Some students just get it. They see a Math question, spot patterns, and know exactly how to get the answer.
Others spend time staring at the paper, dazed and confused.
What separates the two?
It’s this thing called fact fluency.
With fact fluency, students know right away that 81 is a square number. 3 is a factor of 27. And a car can’t be driving at 500km/h (it might start to fly).
Knowing these at the back of their heads makes it easier when attempting a question.
Here’s an example.
With fact fluency, you can immediately tell the base factor of 125 and 25 is 5. And the next easy step is to convert all to a base of 5.
Second example.
With fact fluency, you would already know 160g is 8 times 20g and that $0.80 times 8 is not $3.40. In fact, way higher. The smaller box is just there to take your money.
How can students build this skill?
Building fact fluency is like building muscle. You put in the reps and work out with numbers.
Here’s what you can do. While your parents are driving, do not sleep. Instead, look at car plate numbers and form equations.
In this case, you can form 2 equations — 1 x 5 = 2 + 3 or 1 + 5 = 2 x 3. And where you can apply indices, do it for an extra challenge.
It may sound like a game for your baby cousin. But it’s like doing 10 push-ups a day — not much, but after 3 months, you’ll be able to open all sorts of bottles and cans.
Playing with poker cards also helps. But people think poker cards = gambling, and parents will not approve. We think as long as there’s no money involved, it can work for you.
Blackjack is one game where players add numbers quickly to see if they’ve exceeded the limit of 21.
Is 7 + 8 + 9 bigger or smaller than 21?
It’s a good workout for the brain.
Plus, there comes a topic called probability, and it involves poker cards where you have to know what goes in each deck. So, go get acquainted with the evil pack of poker cards 🙂
The more you expose yourself to Math in life, the more fluent you are and the easier and more fun Math gets.
mathcally
Grow your Math brain, 1% each day