KRTC Kent Ridge Education - Discussion
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Maths in KRTC is using abacus only? Wont the use of abacus confuse the child when they enter primary sch?
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Hi All!
I felt it would be helpful if we create a discussion centre of sorts to aid our P6 students in preparation for their 'big' exams. I plan to post up more questions, explanations and answers up on my blog and here.
It would help a lot if everyone could actively participate and ask PSLE-related questions here? I would try to answer them as much as I can but if there are experts around we can create an even more conducive discussion environment!
Let me start the ball rolling: I took this Science Question from last year's killer paper. It goes something like this (I tweaked the question a little), Many mammals have small ears respective to their size. Why do elephants require large ears?
The suggested answer and explanation can be found on my blogpost. I have removed the link to the blogpost in accordance to several queries as to my intention of advertisement. Please note that this discussion is purely for the benefit of students.
Please contribute
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In response to your comment above.
We understand the terms and conditions. But we are not promoting our programmes under this section. As discussed above, we are encouraging active discussion, and a question and answer exchange.
We feel that many would benefit through this exchange especially students taking PSLE who might have questions they cannot solve.
If the moderators here feel that this service is a blantant advertisment scheme for our tuition and enrichment services, we would definitely remove the post and shift it to a more appropriate forum category.
Apologies beforehand. -
Moderators, would it help if from now on I will post questions and answers on this forum without posting links to my own blog?
I wish that this thread could serve as a more organized question and answer centre as opposed to other threads where questions and answers are very disconcerted, messy.
As a parent, I can understand the frustration with going through numerous pages just to find the answer to the question I asked. Even more, I have to filter through unrelated comments.
Just to address the misunderstanding, the questions and answers are also made available in the blog because the blog also serves the students in my centre. I felt that in order to reach both audiences why not share the useful link to parents and students here too?
But if the moderators find this unethical and troublesome for parents here, I would be more than glad to separate the two communities.
I hope that you would not have any personal feelings here. I understand that you also represent the good intentions of parents and students here -
As recommended by users, I have been prompted to post up the full explanation and suggested answers for the convenience of users. Just to note, this question is adapted from the PSLE Science Paper 2010.
1) Many mammals have small ears respective to their size. Why do elephants require large ears?
The concept behind this question is Surface Area to Volume Ratio. Small animals like rats have an extremely large surface area to volume ratio, while elephants being a large mammal have a low surface area to volume ratio.
We must also understand that constant heat loss is required for most mammals especially those living in tropical and equatorial regions like the elephant. Constant heat loss helps to reduce the internal temperature by means of sweating.
Here we make the link between these two concepts: A larger surface area to volume ratio allows for more sweating which is crucial in maintaining the internal temperature of mammals. By having larger ears, the elephant’s surface area to volume ratio is greatly increased.
Suggested Answer: The larger ears contributes to a larger surface area to volume ratio in the elephant which allows for greater rate of sweating. With greater rates of sweating, the elephant is able to maintain its internal temperature more efficiently.
I feel that in order to tackle the challenging Science questions which appear in PSLE papers, students must be able to connect Science concepts and make sense out of them. In the case of this question, it is obviously testing students on their ability to connect Surface area to Volume ratio and Features of Mammals. -
Hi all,
I received a question last night from one of the parents here. She took this question from her son’s past year Maths prelim paper. Interestingly, this is more of a heuristics question. But it is true that the Maths PSLE paper is getting more and more inclined towards solving heuristics.
This question considers two strings of equal length. Each takes 30 seconds to burn. Using only matchsticks and the two strings, how can one measure 45 seconds? No other tools of measurements are allowed (i.e. ruler, stopwatch, etc.) and no bending of strings to find out the half length!
The solution is rather simple actually if you take a step backward and consider this problem. -
Burn the first string at one end, 30 seconds.
Burn the second string at both ends, 15 seconds. -
That is the correct answer to the problem. I consulted a few heuristics books beforehand which gave quite an interesting way of looking at the problem. Sometimes instead of cracking our heads, and thinking there is an out of the box answer, maybe there is a systematic way of doing this. I have a Primary 5 child, he had great troubles when he first looked at it. But after guiding him using the below steps, he understood the problem very well.
First let us plan our way through this problem. Logically speaking one of the most direct ways we can measure 45 seconds is to burn one full string and burn another 15 seconds of string. Usually setters will not make heuristic questions too indirect. Question now is, how are we to burn another 15 seconds of string?
The most direct way of burning 15 seconds of string which many would have though of immediately is to burn half of the string. However, the limitations have been set to stop you from burning half of the string. You must be constantly aware of the limitations set by the questions and work your way through it.
Your objective is to burn 15 seconds of string. Let us look at the formula Speed = Distance X Time. The time factor is fixed at 15 seconds, we cannot fix the distance. Hence, the only way is to change the speed. How can we change the rate of burning?
The solution is, burn the second string from both ends. This way you finish burning the string in half the time, that is 15 seconds. In this way, you can easily measure 45 seconds. -
Question: Given the below materials, what is the best way to create an ice box which keeps the 3 ice cubes inside in the solid state as long as possible? Give appropriate explanations.
Materials given: Styrofoam boards, pencil shavings, iron sheets, plastic boards, water, oil. (Select 3 out of the materials here and specify the order)
Bonus: What are other good materials for insulation?
Such free-response questions merely looks out for a student's logical reasoning. There is usually no 'right' answers, but there are definitely 'wrong' answers. This type of questions have been trending in recent years at the PSLE. Good luck to all students! -
Hi, have anyone tried Kent Ridge Tuition at Toa Payoh? Any feedback? TIA
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