SMSGDella Penna, TriciaGlatz, RyanHouse, Dan
SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS STUDY GROUP Formed by the cooperation of various
mathematical organizations in the US Included college and university
mathematicians, teachers of all levels, experts in education, and representatives of science and technology
Project initiation: March 1958 Yale University
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT Bring classroom teachers and research
mathematicians together to improve pre-college mathematics curriculum
Foster research and development in the teaching of school mathematics
Developing courses, teaching materials, and teaching methods
IMPROVING THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS A prerequisite to this is an improved
curriculum New curriculum should take account of the
increasing use of math in science and technology
The text developed is of most value to “all well-educated citizens in our society to know and that it is important for the precollege student to learn in preparation for advanced with in the field” although the presentation is such that any student can readily grasp the information.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT A mix of the old and the new: Some material was meant to be familiar
where as other material was new to the traditional curriculum
This fused the “old and the new” in hopes to lead students to better understanding in basic concepts, mathematical structure, and firmer foundations.
THE AUDIENCE Material was hoped to awaken an interest in
mathematics in a large group of students. Aimed particularly at students who had
mathematical ability and had yet to realize it.
ADDITION OF REAL NUMBERS To imply the concept of negative numbers,
the section is begun by introducing a situation where we discuss the business ventures of an ice cream salesman over the course of twelve days.
On days where he makes money, we recognize as profit
On days where he loses money, we call it a loss
LOOKING AT THE SALES DATA The chart shows the profit and loss over two
day periods.
FINDING LOSS OR PROFIT To find the loss or profit over the two days we
“put together” the profits and/or losses. To better understand how to add the
positives and negatives, addition with a number line was used.
THE PROCESS Start at zero Move |a| units to the right if a is positive, left
if negative. From new location, move |b| units to the right
if positive, left if negative. This location represents the final position
which is the sum of the two numbers
CONTINUED.
FLUENCY Students were encouraged to think of
addition of integers as profits and losses as they completed work requiring these skills until it becomes second nature.
This process also gave a visual representation of the additive identity (days where the sales man rested) and also the additive inverse (days where he lost what he previously profited)
SMSG SUBTRACTION OF INTEGERS- Introduces subtraction as “adding of the opposite”
or “adding of the additive inverse- Gives an example of a cashier counting back
change for an purchase:
$83 purchase, customer gives $100cashier gives back $17 by using additive inverse
83 + x = 10083 + (-83) + x = 100 + (-83)
x = 17
SMSG DEFINITION OF SUBTRACTION
SMSG PROPERTIES OF SUBTRACTION Shows through examples that if subtraction is the
opposite of adding, whether the properties of adding hold for subtraction.
Not associative, nor commutative Distribution over subtraction holds
When showing examples of subtraction and its properties, algebraic expressions were used.
SMSG SUBTRACTION AS DISTANCE
Shows example of how subtraction is used to find the distance between two integers (or real numbers) using the number line.
a – b and b – a Moving left on the number line means
negative; moving right means positive
SMSG SUBTRACTION AS DISTANCE While subtraction is used for distance, usually sign
is not important so we only use positive values. |a – b|
Multiplication
Let’s consider a chart…3 x 3 = 9
3 x 2 = 6
3 x 1 = 3
3 x 0 = 0Because of our studies with the number line and integers, we know that we can multiply 3 by (-1) and subtract 3 from zero
3 x 3 = 9
3 x 2 = 6
3 x 1 = 3
3 x 0 = 0
So, 3 x (-1) = -3
3 x (-2) = -6
Our observation seems to lead to a conjecture that a positive integer times a negative integer equals a negative integer.
Let’s look at another one,Consider the following chart…
-3 x 2 = -6
-3 x 1 = -3
-3 x 0 = 0Again, we know the pattern continues past zero. This time we add three to our previous product.-3 x (-1) = 3
-3 x (-2) = 6
-3 x (-3) = 9Here we see the result of a negative times a negative is a positive integer.
If the charts weren’t enough to convince you then consider the following…0 = 3 x 0 Based on our studies of “opposites” we can
rewrite zero as follows
0 = 3 x (2 + (-2))By way of the distributive property we obtain
0 = (3 x 2) + (3 x (-2))
Suppose we never looked at the previous charts and didn’t know the product of 3 and (-2).But we do know 3 x 2
0 = 6 + (3 x (-2))
We know the opposite of 6 is -6.Thus, the product of 3 and -2 must be -6.
Using the above method let’s find the product of two negatives
0 = -3 x 0Based on our studies of “opposites” we can rewrite zero as follows
0 = -3 x (2 + (-2))By way of the distributive property we obtain
0 = (-3 x 2) + (-3 x (-2))
Suppose we never looked at the previous charts and didn’t know the product of -3 and (-2).But we do know -3 x 2
0 = -6 + (-3 x (-2)) We know the opposite of -6 is 6.Thus, the product of -3 and -2 must be 6.
DivisionWe know how to divide whole numbers. Dividing integers is the same.
If you know how to multiply integers, then you know how to divide integers
Turn the division problem into a multiplication problem and use the properties we just discovered for multiplication of integers