BigNumbers

We lived in California for 18 years. For all 18 of those years, it was an article of faith in our household that California ranked 49th-in-the-nation on educational spending.

Apparently Californians still believe California ranks 49th in the nation on educational spending.

But it doesn't.

California is nowhere near 49th-in-the-nation. Nope, it's exactly in the middle.

So now I'm wondering if California ever ranked 49th in the nation, or if I spent almost two decades of my life believing an urban legend.

Sigh.

This part of the story was funny, though:

Palmer, of the Department of Finance, explains: “People just do not get that when California adds billions each year to the schools---which we do---adding another $1 billion means you multiply $1 million by one thousand.”

This reminds me of my favorite passage in the Math Trailblazers Grade 5 Student Guide.

(A Math Trailblazers Grade 5 Student Guide is pictured here. We can see from the photograph that the Student Guide is what people who live on Planet Earth used to call a "textbook.")

Now that we've cleared that up, my favorite Grade 5 Student Guide passage is a 5-page drama at the beginning of Unit 2 called 'Reading and Writing Big Numbers.'

Here's how the play begins:

Students in a fifth-grade class are learning about populations in their Social Studies class. Their teacher wrote some of the populations on the board for them to read and write.

Some students had difficulty reading and writing the big numberes. The teacher gave these students a play to read. The play was about students who worked together to solve a problem about big numbers. Here is the play:

The characters in the play are: N.S. (Not Sure)
P.S. (Problem Solver)
L.L. (Loves Lists)
R.R. (Remembers Rules)
Teacher

Teacher:
Think about the meaning of each word on this list as you review reading and writing numbers in the millions and billions. Then, give examples of the terms.

N.S.:
Wow! That number is mind-boggling! Is it in the millions or in the billions? Reading and writing big numbers is not so easy. I've seen most of these words on the list before, but when I try to think about numbers in the millions, I get confused about what some of the words mean.

N.S. must be from California.



thanks to Kausfiles



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