Re: “Checking our math” (Oct. 19, Opinion):
I want to reinforce the writer’s exhortation to take a scientific have a look at how math is taught.
I’m a docent on the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery and have led many a whole lot of tourists on excursions of the power, specializing in what a hatchery does to boost the life cycle of those marvelous animals. Certainly one of my sharings is on the survival of salmon eggs in a pure setting: Of the 4,000 eggs laid by a Chinook salmon, 200 will survive to the stage of migrating to the ocean.
I ask if anybody can describe that degree of survival as a share. After a quick pause, I recommend they will use their telephone. Crickets. Till this month! Two totally different of us noticed that it was 5%. Wow! Each had been seniors — merchandise of an older instructional regime, I suppose.
By the way in which, that is essential knowledge, as a result of if the eggs are taken and developed in a hatchery, the survival charge goes as much as 85%, and guests are duly impressed. Evaluating 5% (small) to 85% (giant) is fairly intuitive, but when one is unable to instantly derive the precise numbers, you can’t actually perceive what you’re looking at.
Larry Franks, Issaquah
