I get that the images below are not real classrooms. These are combinations of staged and stock photos. I get that. But seriously, a waterfall with a straight-line cross-section? And just what answer do we expect to the “shade 1/6 of the hexagon” task? Is the resolution on that screen good enough to detect the difference between 1/4 and 1/6? And how will the teacher tell that difference at a glance? Do YOU know which of those responses is correct?
Note the right triangle on the NSpire screen. And the "Real-world" connection: "Diagonal distance of a waterfall".
We're filling from the bottom up. If height of hexagon is 1 unit, what fraction SHOULD we fill to? And how exactly do these images help me assess whether students can find it?
This is a theme in math blogs at the moment; I suspect it may last a good while longer.
Such a shame that spectacular technology for connecting text in a math book to the “real” world is wasted with stupid examples. Perhaps a valid use of the text would be to ask students “What do you see wrong here?”? Thanks for sharing – I can use this in my preservice education classes on “ICTs and math education”.