Higher or lower?

I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or just shake my head when I read the linked story.
Camelot, the UK National Lottery operator recently launched a new scratchcard lottery called Cool Cash.

To qualify for a prize, users had to scratch away a window to reveal a temperature lower than the figure displayed on each card. As the game had a winter theme, the temperature was usually below freezing.

But the concept of comparing negative numbers proved too difficult for some Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than -6.Tina Farrell, from Levenshulme, called Camelot after failing to win with several cards.

The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: "On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn't."

I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it. "I think Camelot are giving people the wrong impression - the card doesn't say to look for a colder or warmer temperature, it says to look for a higher or lower number. Six is a lower number than 8. Imagine how many people have been misled."

I'm amazed at the lady's tone of indignation, and the fact that she feels that she is being fobbed off.

Camelot have withdrawn the competition as they have other customers who are similarly confused.

Most of the comments posted regarding this story on the newspaper site were very scathing towards the woman. I just feel sad that someone could go right through the British school system and not come out with at least enough numeracy to cope with negative numbers. Given the high levels of personal debt in the country it is worrying.

On the other hand a company which runs lotteries is really dependent on a market which isn't too strong in its ability to calculate. If everyone properly appraised their chances of winning before buying a ticket their sales would probably be much lower.

Higher or lower?

Observation

The college where I teach my evening class is due to be inspected by Ofsted (The Office of Standards in Education) sometime this term, so they hired a consultant to perform mock inspections this week.

We were all given a briefing before half-term on making sure that we have detailed lesson plans and have all our paperwork up to date for this week. My Monday class started at 6:45pm and I had just got the students settled down when the consultant knocked on the door. She apologised and said that she thought the class started at 7:00. I said it was no problem, ushered her to a seat and talked her quickly through my paperwork.

She read through my plan, looked at her notes and looked puzzled. She had been directed to the wrong class. I was a bit concerned. Once I was geared up to be observed I would rather get it over with than put it off until Wednesday. Luckily she decided to change her plan and observe my class instead.

The observation went well enough, with some areas for me to focus on, but she was generally pleased with the way the students participated.

I can now look forward to my official observation from the head of department in two weeks, and then the Ofsted inspectors some time after that.

Note to my teaching friends in Prague, your administrative burden is light!

Healthy Eating

Most people in our team at work do their own thing at lunchtime, so the "team breakfast" at about 9am is the main social event of the day. This morning one of the team bought a carton of milk from the cafeteria to put in the fridge in our break area.

The lady at the servery offered him skimmed or semi-skimmed. "Have you got whole milk?" he said. "No, we don't sell it, it's bad for you" she replied. That may be so, but the breakfast selection contained such healthy low-fat delights as bacon, sausages, fried bread, fried eggs and black pudding. Let's hope they don't take those off the menu any time soon.

Yes, I did read the reports this week that bacon, sausages, red meat and alcohol are sure-fire lethal agents. I'm sure I'll survive them in moderation.