Math {Mistakes} in the Real World

Math {Mistakes} in the Real World

We stress to our students day in and day out how important it is to check their work. Regardless of the subject or grade level you teach, you know this can often be a problem. Students either (a) assume they are correct and don’t need to check (b) are in a hurry and don’t have time to check (c) don’t really care and don’t feel like checking or (d) honestly forget to check.

giphyI always love the look on a student’s face when the find their own error. Even if it’s only for a moment, I can see that light bulb turn on when they realize how important (and easy) it is to check their own work.

What is truly amazing to me, is the number of mathematical (and grammatical) mistakes that are found on a daily basis out there in “the real world.”

Over the holiday season I was shopping for some tape to wrap gifts. Is it just me or does anyone else feel like their tape just walks off? Anyway, I found a combo pack of tape and checked the shelf for the price. I did a double take, ok actually a quadruple take, when I saw the price tag.
image

$882 for ten rolls of tape. WHAT!? Of course I whipped out my phone to snap a picture of both this one and the one next to it.
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I was amazed that not only had someone typed it wrong, but someone else (I assume) had to put these on the shelf. I took the tape to a price check machine just to make sure it wasn’t some magical tape that really did cost over $800 dollars. The price, $8.82. I immediately thought to myself that THIS is the reason why place value is important. THIS is the reason you need to check your work. And THIS will make a great activity!

After sitting on my phone for 6 months, I finally used one of these images, and others I found around the web to make a fun activity for students to help them see the importance of checking your work.

 Check it out by clicking the image below!

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Hi, I'm Lindsay!

I create ready to go resources for middle school math teachers, so they can get back what matters most – their time!

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