May 12, 2001 – How long does it take a body to clear itself of a drug?
This and many more questions were pondered by St. Thomas and St. John math teachers at their annual spring meeting held Saturday in the Department of Education Curriculum Center.
The St. Thomas/ St. John Council of Teachers of Mathematics is open to all Virgin Islands teachers and others interested in the teaching of mathematics. The purposes of the meeting were to introduce teachers to new instructional techniques and to provide a forum for socializing with co-workers in the V.I. educational system.
The chief presenter Saturday, Dr. Scott Williams, visiting professor of mathematics, spoke on continued fractions and the golden ratio. Williams dissected the mathematical constants Phi and the square root of 2, discussed Euler’s constant, and ventured into an exercise using the relationship between a line segment and two unequal pieces.
It helps if you are a mathematician, and you definitely had to be there.
After a short business meeting and a very social lunch, the teachers returned to business for a discussion led by Gale Passentier of Charlotte Amalie High School concerning one of the workshops she attended at the National Council Teachers of Mathematics annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Passentier brought along a booklet titled "A Formula for Good Health." The booklet contained a dozen problems suitable for use in the discovery process of math education. Drug-retention problems with standard dosages, drinking and driving, exercise, AIDS and smoking are some of the real-world problems investigated in the syllabus.
Passentier walked the group through solutions to several of the problems using Texas Instruments plotting calculators. The group learned that a drug never quite leaves the body once it introduced, drug levels approach the saturation level at four times the dosage, and the cost of cigarettes is around $1,500 per year if you smoke two packs a day that cost $2 each.
By the end of the work session, even elementary teachers were punching their way through the TI computer menus developing logarithmic functions.
The goal of this program, Passentier said, is to teach mathematics within the context of real-world problems with social impact. While the students learn how to work their way through problems mathematically, she said, they also get information to help them make lifestyle decisions. Once you have applied yourself to solving some of the basic functions of drug use, AIDS and exercise, she said, your outlook on these subjects is forever changed.
