What's the point of diluting math by mixing in other subjects if the textbook
doesn't bother to be meaningful or even to get the facts right? If all we're doing
is throwing in isolated, off-topic, out-of-context cocktail-party facts, almost all
of which are merely mindless counts of things, then isn't that exactly what
trendy reform-minded educrats complain about in content-based curricula?
The sudden, out-of-nowhere telling a kid that Mercury is 36,000,000 miles from the
sun is exactly the kind of mind-deadening fact that the educational theorists bemoan
when they're talking about science class. Why do we want to weigh down our math
curriculum with this stuff?
Worse, many of these irrelevancies are inexact or just plain wrong!
Critical Thinking. Suppose a boat loses its anchor. The ocean
floor is about 1,500 feet below the boat. [Using a chart of the diving depths of
various sea mammals,] which animals might the crew use to get the anchor? (page 113)
On the chart, the only animal to reach that depth is the Weddell seal. Now, lean
back and visualize a group of marine biologists laughing themselves silly over the
notion of a lost boat coaxing a passing Weddell seal into retrieving their anchor
for them. What we need is textbook authors who have some capacity for critical thinking!
Science. There are about 7,688 giant redwood seeds in 1 oz
of seeds. About how many seeds are there in half a pound? (page 219)
"About?" The word about simply doesn't go with the number 7,688: the specificity
of the number implies four significant digits; the word "about" denies that. And where
does this isolated, off-the-wall number come from? This isn't science, this is a
hunt for random, meaningless factoids.
Science. There are 136,800 kinds of butterflies and crickets.
(page 71)
Science. There are about 6,500 kinds of dragonflies and 2,000 kinds of praying
mantis. How many more kinds of dragonflies are there than praying mantis? (page 229)
If they're going to fantasize that they are helping to teach science in the process,
why not use the correct word species rather than kinds?
History. The Apollo 11 spacecraft carried the first humans
to walk on the moon. Each Apollo flight held 3 astronauts. There were 13 Apollo space
flights. How many astronauts were there on Apollo flights? (page 258)
Presumably, the student is expected to multiply 3 and 13 to come up with 39 Apollo
astronauts. In fact, that would be the wrong answer. There were 13 Apollo
flights, but two of them were unmanned. On the 11 manned flights, four astronauts
(Cernan, Young, Lovell, Scott) each flew on two missions. Thus, there were 29 astronauts
on Apollo flights, not 39. Shame on you, Scott Foresman.
Time. A 190-minute movie is made up of 8 segments. Estimate
the length of each segment. (page 295)
How is a child of 1998 supposed to know what a segment means? For that
matter, what are we adults supposed to assume it means? Reels? In reality, almost
all theaters today show feature films in one, large reel.
Literature. L. Frank Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz and 13 other
books about the Land of Oz. Ruth P. Thompson wrote 19 Oz books. Other authors wrote
7 more books about Oz. How many Oz books were written? (page 295)
A quick web search finds that more than a hundred, not seven, Oz books have been
written beyond those by Baum and Thompson. And why is a child halfway through 4th
grade being asked to add 1 + 13 + 19 + 7 anyway?
Science. Look closely at a strawberry plant, and you'll see
4 stages of growth: white flowers, buds, green berries, and ripe berries. That's
why plants are picked twice a week. (page 314)
I've stared at this paragraph, and scoured the rest of the page, and I'll be doggoned
if I can divine any kind of logical connection between the first sentence and the
second "that's why" sentence.
Social Studies. Illinois and Indiana are known for growing
soybeans. In 1994, Illinois farmers harvested 9,530,000 acres of soybeans [and] Indiana
harvested 8,770,000 acres of soybeans. How many acres of soybeans did these two states
harvest? (page 314)
Uh, so why is this in a chapter on division with zeroes in the quotient? I thought
the idea of so-called integrated content was to relate math to the real
world, not to throw in distracting, off-topic stuff that has nothing to do with what
the child is trying to learn.
Social Studies. When Minnesota became a state, there were
eight times as many states as there were when Georgia became a state. Oregon, the
33rd state, was the next state after Minnesota to become a state. How many states
were there when Georgia became a state? (page 333)
Do 4th graders have any reference at all to understand this? Do they have any
idea of how states enter the union? Even if kids do know this, one of the
first facts they'd learn would be about the 13 original states, and taking that and
the eight times reference in this question would imply that Minnesota
must be the 104th state in the union. I looked this up, and this paradox hinges on
the rather esoteric quibble that Georgia was the fourth colony to ratify the Constitution.
However, it was not technically a state until the constitution officially went into
effect after nine colonies approved it. So, the correct answer to the question is
nine, although students are expected to say four.
Again, if we are trying to say something meaningful about these off-topic, non-math
sidebars, then we should get it correct; if these distractions are not to be taken
seriously, then all they are doing is distracting kids from the topic at hand and
should be jettisoned.
Language Arts. If you turn a lower case b, you get a q. Find
letters that look like other letters after they are flipped or turned. (page 353)
Find the perimeter of each polygon. ...
One of these perimeter problems shows the state of Colorado, with a height of
270 miles and a width across its southern border of 390 miles. I guess we're just
suppose to ignore the fact that the east and west borders of Colorado are drawn on
lines of longitude, and so the distance between them decreases significantly as you
go north. Hey, don't blame me: I'm not the one trying to force ill-fitting examples
where they don't belong.
Science. It takes a beam of light about 500 seconds to travel
from the sun to the earth. The sun is 93,000,000 miles from earth. How far does light
travel in 1 second? (Page 556)
I thought the idea in trendy reform curricula was to avoid "stuffing
kids' heads" with isolated factoids but that's just what we have here. The example
is presented as if this odd fact that light takes 500 seconds to get from the sun
to the earth is some kind of natural starting point. We can pretty well assume that
no real scientist ever did a similar calculation. A more science-based phrasing would
give the distance to the sun and the speed of light (186,282 mi/sec) -- both of which
are more fundamental measures -- and then ask how many seconds light takes to get
from the sun to the earth. A more math-centered math curriculum would leave
science to science.
Muybridge used a toy called a zeotrope to project the pictures. (page 556)
The scientist and pioneer photographer Muybridge should hardly be said to have
used a "toy" in his research. Also, his "zoetrope" that he developed
in Palo Alto in 1878 did not project pictures at all,
they were simply observed. Later, he devised a "zoopraxiscope" which did project pictures.
(Thanks to an alert and helpful person from the Netherlands who read this page and who provided
the information about Muybridge's projector, as well as a link to a fascinating web page:
www.muybridge.nl)
In the movies today, 24 still pictures, or frames, are projected in every
second of film. Our eyes fill in the spaces between the still pictures. (Page 556)
No, they don't! Persistence of vision is a brain process, not an optical one.
tens, 4 x 20 = 