The Beef Taco Dilemma

By Jon OaksJan 26, 2012
This is a problem that I wrote for my statistics class.  The objectives for this problem are as follows: 1.  Compute percentages. 2.  Compute the arithmetic mean. 3.  Critically think about whether or not Joe had enough tacos to meet the 'average' demand.   What I found was some students had a hard time computing the percentages and some also had a hard time keeping straight how many beef and how many chicken tacos Joe ordered on each day.
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Scotch Tape and Gas Prices Dilemma

By Jon OaksMay 14, 2011
So, my whole recent obsession with Scotch Tape sort of began a few weeks ago when the following problem popped into my mind... Suppose your boss wants you to buy six 1/2 in x 450 in rolls of Scotch tape at the dollar store (remember the 6% Michigan sales tax).  Your boss wants you to use the tape to enclose an area of 3,225.8 square cm, but has only given you a budget of $7.00 to do so, including the amount of gas to drive back and forth to the dollar store, which is exactly 1.5 miles away from work.…
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Thought-Provoking Proportion Challenge Problems

By Jon OaksMay 14, 2011
I totally meant to share these problems a few weeks ago, but I wanted to try it out with my classes first.  However, I got so distracted with doing my Capture & Recapture Lab that we never got to the worksheet.  Yes, I did a Capture & Recapture lab for my Beginning Algebra Classes to help demonstrate how proportions might be used as part of a method of estimation.  Several students told me that without the lab, they wouldn't have really understood exactly why we even needed proportions.  That made me happy.  So, here we are after the semester has…
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I Use Matrices in Everyday Life, Do You?

By Jon OaksMar 08, 2011
I am teaching a Finite Math class this semester and the majority of students in the class are business majors.  I'm trying to make the class as relevant to them as possible, so I've been reading magazines such as INC, and Entrepreneur to try to get ideas for things that I can talk about in class.  Well, here is one problem I came up with for my lesson on multiplying matrices.  And by the way, I put a copy of the pie chart from the magazine on the Document Camera before even starting (I brought the magazine to class, actually). According…
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The Snooze Button is Now a Math Problem

By Jon OaksMar 03, 2011
Yesterday I came across this problem while planning a lesson on ratio and proportion:"When I woke up this morning, I hit the snooze button and got 10 extra minutes to sleep.  Every time I hit the button, I get 10 extra minutes.  At this rate, if my alarm first goes off at 5:30 and I hit the snooze button 4 times before I actually get up, what time do I get up?" After careful thinking, it turns out that I wasn't actually interested in this problem at all.  I was actually interested in asking questions such as:Does it make since…
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Rotten Tomatoes, Linear Equations, Ratio and Proportion

By Jon OaksMar 03, 2011
This problem came about because I was talking about solving the equation 4x + y = - 14 for y and there was a little confusion about how I could  subtract 4x from - 14.  Although this was really a problem with combining like terms, I figured that now was as good of a time as ever to reinforce the idea of combining like terms. "Yaletta bought an unknown number of tomatoes at $4 each, but when she got home, she found out that all of the tomatoes were rotten.  In addition, she checked her receipt and realized that the…
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New Application Problems from the Classroom

By Jon OaksMar 01, 2011
Here are few more problems that I came up with during today's class: 1.  Clyde owed 8 different people $4 each for some doughnuts that he bought to eat on his birthday. Then when he wasn't looking, Hellman's stole $4 from Clyde's wallet.  In order to reclaim his debt, Clyde needed to split up his total losses over a period of nine months.  How much debt will he recover over each of the nine months? 2.  Clyde went to the store and he bought seven nuclear weapons, but he doesn't know the price of them yet.  He had to return…
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Teaching Signed Numbers with Zombies, Ghostbusters, and Night Vision Goggles

By Jon OaksFeb 24, 2011
Here are three new application problems that I came up with while teaching signed numbers this morning.  Remember, I came up with these on the spot, during class.  So, just imagine that the entire class is paying attention to each of these problems as I am writing them, trying to figure out what is going to happen next to Clyde in each of the problems.  I hope you enjoy these! 1.  Clyde was walking down the street and he lost 1/3 of his vodka.  A little later down the street Clyde encountered a zombie who wanted to steal another 2/5…
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GCF, LCM, and Order of Operations

By Jon OaksJan 13, 2011
In my Basic Mathematics class we just finished discussing the order of operations, and students always seem to have a problem with it, especially when division comes before multiplication (Sally has always told them otherwise).  Today we discussed finding the Greatest Common Factor (GCF) and Least Common Multiple (LCM), another topic that students sometimes seem to have a problem with.  I came up with the following problem, which sparked quite a lot of discussion in the classroom.  But more than that, I think it is the type of problem that continues to reiterate the Order of Operations, and doesn't back…
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Mathematics in the News

By Jon OaksJan 07, 2011
Sometimes as an instructor I struggle to get students to see the relevance of mathematics.  Although mathematics isn't in the news nearly as often as I think it should be, here are links to a few websites that do document real-time mathematics news, along with a website with some interesting videos that might help to get some of the most stubborn students to possibly look at mathematics from a different perspective.Related Links:Science Daily:  Mathematics NewsMath Real-Time News Index The Futures Channel
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