My Answer is Five!
Several times a week I offer study sessions to my pre-service teachers for Praxis Multiple Subject Mathematics, one of five tests elementary teacher candidates have to pass to teach. My preservice teacher came across the following practice problem from Math Made Easy: Jan ran 30 blocks in 6 minutes. Assuming that she ran at a constant speed, how long did it take Jan to run one block? My student commenced to solving the problem. She said so I divide 30 by 6 to find out how much time it will take to run 1 block and the answer is 5. After reading the problem again. I ask her to notice the problem. Remember if the speed is constant, should it take her 5 minutes to run 1 block? She thought about and decided it did not make sense. I am writing this in support of one of the Standards for Mathematical Practices from the Common Core State Standards . Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Students proficient in mathematics make sense of the relationship of quantities in p