Sarah Lewis-Morgan (asker) Feb 9, 2018:

Thank you again, Björn No kids here, just the dog and she doesn't touch either! Prost!!

Björn Vrooman Feb 9, 2018:

Thanks! And as said, enjoy your evening! Just don't let the kids know about the Glühwein, unless you have Kinderpunsch at home, too, ha ha.

Best

Sarah Lewis-Morgan (asker) Feb 9, 2018:

Thanks, Björn It was form in my day, but they refer to "year 5", "year 6" etc. nowadays. As the Wikipedia entry says, the key stages cover more than one year.
I'm going to have a few more questions in the next couple of days, but due to being a bit befuddled with Glühwein at the moment I am refraining from actual work this evening.

Björn Vrooman Feb 9, 2018:

"However, Sarah's looking for a term designating a group of questions (to which question both links seem to remain silent)."

Yes, that was what I was aiming for; sorry if I didn't make that clear enough. They show you a "Päckchen" and ask you to answer these "questions"--nothing more. I liked "Phil's "a set of" if you need something. I wasn't trying to overthink this; I was trying to find something to confirm that it doesn't seem to involve any "education jargon," as you put it.

Sarah, one of your question was about "Distributivgesetz" if I saw this correctly. This page says that's 5th/6th grade (form in the UK, right?):
https://www.matheretter.de/grundlagen/distributivgesetz

Corroborated by other websites. That'd be Key Stage 2 in the UK, I think:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_Stage_2

There are more book examples like mine online; I thought maybe they could provide some help along the way.

Best

Sarah Lewis-Morgan (asker) Feb 9, 2018:

And Erik That may well be the case!!

Sarah Lewis-Morgan (asker) Feb 9, 2018:

Björn I'm afraid I haven't been given any information about the level this is aimed at. What I failed to mention (sorry) is that this book is Swiss, so maybe there are different terms used in Switzerland? The book covers a fair amount of basic maths, but sadly it was never my subject at school, and that was a fair few years ago, so my mathematical skills are pretty sketchy at best.

Erik Freitag Feb 9, 2018:

Questions... Nice find! The individual questions are called, well, questions. However, Sarah's looking for a term designating a group of questions (to which question both links seem to remain silent).

I really suspect we're overthinking this.

Björn Vrooman Feb 9, 2018:

@Erik and Sarah I think it would have been good to know what grade this book is for. If I understand this right, Distributivgesetz is grade 5 and 6, meaning Key Stage 2 in the UK.

This here may help:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...

This here should help:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Maths-Adding-Subtract...

Have a "look inside." They seem to call them "questions," as shown on pp. 7 through 8.

Enjoy your weekend!

Erik Freitag Feb 9, 2018:

@Björn: agree! I'm pretty sure that the method is pretty standard in any maths textbook. The term "Päckchen", however, doesn't seem to be used that frequently after all, and since it describes such an ubiquitous thing, I think it'd be safe to use a more descriptive term in German as well. On the other hand, I don't know enough about the jargon of English primary school math teachers to be able to tell whether they have a commonly used term for this which they would expect to appear in this context. I doubt it, though.

At the end of the day, I totally agree with you: KISS.

Björn Vrooman Feb 9, 2018:

Side note I realize that this may not be very helpful, but since I used to be a tutor: I'd never have learned math like this. If I understood Erik correctly, we are in agreement that this kind of "terminology" is needlessly distracting.

KISS method--nothing else will work here.

Best wishes

Björn Vrooman Feb 9, 2018:

@Erik Does this not work?

https://getschoolcraft.com/usermanual/de/hid_prg_fields_numb...

http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/math/

Sarah Lewis-Morgan (asker) Feb 8, 2018:

Ok, I see... Thanks, Phil and Erik. It is helpful to know that.

Erik Freitag Feb 8, 2018:

Agree, but I agree with Phil that this isn't mathematical terminology at all. Instead, it is education jargon (even if not set in stone). I don't know if an equally common term is used in English textbooks.

philgoddard Feb 8, 2018:

Sarah This is not complex, set-in-stone mathematical terminology, just words the writer has coined to explain ways of working things out. In the other two I've looked at, about rectangles and triangles, a simple, literal translation is fine. I think "package" works here.

Sarah Lewis-Morgan (asker) Feb 8, 2018:

Sounds good I wish I knew what was going on! But yes, it is a set of equations, definitely.

BrigitteHilgner Feb 8, 2018:

set of equations? Merely a guess, because I am not quite sure what's going on.