Math 355 Final Exam Nina Halverson 1.

How would you explain the Associative Property of Addition to a second grade student? Dont let the tricky name scare you the Associative Property of Addition is e asy and always true in math. I would explain to the children that it can be referred to as the Buddy Rule. First I will show the children pictures of 2 cats, 3 dogs, and 4 rabbits. I will group the cats and dogs together and say they are buddies and ask how many animals we have. They will say 5. I will then ask what that is added to the 4 rabbits, which equals 9. I will then group together the 3 dogs and the 4 rabbits. I will ask how many animals are buddies in that group. They will say 7. I will ask what that is with the 2 dogs which equal 9. I will say that it doesnt matter which groups of animals are buddies we will get the same answer. I will write the word problems on the board and their pictures underneath and show them equaling each other. I will provide a few more examples with animals and ask the children to group them and see if they get the same thing. 2. Explain in your own words why subtraction does not possess the commutative property. The commutative property in addition is : a+b=b+a. For example: 10+2=12 and 2+10=12. Therefore it does not matter which order they are in you get the same thing. This does not work for subtraction because 10-2 does not equal 2-10. 10-2=8 and 2-10= -8. When adding two numbers the order does not matter but when subtracting numbers the order matters because

you are taking something away from something. The number is a lot smaller then it is when you do it the first time. 3. How would you explain the Commutative Property of Multiplication to a third grade student? Writing on the board: What is the answer to 3x2? They would know that: 6. What if we switched the order, what is 2x3? Answer: 6. While writing on the board, so we got 3x2=6=2x3, if we take out the 6 we get 3x2=2x3. That is called the Commutative Property of Multiplication. Sounds like such a fancy name for an easy concept. Try the same thing with 3 and 4. Try doing 3x4 first. What do you get? 12. Now try 4x3. What do you get? 12. So, 3x4=4x3 because both answers equal 12. Now try it on your own. Pick any two numbers, multiply them and switch the order. Just to familiarize yourself here are the letters: axb=bxa. Dont worry about the letters now it is just to introduce you to it. 4. Explain in your own words why you cant divide by zero. You cannot divide by zero because when you divide something you are splitting it into groups. So if you have 9 cookies and want to split it into 3 groups, each group would get 3 cookies. If cannot split 9 cookies into zero groups, that just does not make sense. There is nothing to split up. I think of it as 0 * x=9. Nothing would work for x because 0 multiplied by any number is 0. Therefore you cannot divide by 0. 5. State the order of operations and why these rules are important in mathematics. Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction

There are important to know because it matters what order you do things. It can give you a completely different answer if you do not follow these steps. (16/4) +2*(3*2)-3^2=7 If you do it a different order for example by taking 16/4 then adding 2 right away then do the rest of the problem you get 27 which is very different. Doing the problem in the right order is vital to getting the correct solution and is helpful in algebra where the problems get longer and harder. 6. Describe what a one to one relationship is as it relates to the natural numbers. x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Pretend that the figure above is the results from students. The first column are the students who want hot lunch, the second column are the students who want cold lunch. When comparing the two you would count: one to one, one to one, one to one, one to one, one to one, then count 1, 2, 3 in the first column. So, 3 more students want hot lunch then cold lunch. Each number lines up with the other number make them a one to one correspondent.

7. How would you describe the following sets of numbers to a fifth grader? Natural Numbers, Rational Numbers, Integers, and Whole Numbers. Today we are going to discuss number types and how they work. The first type is natural numbers. Think of natural numbers as counting numbers but with no zero! So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Just how you count in order starting at 1. Next come whole numbers, whole numbers are counting numbers but with zero! So, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. So, natural numbers dont like zero but whole numbers do! The next number type is called integers. Integers are whole numbers plus negative. So they like zero, and negative numbers. So, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3. Lets review: natural numbers are counting numbers that dont like zero. Whole numbers are counting numbers that like zero, and integers like zero and negative numbers. The last number type is called rational numbers. Rational numbers are any numbers that can be written as a fraction. They are rational because they like almost any number. Examples are , 2/4, square root of -16. Anything that can be written as a fraction. 8. As a teacher, you noticed what several of you students are making the same mistake when multiplying 2 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers such as 16x23. When they are computing they seem to forget to move over the number on the second line. Describe how you would explain this to your students. Be sure to include concepts and skills the students need to understand this. When multiplying 16x23 you want to write it out up and down. We start by multiplying the 3 which is in the ones place in the second row. The 2 is in the tens place. So we start by multiplying 3 by 6 and then 3 by 1. We get 48 for our first row. Now because we move to

multiplying in the tens place we need a place holder, which will be the zero. This is important because we know that we are no longer in the ones place so our next number needs to be where the tens place is, under the 2. We multiply 2 by 6 and then 2 by 1. So we have 320 on the second row. When we add them up we get 368. Remember we need the zero because we are multiplying the tens place. We dont need it for 2x3 because that is all in the ones pl ace. 9. As a teacher, you had a student say, Division is a set of confusing rules that do not make any sense. How can you explain to this student that when dividing 345 by 30 the student wants to find out how many times 30 goes into 345? Help the student grasp what it means to find out how many times 30 goes into 345. Lets say that you have 345 cookies that you need to sell for Girl Scouts. Your mom works with 30 people and she said that she would divide the cookies evenly among them. So we need to figure out how many cookies each person is going to get. So you take 345 divided by 30 which is 11.5 so each person would get 11.5 cookies. So 30 goes into 345 11.5 times. When you multiply 30x11.5 you get 345 which is a way to check your answer. Trying to visualize the problem and break it up to a real world situation can help grasp what the numbers really mean and find out how many times something goes into something. 10. In your own words explain why the traditional algorithm works for 463-275. The traditional algorithm works because you can regroup 463 so that you can subtract 275 from it. You can make the 6 a 5 and regroup the 3 into 13. Then you can make the 4 a three to make the 5 a 15. That is how the traditional algorithm will work. By rearranging the numbers on the top you can subtract easier. It takes a lot of different steps but ultimately ends up working.

11. What is the difference between using the terms borrowing and regrouping in subtraction? Explain why regrouping is the preferred term? Borrowing means you are taking away from the number and adding it to yours. You are not borrowing the number you are just regrouping the set of numbers. For example if the top number is 392 and you need to regroup, you simply take one from the 9 to make the 2 a twelve. So you regroup the hundreds, tens, and ones column so you are able to subtract. The number is still 392 so you did not borrow from anything; you just regrouped so it says 392 in a different way. 12. How can you as an educator help your students develop a positive attitude towards mathematics? I can make math fun and engaging for students. By helping them apply math to the real world and see it as something useful they will have a positive attitude towards it. I will also have a positive attitude towards math so that I set a good example for the students and make them want to learn math. I will also have different math activities and vary the lessons that I teach. If I teach the same why every time and dont do different activities it wont be fun for the students. I will help students see that learning math is exciting and will help them in their futures by being a good role model and making the lessons fun. 13. How do you think the Common Core State Standards will effect math education? I think the Common Core State Standards will make math more challenging and bring the curriculum down grade levels. I think students will start more challenging math concepts earlier

then they would have before. So if a student learns long division in 4 th grade they might be learning it in 3rd grade with the standards. I think it will challenge students in a good way and make them see what they are capable of. I think it will also hold math education to a higher standard. It will hold students accountable for more which is a good thing. 14. When teaching problem solving skills, how can student reflections help? It is helpful to know how you figure problems out so you can do them better the next time. By reflecting on what strategies you use you can explore other options and see how else to do the problem. It also helps me know how I can better teach the problems so my students understand them. I can teach them alternative problem solving skills to see if they work better and give the students other things to try. It is always best to reflect on anything that you work on and take notes so you can improve. 15. What are some techniques or characteristics of effective teaching of mathematics? It is important to help students understand why something works and not only how. A good technique is to teach the procedure and break it down as much as you can so the students understand each piece. Also teaching the students patterns and helping them see patterns is effective. A good technique is to know your tools and know your goals for the students. If you are organized and know what to do then the students will be organized. You should also live and love math to teach it effectively. By demonstrating that you love what you are doing and letting the students see that will only help. Be engaging and make homework meaningful and have a purpose.

16. What is the reason for developing algebraic thinking in elementary school? A lot of the math in elementary school is a building block towards algebra. Simple addition, multiplication, subtraction, and addition problems get the student ready for algebra. It is important to have students think algebraically so that learning it later is easier. If we separate the algebra completely the students are going to have a hard time learning it later in life. If students develop those skills early on then they will see arithmetic and algebra connected. By problem solving, predicting, and modeling the students are getting ready for algebra in their secondary years. 17. How is mathematical thinking and understanding developed in children? Students develop mathematical thinking through studying change, generalizing, problem solving, modeling, justifying, proving and prediction. These are all strategies that students use to better understand what they are doing with math. They compare and contrast objects all the time and are always exploring things. Children analyze patterns and relationships which helping them understand the world around them. 18. What connection do you see between divisibility and decomposition of numbers? Decomposition and divisibility both involve breaking numbers down. When we decompose numbers for instance the number 214, we can write 200+10+4. We are breaking the number down into a more simplified form. Divisibility of a number also breaks the number down. When we find numbers that are divisible we are also breaking them down. For example, the number 8, we know is divisible by 2 and 4. We are breaking the number 8 down and see that we can get

8 by multiplying 2x4 or 2x2x2x2. By decomposing and finding divisibility rules we are breaking the number down. 19. How are prime numbers the building blocks for the set of natural numbers? A prime number is a natural number greater than 1 that has no positive dividers other than 1 itself. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is a composite number. The fundamental theorem of arithmetic states that every positive integer larger than 1 can be written as a product of one or more primes in a way that is unique expect for the order of prime numbers. Therefore, primes can be considered the building blocks of natural numbers.
20. Why does the NTCM encourage mathematics classrooms to provide numerous opportunities for communication? Students are better able to understand what they are doing if they can communicate it to others. It helps them gain insight into their thinking if they can explain to someone else how to do it. The best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else which is communicating. Students should also be able to express themselves in a positive way and explain to others what they are learning. It also helps reflective skills by being able to explain to others how they did something. It can in turn help students learn new problem solving skills.