[Blindmath] Math for everyday use

Mon Dec 8 20:42:30 UTC 2014

I am majoring in computer science, and I'm actually using it quite a bit now.let's say for example that you were asked to write a program for a business.first, you will have to set up an array that contains employee names and salaries.then, the people giving you the assignment want you to find the average salary.after that, they want certain information to make sure they are treating all of their employees fairly including the ones that belong to my Nordie groups.for example, they want to know what percent of males and what percent of femalesmake below the average salary.they also want to know who makes the minimum salary in their company and they want to know what percentage of males and females makewith in $200 of that celery.or maybe they have decided that the company is too big and it will be too time-consuming to get the salary for everyone, so they pick a sample.it might be your job to make sure that the sample is a sufficient size to represent the population and that the sample was taken randomly so that not too many people in a certain group are represented.or maybe you have a dog who has allergies. It is safe to give Benadryl to dogs, you can't just read the bottle because it was made for humans. You have to figure out what your dogs wait is,and then gave your dog the correct dosage based on that weight.it's true that you could ask a veterinarian, but those services are expensive and if you can just figure it out yourself, you don't have to pay for it.or maybe you are preparing some sugar free snacks for party. You need three times the amount that the recipe calls for, but you were also replacing the sugar in the recipe with Splenda, so you know for every 2 cups of sugar, you only need one cup of Splenda.or maybe you were in an unfamiliar state. You don't know what the tax rate is and it would take a while to look it up. All you know is the cost of your item and what you were charged. You are running low on funds, do you want to know what the tax rate is to know if you can make another purchase.or maybe you are losing weight. You know what you waited a month ago, and what you weigh now. You want to figure out on average how much you were losing each week because there are some deals on clothes. You want to be able to predict what your wait will be next month to know what size to get. If you wait until next month, the deals will be gone and you will have to pay twice as much.or maybe you were filling out the flower bed.your flower bed is basically in the shape of a cube. You know how long it is and how high it is, but need to figure out the volume. After that, you need to figure out how many bags of soil you have to buy at the store to fill it up.or maybe you have a pond with some fish that you really like,and they get everything they need from your pond because they eat algae or something like that.but the population is growing. You need to predict how quickly the population is growing every month to make sure it isn't growing too fast. If it is, your fish might kill each other off because they are fighting over resources or they might starve to death.what if you were actually using these fish to eat because it's a community pond or something. If you are eating to many fish at once, the population won't be growing fast enough and you run out of fish. The people in your community could starve if that's all they had to eat.I know that in America that might not be the case, but what if you are helping some people out in another country. If you mess up, their pondwon't be able to maintain the proper fish population they need to survive.maybe you're helping out another country as far as the flower bed too, and you were having this soil imported. If you don't do your math correctly and figure out how much soil you need, thenthey either won't have enough soil to grow vegetables, or you waste a lot of money importing too much soil that you don't need. Soil is very heavy, so the cost could add up. Especially if your project is being funded by a grant, they will not be happy about this. won't

Sabra Ewing

> On Dec 8, 2014, at 11:46 AM, Bente via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Well if I had a penny for every time a student asked me that ... well you know.
> The truth is, not every concept will be used by every student in their adult
> life.  However, the idea of thinking both critically and logically is essential
> to everyone.    I taught in middle school for quite a few years and I understand
> their mindset, scary but true.  They want to know if the task is worth the
> effort.  We live in a society of instant gratification.  The key here is to get
> them to understand that the ability to "problem solve" is a life long skill.
> Being able to look at a particular situation and ask questions like, 1/what did
> they give me 2/ what do they want 3/ what do I already know in my head and from
> past experiences that can help me with this particular problem, well that is
> life skills!!  We are, or should be teaching them how to think and reason. So to
> sum it up: you may not use this particular concept depending upon what you
> choose to do as an adult, but there are many other things that may depend on
> previous knowledge Education, especially in math, is like a brick house, if you
> build a weak foundation by leaving out blocks in the beginning, the higher you
> build the walls, the weaker they get, until they eventually fail and crumble.
> Education is power and strength.  No expert (insert name here...Michael Jordan,
> etc) got where they are today by going right to their end game.  They practiced
> skills in isolation and then put them together and developed strategies based on
> skills and knowledge.  All this being said, just remember, we are talking to an
> 8th grade child and they do live in an alternate universe LOL, so as sponge bob
> would say... "Good luck with that" !!
> 
> Bente J. Casile
> Math Learning Specialist
> Disability Support Services
> Wake Technical Community College
> Raleigh NC
> bjcasile at waketech.edu
> 
> 
>> On December 8, 2014 at 11:57 AM Wilson_KC via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
>> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> I have an 8th grade blind student in pre-algebra. She constantly asks the
>> question, "When will I ever use this?" or "Why do I need to learn this?" I'm
>> going to have her do some of her own research on practical applications for
>> math, I have some of my own ideas, but I wanted to ask you all for some "come
>> back" answers. I realize many of you are math geeks, but this student is not,
>> at least at this point in time. So can you let me know how you, as a blind
>> person, use math in your every day life?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> 
>> 
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