We were alerted to this one by Simon the Likeable. It is a question from the QCAA 2025 Mathematical Methods Paper 2, together with the marking guide. (It may more properly be a PoSWW, but every time someone throws one of these stats questions at me, my brain tries to flee my body and so I can never properly judge.)
Tag: statistics
How Not to Close a Mathematics Sex Gap
We’ve been pondering this one for a year, not quite sure how to handle it. The off-blog crusading and being flat out with Jekylling also provided the excuses to keep putting it off. But, it’s gotta be done, so let’s quickly do it. Continue reading “How Not to Close a Mathematics Sex Gap”
Is South Australia Stupider than Queensland?
Readers may have noticed the occasional post here whacking VCAA and, more generally, Victorian mathematics education. Why? One reason is simply that Melbourne is my home town; it is where I grew up and to where I returned, thirty years ago. So, I simply know much more about Victoria’s maths ed idiocy. Also, I still have the memory of a time when things were not so idiotic here, when a lower-middle class public school kid could compete almost fairly with Polo Grammarians because he had good textbooks based upon a sane curriculum assessed in a sane manner and with it all delivered by properly educated and unencumbered teachers. I am not simply appalled by VCAA and its circus of fellow traveller idiots, I am actively furious at them for their ignorance and arrogance and incompetence, for their denying to today’s shitkicker kids the opportunity I and many others were given.
Continue reading “Is South Australia Stupider than Queensland?”
WitCH 148: Scoot
This is the last in our series of 2024 QLD Methods whacks (unless someone flags something else). This one is from the 2024 QLD Methods “Technology-active” Exam. The intended solution can be found in the marking guide (pp 33); the subject report appears to say nothing about the question. Continue reading “WitCH 148: Scoot”
WitCH 146: Unsporting
Following on from yesterday’s PoSWW, here is a WitCH with plenty of words. It is again from the 2024 QLD Methods “Technology-free” Exam. The intended solution can be found in the marking guide (p 7), but I could not locate anything in the subject report on how students performed. Continue reading “WitCH 146: Unsporting”
PoSWW 49: De-Meaning
OK, VCAA, you can take a little rest. We’re going to pick on other states for a bit, beginning with Queensland. A colleague has alerted us to some nonsenses in the 2024 QLD Methods “Technology-free” Exam (MCQ and short answer), and here is the first nonsense, an MCQ. The subject report indicates that 63% of students gave the intended answer, B. Continue reading “PoSWW 49: De-Meaning”
Groping for the Truth
It appears that Crikey‘s Guy Rundle has now gone a step too far, or once too often, or something. Last Thursday, Rundle texted in to Patricia Karvelas’s Radio National breakfast program that “every grope is now a sexual assault”. Karvelas read out Rundle’s full text on air, expressed her shock and off we went. As reported by the Guardian‘s Amanda Meade, ABC management complained to Crikey management, which sacked Rundle. Then the Sydney Morning Herald and the Herald Sun sunk their boots in. Not one person, it appears, has been of a mind to defend Rundle. I will.
It seems to me that this is a complete beat-up, that Rundle was correct, or at least correct enough, and that Karvelas was, at best, sloppy and lazy. The entire episode seems to me a perfect illustration of the media’s current concern for crusading at the expense of simple truth.
Normalising Tom Peachey
Tom Peachey has a new post on his blog: The Formula for a Normal Distribution. It is an interesting discussion of how a smarter student may be confused by the pdf of a normal distribution, and in particular by how the pdf and the distribution are affected by a transformation. Please go over to Tom’s blog and give his post a read.
A Royal Mess
The UK’s Royal Society apparently engages in something called the Mathematics Futures Program. Launched in 2020,
[MFP] was concerned with the future mathematical needs of young people progressing through education and preparing for diverse futures, ranging from citizens who will require functional numeracy in their lives to those in jobs/professions where mathematical competences will be a core component.
What might this look like? Well, the MFP has just released their Final Report, titled,
A new approach to mathematical and data education
Kind of gives the game away, doesn’t it? And if the oily phrase “data education” isn’t enough, the unceasing chanting of the acronym-mantra “MDE” certainly is. Then there’s the press release:
The report proposes a greater focus on using and applying mathematical concepts and digital tools to solve real-world quantitative problems – from making sense of finances, to understanding statistics in the media and recognising misinformation.
Ugh.
Tom’s Latest Post: Introducing Negative Numbers
Tom has a new post on his Teaching Mathematics blog: Introducing Negative Numbers. Amongst other things, Tom suggests that Europeans eventually accepted this mathematical magic because of the genius and/or stubbornness of accountants. Please support Tom’s blog and check it out.
Continue reading “Tom’s Latest Post: Introducing Negative Numbers”