Simplify 2 + 5 * 2 - 3
Simplify 6(2 + 2n) + 3n
Evaluate 7 + y for y = -7
Solve 9y = 900
I'm sure it has been noticed by plenty of teachers, but the three words - simplify, evaluate, solve - do not seem obvious to students. (Are they even obvious to teachers?) Students seem to want everything to end with a "number answer" so to simplify an algebraic expression (so there are fewer terms) baffles many of them. Just when they begin to think that simplify means "write in fewer terms" they are asked to simplify a numerical expression. "Do you mean solve it?" they ask. But solve, at least as it is used in our textbook, means "find the value of the unknown." I think one reason there is a confusion is that these exercises are addressing skills in isolation. If there was a context to reason in, I don't think there would be an issue.
So true... Even after we discussed the difference between "simplify", "evaluate", and "solve", I've had students say, "What does 'y for y' mean?
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