Ms. Bluebird鈥檚 science classes recently began their 鈥淰ery Big Deal Government Mandated Tests鈥� (her words, not ours). Thanks to a few new science standards that involve math, .
They can punch in numbers and solve math problems until the cows come home, but ask them to do math with a pencil and paper (and their brain) and they go into shut down mode. Heck, they're not even sure how to set up a math problem without a calculator. They would read a question, say, Power = work/time, and they'd write it out and then MULTIPLY IT. Not just a handful of kids, but huge numbers of kids.
Problem is: The VBDGMTs only allow calculators for the math sections of the test鈥攃alculators are banned for the science section. Cue educator rage.
My kids are going to be, in a way, penalized because they don't have the ability to do math without a calculator. And at the same time, we stick a calculator in their hands and encourage them to use it. It makes no sense to me that they can use one for the math part of the test, but not the science part which also has math.