Questions tagged [primary-education]
For questions about the mathematical education in the first years in school (ages approx. 5-10).
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When Did They Start Using Ohm's Triangle for Arithmetic Topics?
I am here with a historical question about maths education. I hope I have chosen the right SE as there are confusingly three that pertain to historical research into mathematics.
Any quantitative ...
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How can a church or other non-academic institution find and hire math teachers?
We'd like to set up a remedial math program in our church. To do so, we would need to hire at least two teachers who could design courses in middle school and high school math, and teach them.
I'm a ...
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How to justify formula for area of triangle (or parallelogram)
I'm going to be teaching my kids the concept of area soon.
The concept of area of a rectangle (or square), $\text{base} \times \text{height}$ is fairly easy to both explain and intuit: you can break ...
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Recommended math site or app for 7th/8th grade
I am looking for an app or website that teaches math at 7th or 8th grade level (for my son). The emphasis should be on fun, game-like experience, that would maintain his natural excitement and ...
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How to round numbers?
I have often thought that $3=3.0$ so one can round $3.4\approx 3.0$. But some math teachers says this is wrong. Which one is the correct answer? Why this might be wrong?
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Why is $a+b = b+a$?
In primary school, it's extremely easy to show that $a \times b = b \times a$, as follows:
The surface of a rectangle can be calculated using the formula $\text{Basis} \times \text{Height}$, as in ...
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Staircase method of small integer addition
I found the Math Games: Math for Kids to be excellent (if not extremely, excellent) at teaching elementary school math.
But it made me think of some tricks, that could be displayed when teaching at a ...
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International mathematical olympiad-type competitions at lower levels, and if they exist, their educational usefulness?
Educators in many countries have found that preparing highly motivated students for national and international mathematical olympiads can be useful in training them in mathematical ways of thinking.
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What are some "deep" questions to explore in elementary school math?
My first grader is very advanced in math. Rather than doing more and more math and making school math even more boring for him, I recently decided to start going "deeper" rather than "...
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Where to distribute free math ed materials for informal settings?
I am a psychologist studying mathematical thinking and learning and I have been organizing a monthly math night at a local library. Each math night consists of a short presentation followed by several ...
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Whole numbers as sets vs abstracted properties of sets
I recently landed on a book written for elementary school teachers which introduced the concept of whole numbers in the following manner:
We have a set $\{\alpha, \beta, \gamma\}$. There are other ...
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Elementary Teacher Math specialist/ Basic Math Minor
I'm the math department chair at a small university. Our general education program is non-traditional. The university is split into three areas. Students are expected to complete a major in one of the ...
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A few quick sentences to inspire an 8 year old in Maths
I have always been passionate and fascinated with maths, my job revolves around the subject, but I'm not an educator. Today I met the 8 year old son of a friend, I had the opportunity to speak to him ...
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Why do we explicitly state the equality of two things when we know they're equal
Recently my brother in high school and I were talking about some math when he said
If we know two things are the same i.e. equal why do we need to state
that they're the same? What he was trying to ...
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What is the justification to teach the (redundant) use of parentheses in multiplications?
Example: 5 x 18 = (5 x 10) + (5 x 8) instead of 5 x 10 + 5 x 8?
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