Читать книгу School RULES! Math - Emma MacLaren Henke - Страница 19

The Story of Math

Math teachers always say, “Show your work!”

Here’s what makes it so important.

You have a story in mind. It’s a wonderful, funny, interesting story. And you decide

to tell it. So you write,

She lived happily ever after. The end.

That’s not much of a story, is it?

Math problems are like stories. The work you use to figure out the answer to a

problem is as important as all the twists and turns of a good tale. When you do

math, you want to get the correct solution, but it’s usually more important to be

able to explain how you got it. You have to tell the whole story!

Elsa and Sabrina ride the school bus. Elsa lives 3 miles from

school, and Sabrina lives 5 miles from school. If the bus takes each

girl directly from home to school and back again, how many

more miles does Sabrina ride the bus each day than Elsa?

This particular problem is not that complex. Perhaps you see quickly that the

solution is 4 miles. But “4 miles” is not the complete story, is it?