OK I have to admit it: I am a fan of CBS's Survivor. It is the only reality show that I watch, much to the amusement of my friends who think it is out of my character. But Tuesday(NCIS and The Mentalist) and Thursday are my regular TV nights. And tonight's episode of Survivor really blew it mathematically speaking.
The immunity challenge involved a math problem, and the first player to solve the problem won the immunity idol, and could not be voted off during tribal council. Of course, contestants had to go through an obstacle course and memorize pieces of the math problem before they could even begin to solve the problem. But Survivor blew it when they accepted a wrong answer as correct because they themselves didn't follow standard mathematical rules. The problem was this: (believe me we replayed and paused several times to get a good look at it!)
6 + 2 / 4 x 3 / 3 - 7 +6 + 5 /3 - 1 x 1
Now one player, JT, had written the letters PEMDAS in the bottom left corner of his slate. PEMDAS is the mnemonic to remember the standard order of operations which governs the order in which problems are solved. Order of operations is commonly taught in middle school grades (usually seventh). If you follow the order of operations to solve this problem, you should get 6 1/6 for an answer. But if you merely solve the problem from left to right, then the answer would be 1, which is the answer given by Stephen, who won immunity. But solving from left to right is not correct mathematical practice.
This is where I am suppressing the urge to sermonize, preach, and ask questions that are sarcastic in tone.
If you're still reading this--Thanks! I needed to vent!
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2 comments:
Hi! I'm so glad you posted. Have you shared this with your students? I'm a title 1 8th grade math teacher. I can't wait to share this with them. I was busy Thursday night and just caught it last night. When I saw the problem I asked myself "is Survivor going to get this correct?" and sure enough, they failed. Anyway--happy birthday! Enjoy your new supplies!
Hi Sara--
Yes, I shared it with my groups--in fact I made quite an activity out of it. We had taped the show and I brought the video in and showed them the first part about what the immunity challenge was. Then I stopped the tape and had them figure out the answer. I am happy to say that all my groups remembered that they had to use order of operations! After we arrived at the correct answer, I let them watch the rest of the clip with the challenge. We discussed that sometimes mistakes are made even on TV! It was a good way to remind them about this math concept. There are also some comments about this mistake on some of the Survivor forums.
Thanks for your comment and the birthday wishes!
Marsha
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