{"id":1885,"date":"2014-09-18T20:34:10","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T19:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathedup.co.uk\/?p=1885"},"modified":"2014-10-26T15:49:27","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T14:49:27","slug":"adding-subtracting-negative-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mathedup.co.uk\/adding-subtracting-negative-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Adding subtracting negative numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have recently had quite a few discussions around the awful misconceptions many students have when dealing with negative numbers (recently discussed by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/srcav\" target=\"_blank\">@srcav<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/cavmaths.wordpress.com\/2014\/09\/10\/damaging-short-cuts\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>).\u00a0I wince every time I hear &#8220;two negatives make a positive&#8221; and have, over the years, used various strategies to help\u00a0my students develop a better understanding of what happens when we add or subtract directed numbers (they tend to be ok with the more abstract concept of multiplying and dividing).<\/p>\n<p>Anyway.. I have in the past used negative and positive cards to visually demonstrate the ideas which seems to hit home with some but add to confusion for others. I have also tried various analogies such as &#8220;hot and cold&#8221; etc, again with varying levels of success.<\/p>\n<p>My latest attempt was from an idea I found in <a href=\"http:\/\/nrich.maths.org\/9958\" target=\"_blank\">this\u00a0nRich article<\/a> which\u00a0describes the &#8220;Happiness Model&#8221;.\u00a0I put together a lesson activity around this which\u00a0went particularly well (according to my class!) so I thought I would share. The key ingredient was the use of language such as &#8220;adding positivity&#8221; or\u00a0&#8220;taking away negativity&#8221; and getting them to think carefully which direction on the number line we would need to go.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mathedup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Negative_numbers.png\"><img data-attachment-id=\"1886\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.mathedup.co.uk\/adding-subtracting-negative-numbers\/negative_numbers\/#main\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.mathedup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Negative_numbers.png\" data-orig-size=\"621,148\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Negative_numbers\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.mathedup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Negative_numbers-300x71.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.mathedup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Negative_numbers.png\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1886 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/mathedup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Negative_numbers.png\" alt=\"Negative_numbers\" width=\"621\" height=\"148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mathedup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Negative_numbers.png 621w, https:\/\/www.mathedup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Negative_numbers-300x71.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Feel free to use and adapt the lesson file found below and I welcome any comments.<\/p>\n<div class=\"aio-button-center\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/pru9q86oucgiwuj\/intro_adding_subtracting_neg_numbers.notebook?dl=0\" class=\"aio-red-medium\" title=\"Download The Resource\">Download The Resource<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have recently had quite a few discussions around the awful misconceptions many students have when dealing with negative numbers (recently discussed by @srcav here).\u00a0I wince every time I hear &#8220;two negatives make a positive&#8221; and have, over the years, used various strategies to help\u00a0my students develop a better understanding of what happens when we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Adding subtracting negative numbers - MathedUp!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mathedup.co.uk\/adding-subtracting-negative-numbers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adding subtracting negative numbers - MathedUp!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have recently had quite a few discussions around the awful misconceptions many students have when dealing with negative numbers (recently discussed by @srcav here).\u00a0I wince every time I hear &#8220;two negatives make a positive&#8221; 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