Integrated mathematics scheme: IMS T2 - National STEM Centre

emedied by using a calculator. The problems of arithmetic
are cleared up for almost all children and the speed of the
calculator means that many more exercises can be performed
giving a much wider range of initial experience in the
use of letters.
The use of random decimal numbers to test such relationships
as the associative and distributive laws is more
convincing than demonstrations with easy numbers only.
There is a lot of conventional notation in the beginnings of
algebra and these have to be made clear before any progress
can be made. All these conventions are man-made and often
led to controversy when they were proposed in the first
place. It is important that children should not have their
confidence undermined by a 'right and wrong' attitude or
they will reject the whole of algebra as incomprehensible.
Discussion on how to write a + a + a + a + a ... to save
space should lead to the suggestion Sa from pupils and this
can be compared with other notations proposed by members
of the class. All this material will be presented again during
the 3rd year, so at this stage it is more important to avoid
anxiety and confusion than to achieve memorization.
Answers
M27 1. (a) ael (b) abd
ale ... word adb
ela
bad ... word
eal ...
bda
lea ... word dba
lae
dab ... word
(c) aemn eamn maen *name
aenm eanm *mean naem
*amen eman *mane neam
amne enam men a nema
anem emna mnae nmae
anme enma mnea nmea
2. There are 120 possible groups of letters but the only words are
dame, dare, dear, made, mare, mead, read and ream.
3. Barb 4. Rubber 5. Report, Porter
M28 A. 1. (a) 5 (b) 11 (c) 11 (d) 4 (e) 4
(f) 9·6 (g) 10·7 (h) 35·5
2. (a) 15 (b) 16 (c) 0 (d) 0 (e) 16·1
(f) 9·3 (g) 0 (h) 3·24
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