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Course: Resources > Unit 4
Lesson 2: Out-of-school programs: case studiesNumeric in South Africa
Numeric uses Khan Academy in an after-school setting.
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Is there a particular reason the U.S calls it math, rather than "maths" like the rest of the world?(9 votes)
There are logical arguments for both the US ('math') and UK ('maths') spellings. The word “mathematics” can be considered as a singular and as a plural noun. Both the Oxford and the Merriam-Webster dictionaries say the word is plural – hence the s on the end – but also that it is usually used as if it was a singular noun. So, most people would say “mathematics is my best subject” and not “mathematics are my best subject”. The shortened form “maths”, then, makes sense because the word is still a plural noun and so should still have the “s” on the end. On the other hand, it could be argued, “math” makes sense because it seems wrong to remove the letters “ematic” from the middle of the word and leave the final “s”.
(There are a number of other plural nouns that are used as if they were singular – for example economics, ethics, politics, gymnastics, measles and dominoes. These words, however, are not habitually shortened, making math/maths rather an unusual word.)
Source: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/math-or-maths/(5 votes)
I googled "Numeric mapped Khan Academy to South African Curriculum", and was directed here, but this video is just talking mostly about Numeric's efforts, which is great, but can someone please direct me to where these mapped resources are? Is there perhaps a class by Numeric on KA that CAPS curriculum students can enroll in, or is there a section on KA specially mapped to the SAn CAPS curriculum? Please assist. Thanks(3 votes)
Video transcript
[kids chanting] "Say in South Africa, for every 100 learners that enter grade 1, only 48 will make it to high school. And of the 48 to actually get to high school, only 22 will like maths as subject in matric. And of the 22 that like maths, only 10 of them will pass. And of the 10 who pass, only 4 of them will pass with a grade that's above 50%. So, at the moment for every 100 students who enter the South African school system, four are finishing matric with a score of 50%." "Well, my story of Khan Academy, I can tell leaders from zero to hero. At first, in primary, I did not know much of mathematics. I felt like mathematics is boring and all this stuff is like negative stuff. And, when I came to Khan Academy, I felt like mathematics is interesting, and I enjoy it a lot. And also, my marks improved. This is amazing because I didn't know that Khan Academy will help me so much, and now, I really like mathematics in the year." "I have so many stories of watching kids progress throughout the year. I have the privilege of getting to sit back here and watch the numbers roll in the kids as they do their maths and practice their exercises and write their test to get to watch them progress over time. We've got one child in one of our programs who've done over 250 Khan Academy exercises. He's taught himself great to live at maths. We've got other kids who started out, code 2 and code 3 in their first term, and now they're getting code 5s, 6s, and 7s. And they're so proud of themselves, and they want to share that with us. And I couldn't be happier to have them share them with me and to be a part of it." "I think Numeric -- they provides us -- teach our classes, which incorporates the object of learning it further. So in the -- when you get to the exams, it might as well become understanding, and those things will let them do in their decisions. So, yeah, just wanted it to make it so awesome. [giggles]" "I've heard that with the program, I've seen that it is quite a big change with the levels working with the previous grade 8 that we don't really have." "They can do -- I have fun at doing the exercises, so I think that the "gamification," that Khan Academy things doing maths, I think that's really powerful." "I didn't enjoy maths, but now, I do because people make it interesting, and really fun to learn, like an illusion. You might not get it nicely, heard mates, and the specifically old." "It saves those schoolwork, but we finally found out, we could do -- talk to each other about the problem, wishing it's the only thing to help, and we like a family, a small, small family, and that's true. [giggles]" "I'm Lisa. I'm Lizzy. And we love maths." "I'm Tougheed. And I'm Daniel. And we both teach at Ned Doman High School." "Well, to be a coach means to be an active, be elective, and try to incorporate the fun things into maths." "Maths basically helped me to bring it to cross move because the university, they're more lack about the fiery side, so this is more lacking the field practical type of thing." "I also tried to build the fun, and so that's going to be relaxed and to enjoy themselves, and not only feel they can make it just boring and stop." [music]