Timeline for Definition of Trapezoid
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 26, 2021 at 13:04 | comment | added | JTP - Apologise to Monica | @Kubahasn'tforgottenMonica - OTOH, if it's mocking my passion. I care about my students, and would feel awful if I pulled out a textbook, showed them something, only to find they lost even a point on an exam due to my missing something. The history of this is interesting to me. More interesting, say, than Tom Brady's under inflated balls. | |
| Jan 26, 2021 at 12:45 | comment | added | JTP - Apologise to Monica | @Kubahasn'tforgottenMonica - can't tell if your comment is tongue-in-cheek, but, if it's not obvious, this isn't an issue I'm that emotionally wrapped up in. Maybe Carser will answer, but I looked through 6 of the last MCAS exams and this issue doesn't come up. I see 2 text books contradicting, I ask. Ben and others set me straight "yes, it's not an agreed rule/definition." I'm sort of done, except for a bit more discussion. [Notation for inverse Trig functions, diff question, has me more riled up. Still, no picket line for me] | |
| Jan 25, 2021 at 23:07 | comment | added | Kuba hasn't forgotten Monica | @JTP-ApologisetoMonica So why are there standardized tests, and why, being in this situation, aren't you on the picket line to drop the damn things? Wrote any lawmakers about it? If you don't, you're a part of the problem. Bystanding is not innocent in this case. Apologies if you're the rare activist in this area. | |
| Jan 24, 2021 at 18:01 | comment | added | JTP - Apologise to Monica | I have no strong opinion in this one. My main role is as an in-house tutor, and I'm looking to be sure my answer to a student doesn't cost them on an exam. I do recall as a child, "all squares are rectangles, but all rectangles are not squares." And until now, thought this applied here, that a rectangle was, in fact a trapezoid. We have material that offers squares with diagonals, and various indication of lengths and angles. I tell the student "with no measures, this is a quadrilateral. Right angles, or congruent diagonals gives us rectangles.... "Looks like a square to me, Mr J" "I know" :( | |
| Jan 24, 2021 at 17:39 | comment | added | Carser | @MatthewDaly I think that's exactly the source of confidence in an argument! When there is something that you were told was true that has always been "true" to you, it is upsetting to be presented with a contradiction. I think it is the same as "whole milk is better" or $0^0=1$. It is "obvious" to some people that it is true, while to other's it is obviously untrue. The passion I referred to was meant to be the passion of the arguer, not a description of the argument :) | |
| Jan 24, 2021 at 17:30 | comment | added | Matthew Daly | Are there passionate arguments for "parallelograms are not trapezoids"? The only things I can think in its favor is "that's the way your parents learned it" (in the US at least) and the fact that it lets you say that every trapezoid is the "frustrum" of a triangle. I can't imagine anyone being passionate about either of those reasons. | |
| Jan 24, 2021 at 17:16 | comment | added | Carser | @JTP-ApologisetoMonica Yeah I wholly agree with Ben's answer. Just not the idea that curriculum and test prep are mutually exclusive. You've got me curious about MCAS now! I'll be looking in the "big blue book" of 2017 standards to see what's in there. | |
| Jan 24, 2021 at 16:52 | comment | added | JTP - Apologise to Monica | I am in MA, too, Carser. I'm ok with Ben's answer, and will embrace all three of his points, but if this (I need to check) is on MCAS, I think I should know how they treat it, same as when students come see me for tutoring and I ask "what book?" This - "I consider it educational malpractice to avoid preparing students." sounds like a great version of "First, do no harm." | |
| Jan 24, 2021 at 16:08 | comment | added | Carser | I agree with @BenCrowell that test preparation is not the goal of education. I hope it is clear that was not my suggestion. The claim that "students do well on standardized tests if they have a good intellectual understanding of the subject" is not directly supported by evidence. There are several reasons to believe that students do better when they are prepared for tests, i.e., the testing effect. So while I likely share many views with Ben, I consider it educational malpractice to avoid preparing students. Here in Massachusetts, we have the MCAS, and my geo students need to know definitions. | |
| Jan 24, 2021 at 15:03 | comment | added | user507 | Please please please don't give in to the pressure to make education into test preparation. Students do well on standardized tests if they have a good intellectual understanding of the subject. A heavy focus on test prep is a hallmark of the worst schools, because they're trying to substitute it for intellectual understanding. Every minute spent on test prep is a minute that could instead have been spent on education -- probably with superior results in terms of testing, although that's not the point. | |
| Jan 24, 2021 at 14:16 | comment | added | JTP - Apologise to Monica | Thank-you. You've given me my next task, to confirm which definition the US standardized tests use. I'd warn students they might see the 'other' definition, but be mindful of which one is needed for the exam. | |
| Jan 24, 2021 at 14:03 | history | answered | Carser | CC BY-SA 4.0 |