Wednesday, April 28

Maths Heuristics featured in Kaisu Parent's website


We all know that times have changed, but who would have imagined that the foundational mathematical problem solving skills we were brought up on mean practically nothing for our next generation?

The mathematics questions found in primary schools these days can leave even the most academically inclined parents stumped! Regardless whether you’ve scored A* in your own PSLE maths paper decades ago, we’re sure you’ve had difficulty trying to guide your child with his/her homework using your old-school algebraic equations. Even the relatively newer model approach, involving drawing rectangular boxes/blocks, doesn’t always work.

Perhaps the alternative Heuristics approach will put those seemingly impossible-to-solve problem sums in a “less intimidating” light. Heuristics simply refers to rules, processes or methods that the student can discover... Click Here to continue reading

Wednesday, April 21

Using Equal Concept (UTM) to solve problem!

Tuesday, April 13

Utilising Advancd UTM Techniques

Mrs Lim said...
I have bought your Unit Transfer Method Book last month. I was trying to use Chapter 1.4 (All Changing Quanties) to solve the below question from my girl's P6 test paper but somehow just could not solve the question. Question: Jane had $108 more than Peggy at first. Jane used 2/9 of her money while Peggy used 2/5 of her money. After that, Jane had $340 more than Peggy. How many did Jane have at first?
From the Desk of Sunny Tan........


Problems that involve “more than/less than” generally utilize Advanced UTM technique. This problem cannot be solved using “All changing quantities” – questions in “All changing” does not involve “more than/ less than”.
Advance technique involves modification of the basic UTM as follows:










I would advise to teach the child the basic UTM technique and ensure the child is proficient in applying the fundamental UTM framework before to expose them to the advanced UTM. Without the basic training in the UTM framework, the child will faces challenges in visualizing the above conversion and may end up confusing the child.

Below depicts an alternate method to the above problem using the stack model approach :