>Abe wants each person at his party to have about 1
>cup of punch. If he invites 18 children and 9 adults,
>about how many cups of punch should he make? >The teacher indicates the correct answer is 30. The
>correct answer is obviously 27. 30 is the rounded answer
>and should be taught as ronded and not referred to as
>correct.
The exact answer is a very good estimate. To say that it is wrong betrays a lower level of mathematical culture.
>Why is rounding such a large part of curriculum?
I have no way to pass a judgement on relative sizes of various parts of the curriculum. Particularly, not based on a single piece of information.
However, being able to estimate as opposed to being able to obtain an exact answer is a valuable and a handy skill to have.
>Is it not more valuable to teach process to achieve
>correct answers.
Some times it is not, some times it is.
>As opposed to figuring out estimates?
We use estimates, as opposed to exact amounts, all the time. However, again, to claim that the exact answer is incorrect where an estimate is expected is plain stupid.
wouldn't the "obvious" & "correct" answer be 28? unless abe is not at his own party...anyway, i agree that it is silly to consider the rounded answer as correct, but did the teacher say that 27 was actually wrong? Since it does say "about how many cups," I guess he wanted something near 30.