More silly Connected Mathematics 6th grade problems

I looked over the statistics section in 6th grade, they ask kids to measure how often a paper cup thrown will end standing up, and there's a entire section on computing allele frequency with a what-you-callit chart that my 9th grader says he just learned in honors biology. The summary question is "how would you compute the allele frequency given x, y and z". Talk about real life. My 5th grader took home a worksheet that HAS pi r squared written on it where it is missing from the textbook, and he has evidently not reviewed decimal multiplication because he got one of them wrong. He's going through the ridiculous "bits and pieces 2" decimal which amazingly DOES talk about "common denominators", a term that is supposed to be an outcome, but it NOT CONTAINED in the unit on fractions and denominators. Nowhere in this unit does it say in so many words to add by lining up the decimals, add up the decimal places to multiply, or move both numbers up by 10 get integers to divide, and it's the LAST unit of the year, so obviously there's not much practice in it since the beginning of the year. The teacher wouldn't let me review the book without trying to sell me on its value and de-sell me on the idea that it's junk - she knows one of the developers of the book.

Stupid Connected Math Probability problems

2 new stupid Connected Math problems
They predicatably waste an entire booklet on probability.
One exercise is to run an experiment to see how many times a paper cup will land on it's side and compute the probability. Do you know what the correct answer is? There isn't one! At least a cone does have an expected probability. This is a subject for experimental science. Math is not an experimental science, certainly not in 6th grade.
Another exericise introduces alleles in probability, and uses tree to show how to compute gene outcomes. I didn't even go into this detail in 9th grade Biology for pete's sake. Another ridiculous "real world" example that is utterly useless.
Then there's "tell what the possible outcomes are and compute the likelyhood of each". What's the example?
- Stealing 2nd base.
In elementary school, 1/3 of kids don't even know enough about baseball to know what stealing a base is. Core Plus also expects kids to have an adult knowledge of sports, sports stars and sports rules. Of course, they have no instruction in baseball. And of course, there is no correct answer. I told my kid to write there isn't a correct answer. I asked my kid what the teacher said the right answer was, and he says she said there wasn't one. ARGH.
Arthur Angry Dad Hu.

WASL on KUOW, CMP2 decimal math has NO METHODS FOR DECIMAL MATH

3/13/08 Education bits

- KUOW 94.9 FM is slated to talk about wasl at 9.

- Renton radio commercial on KUOW brags about wasl results.

- Looked at Connected math for decimal math with my 6th grade
teacher yesterday. She acknowledged that the book literally did
not contain any explanation for any method, but defended the book
as "not perfect", and said that it was designed by teachers, and
she had met the lead developer. Actually it was designed by college
researchers, not teachers. I'm disappointed that she and the other
team teacher chose to back up the decision of the designers to not
include any direct explanations or methods in the student book, rather
than just admit it's junk and also complain about it. They would not
allow me to take a picture of any of the pages of any of the books.

Even
the teacher book doesn't contain any complete explanation, except for
the paragraph which is given as a "possible answer" to the question,
write down your "own algorithm" for adding decimal numbers. At no point
in time is the teacher actually expected to give the students a complete
method. This is fully consistent with the other topics, though oddly
the parent letter does not mention lining up numbers for adding, but
it's mentioned briefly in the student and teacher book, but not as
part of a complete explanation. I'm also incorrect that common
denominators are not in the book. For some crazy reason, it is in the
book for DECIMAL DIVISION. So they will only include some standard
terminology if it's A NON STANDARD USE.