Talk:Investigations in Numbers, Data, and Space

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[edit] Please add

Please add to this article, and other articles pertaining to outcomes-based education methods that have raised debate among informed citizens and parents.

[edit] Deletion

I deleted the sentence "The median is a computing function available only on mainframe computer statistics programs, which requires sorting all data items, although the standard average calculation can be done on a four-function calculator." The median is a very elementary statistical computation (probably simpler than the average); calling it a "computing function" is really an overstatement. Saying it's "available only on mainframe computer statistics programs" isn't true either; my calculator can compute the median of a set of numbers (and it's quite easy to do by hand; I can compute the median of twenty numbers in my head much faster than I can compute the average using a calculator). Also, computing the median doesn't require sorting the numbers; see Selection algorithm. —Babcockd 11:01, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] POV

This article has serious NPOV problems in the section "Critical reviews". The bulleted list headed "some unusual content" gives the impression of a set of examples chosen to cast the materials in the worst possible light, and are often phrased in a charged way. I tried to tone it down, but there was only so much I could do without access to the actual materials. Some of the examples of what the books ask students to do (filling in squares, etc.), even if they really are misguided, might seem less ridiculous in context. None of this is to say that the books are any good; I think they do sound like a mess. But each part of an article should be explaining an issue, not making a point.

The complaint about it being too US-centric is valid too, even though at first it sounds silly since the article is about an American series of textbooks. But it ought to be written without assuming that the reader grew up in the US educational system and knows what the traditional curriculum (to the extent that there is a single traditional curriculum) is like.

-Mark Foskey 02:53, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

&hank you for your input. About usa-centric: in the wikipedia parlance the intention and the meaning of the tag is that the subject of the article may be encountered elsewhere in the world, but the article describes only the case of USA, i.e., as the tag says, "does not represent a worldwide view of the subject." (please click the bold link) `'Míkka>t 04:33, 7 December 2007 (UTC)