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stonffville simtribune thursday sept 8 2005 3 problems with math final of a twopart series by caroline grech staff writer is your teenager stressing about math class this year there may be good news for stu dents who are struggling to pass arithmetic many students heading to school this week will find math class a little easier to understand thanks to an adjustment to the high school curriculum for many students abstract concepts are a major stumbling block so educators are removing these theories problems with understanding arithmetic can be boiled down to a few things unionyille high school math teacher louis lim said chief among them is the lack of relevance to students lives com bined with weak numeration skills said mr lim one of the educators commissioned to study the math curriculum for ontarios grade 9 and 10 students we need to get students to understand math not just memo rize mr lim stressed the former curriculum required teachers to cover 61 specific expec tations and teachers had to cover the material whether or not stu dents understood it and to prepare them for material on eqao tests mr lim said educators say the pressures of a revised curriculum forced them away from having students work in groups to investigate and research topics instead they say they were forced to stand at the front of the class and work out a problem with students on the board this method was not working now less material will need to be covered giving teachers and stu dents a little breathing room and more time to absorb what they are learning the problems began when the 1999 course curriculum was designed grade 9 and 10 academ ic and applied courses had the same material but were taught dif ferently grade 9 applied students those not expected to go to univer sity were having difficulty grasp ing the material said kathryn stewart an intermediate senior mathematics literacy consultant for the york region district school staff photobill roberts maple high school math teacher dave bocknek taught grade 12 students calculus equations throughout the summer many students find the subject confusing and out of touch with real life board the new curriculum takes out the abstract and beefs up the con crete aspects of math ms stewart explained but at least one person isnt a fan of the change education critic and oak ridges mpp frank klees a member of the tory government that adopted the curriculum change in 1999 said making the curriculum easier is a cop out by educators who arent innovative or creative when teach ing mathematics i think making it easier is wrong it may be welcomed by some students and by some parents but at the end of the day its not the right thing for ontario students mr klees said rather than dumb down the workload the real way to achieve the required 75percent pass rate is to motivate students to work hard er mr klees said the 1999 curriculum was designed and implemented to raise the bar for ontario students to allow them to be competitive on both a domestic and international level mr klees said adding the 1999 curriculum was designed by teachers across the province we had to bring ontario educa tion in line with the rest of the world and at least one york region stu dent agrees math courses are too easy in ontario high schools i got 93 per cent in math they should make it harder grade 10 thornhill student sadaf mehdizadeh said immigrating from iran with her family ms mehdizadeh said stu dents at the grade 11 level in ontario do the same work students in grade 9 do in iran as for problems students encounter trying to adjust to the new curriculum mr klees chalked it up to being a part of life struggling is all part of realizing a goal mr klees said this sends the message if you cant pass well make it easier for you mr klees also dismissed claims a shortened high school curriculum could be exacerbating the problem by forcing more material into one less year of learning the reality is that we are the only jurisdiction that had a five- year program mr klees said ask ing why ontario students need an extra year compared to students in other provinces ms stewart disagrees by making the curriculum more rigorous some students got lost in the shuffle and lessons werent rela tive to their lives they werent being realistic you need to start with where the stu dents are at ms stewart said adding not everyone learns math the same way research shows students learn better when working with others ms stewart said the new curriculum gives teach ers more time to get through all the necessary expectations of the courses while at the same time allowing for students to work together she said can you solve these problems grade 9 q a video rental company has two monthly plans plan a charges a flat fee of 30 for unlimited rentals plan b charges 9 plus 3 per video students can use a graphical model to determine whether plan a or plan b is the better deal a if you rent less than seven movies a month then plan b will save you money to be exact plan b will save you 3 for every movie less than seven movies a month if you rent no movies you will save 21 but have wasted the 9 plan fee on the other hand if you rent more than seven movies a month an aver age of two or more a week then plan a will save you 3 for every movie after the seventh movie that month grade 11 compare the results of making an annual deposit of 1000 to an rrsp beginning at age 20 with the results of making an annual deposit of 3000 beginning at age 50 given lthe rrsp will be drawn upon as- a source of income without any addi tional contributions at and after age 65 2 each deposit is made on the birth day of the investor and interest calcu lated at the anniversary of the deposit the final deposit is made on the 64th birthday a total of 45000 is invested in both scenarios 3 the rrsp earns compound interest 4 an interest rate of 10 per cent is a good rate of return for a longterm investment an interest rate of 5 per cent is a very conservative rate of return for a longterm investment an interest rate of 1 per cent is an extremely low rate of return for a long term investment a for each interest rate and com pound period beginning at age 20 and depositing 1000 a year yields more money at age 65 than beginning at age 50 and depositing 3000 a year the table also shows the higher the interest rate the greater the differ ence between the two scenarios it also shows the more frequent the compounding the greater the differ ence in conclusion regardless of inter est rate or compounding period if you are able to make 45 annual deposits of 1000 to an rrsr beginning at age 20 you will make more money by the age of 65 than you will if you make 15 annual deposits of 3000 begin ning at age 50 for part one of the series go to wwwyorkregioncom and search caroline grech do you think making the math curriculum easier is the right move email jmasonymgcom 427574 smlleclinicca 6212 main st it of the train station dr sheldon lazier dr waseema ali dr dina ghobrial ed edwards dd