Last week my husband, Steve, and I worked as walking scorers at the Allianz Championship Golf Tournament. We look forward to this volunteer opportunity every year to be near our favorite sport and some of golf’s greatest champions.
Walking scorers use IBM’s ShotLink system consisting of a Palm Pilot unit that is up-linked to the scoring officials who monitor all the incoming data and ensure accurate information is transferred to television, the web, and the leader boards. Needless to say, walking scorers are extremely busy entering three players’ scores, how many fairways they hit, greens in regulation, number of putts, etc. It’s not too tough - unless a penalty occurs!
It’s all basic computation mathematics but, as in most real-life situations, under stressful conditions, even 2+2 is difficult!
Our students are under a lot of pressure in our classes too. When this happens to them during a quiz or test, a “false reading” of their mathematical abilities occurs. This is why, as previously mentioned, it’s so important to focus on the intended mathematical objective (e.g. searching for a pattern in a sequence of numbers) and allow students to use a tool (i.e. calculators) on the mathematical work, such as computation.
Calculators on the golf course - of course! Even though in the BC days (before calculators) walking scorers didn’t use them, technology allows us to do more mathematics with greater accuracy and speed. When was the last time you added up a long column of numbers with millions watching you?
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