etc.
>Meanwhile, I pieced the 2 extra blocks, quilted and bound them, added
>a zipper and a pillow form, and sent her a "thank you for all your
>good help" surprise. She is now 34 years old and still has that
>pillow! She teaches 5th grade in Colorado, and last year took that
>pillow to school with her and explained how she had helped with a big
>quilt when they were talking about why math is important in everyday
>life -- how many gallons of paint for a house, how much grass seed for
>a new yard, how many tomato plants for how many tomatoes for spaghetti
>sauce, how much gas for a particular car to drive to California, etc.

> I will have no idea whether it made much difference, but when my niece
> was in 3rd grade and visiting I was planning to make a new pieced
> quilt, and she came over to watch as I sat at the dining room table
> with paper and pencil. I had a full-sized sketch of the block, so she
> took a ruler and measured each piece. Then she counted how many of
> each size and shape and color were in each block. By that time she
> was really interested, so I told her I could use her help figuring
> everything out and handed her a pencil and 2 pads of paper -- one to
> make our shopping list and one for all the math. Then I told her
> there were going to be 81 blocks in the quilt, so together we did the
> multiplication to get the totals of all the pieces we would need.
> When we had all that written down I told her we could go to the store
> and choose the fabric, but we needed to know how much fabric to buy
> --- we needed to get enough for all the pieces, but would buy extra
> "just because quilters always do that" since quilters make mistakes
> and would use extra fabrics for something else later on. So -- then
> came the "how many 2" squares can fit across the fabric", and I told
> her about seam allowances, and she was afraid she would have to figure
> all of that, too, and essentially start over, but I told her we would
> just put the 2" squares on the fabric with 1/2" all the way around so
> each would have the 1/4" seam allowances automatically added, and that
> we would do that with the 1" squares and the 2" HST's, too. And I
> showed her the stencils I use to mark the fabric, which have the
> "holes" for the pieces cut out and spaced 1/2" apart -- she thought
> that would help. So, I told her that the fabric we would get was 44"
> wide, but we would only figure on having 42" and showed her what
> selvages were, and she used the 42" width to figure the "how many
> across". Then came the "how many rows do we need" -- more basic
> math. When that was figured for each shape and color, we could figure
> how many yards of fabric we really needed, and then added plenty of
> extra "just because". (Meanwhile, I was figuring all that out myself,
> of course, hoping that our sets of figures would come out the same so
> we could use her list in the store.) When she thought we had it all
> figured, I told her we also needed more of the blue fabric to bind the
> quilt, so she decided we needed to know how far it was all the way
> around the quilt and how wide the binding would be, used the 42", and
> figured that, too, with very little guidance by that time -- I just
> told her we also needed extra length because of the corners. Next
> came what we would need to get for the backing, so she figured that.
> I told her we didn't need to buy batting since I already had plenty of
> that, and thread, too. And then we went shopping, and celebrated our
> purchases with lunch at her favorite fastfood restaurant. She was
> pretty excited. The next day we began marking the fabrics, and as I
> did the cutting she counted out the pieces for each block for the
> quilt and put each "block" in separate piles and then into separate
> envelopes all ready to stitch. She and her mother had to leave for
> home a few days later, but late one evening I took the extra fabric
> and cut out 2 extra blocks. She called me several times about the
> quilt -- how did the blocks look, how many had I sewn, etc.
> Meanwhile, I pieced the 2 extra blocks, quilted and bound them, added
> a zipper and a pillow form, and sent her a "thank you for all your
> good help" surprise. She is now 34 years old and still has that
> pillow! She teaches 5th grade in Colorado, and last year took that
> pillow to school with her and explained how she had helped with a big
> quilt when they were talking about why math is important in everyday
> life -- how many gallons of paint for a house, how much grass seed for
> a new yard, how many tomato plants for how many tomatoes for spaghetti
> sauce, how much gas for a particular car to drive to California, etc.