"How many guests
are there?" This problem is especially interesting to me because I worked
for many years in a kitchen preparing food and when I was working at a hotel
we would sometimes cook for parties of over a thousand people. It is not easy to
keep track of guests and dishes, hotels have extra staff just for that, and the quantity to cook is always a debate in the kitchen. So
I absolutely think that giving math problems context like this makes them much
more interesting to students.
With algebra, this
problem is not too tough. As I was doing it, I was trying to think of how to do
it without algebra. What I came up with was that the answer would have to be a
multiple of 12. That is because there was no mention of anything but integers.
So there is exactly enough for each dish to be shared as it should. No one gets
more or less than half, third, quarter of rice, broth, meat.
Knowing that the answer
must be a multiple of 12, we can solve this problem using counting techniques
instead of algebra. This requires estimating and checking your estimate. It may
take longer than algebra for big number problems but for this problem not
necessarily.
I absolutely think it is
important to teach math from all over the world. Math history is a perfect
example of how history is taught with a European bias so anytime we can break
that tradition, it is a good thing. Ignoring the history or contributions of a
group of people leads to “the other” mentality, marginalization and even
oppression.
Good!
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