Comments for math for love

Comment on Breaking Mathematics by The Order of Operations Explained: Multiplication and Division | MathFour

The Order of Operations Explained: Multiplication and Division | MathFour — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:32:16 +0000

[...] the time to explain that a bit.The only thing mathematicians like to do more than create, is destroy. That’s how we get imaginary numbers, dividing by zero and raising things to infinity.Once we [...]

Comment on Nine Dangerous Things & Math Isn’t Necessary by Joshua Zucker

Joshua Zucker — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:12:27 +0000

I agree with the story and the beauty being reasons — but of course those are almost entirely absent in most school curricula! I think this is the biggest point. When you teach math from a historical perspective, and tell the story of why it was invented, it’s a lot easier for students to appreciate.

And, I agree that we should scrap a lot of what we teach in favor of more data analysis and statistical reasoning. It shouldn’t be a march to calculus, and even to the extent that we do march to calculus, there’s no need for the calculus to be so symbol-manipulation-heavy.

To the extent that we want to teach reasoning, why not do it by means of logic puzzles and other fun things like that?

I’m not sure I agree with the optimism about teaching thinking skills that we saw in this TEDx talk or in Richard Rusczyk’s article at http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/Files/problemsolving.pdf … but I also don’t share the pessimism of Conrad Goldberg. I do believe people can be taught to be better problem-solvers.

_The Nature of Proof_ might be a good model to start heading towards. It was done in 1938, but the wheels of education reform turn slowly. You can get the full text at http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED096174.pdf in a really ugly scan. It’s a book worth buying. I’ve written a bit about it: http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=1360859 and http://www.amazon.com/review/REFYMPR8L8EH5 for example. It’s been about 10 years since I was telling every teacher I met about that book, so maybe it’s time to start again!

Comment on Nine Dangerous Things & Math Isn’t Necessary by Kathy Cordeiro

Kathy Cordeiro — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:29:09 +0000

I just gave a lecture to my mathclub on this very topic of “why math.” I included Mr. Bennett’s reason, namely, that it is the best way to learn inductive/deductive reasoning, but I also added some reasons of my own. 1) inductive/deductive reasoning (as stated), but I would add that learning math gives you, as based on a Paul Graham essay, the ability to stay upwind. Do the hard studies, such as math, and everything else is easier, 2) the story – as human beings, we love a good story and that context is what makes subjects interesting. Just reading Shakespeare, without understanding the time period and the language is not interesting at all. Every form of math was created to solve a real problem that humans faced and still face. Give the kids the story (the context) and they will be more likely to connect with the material; 3) Literacy – there are all forms of literacy that go beyond literature including cultural as well as math/science literacy. Knowing the definition of mass and acceleration are just as important as knowing how to read. These facts are part of the world we live in and how it works. Math is a universal language and being literate in math is critical for our global economy.

Math should be something kids want to play around with and master, and I think an interesting story and showing the beauty of the topic will make math more relevant and compelling or, as you have so aptly stated “Math 4 Love”.

Comment on Nine Dangerous Things & Math Isn’t Necessary by Conrad Goldberg

Conrad Goldberg — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:23:21 +0000

I disagree with most of what he says. First, there is not a shred of evidence that math builds critical thinking skills – in fact, it has never been demonstrated that critical thinking skills in one area are transferable to another area (for example, being able to solve complicated algebra problems cannot be shown to improve the ability to apply critical thinking to a legal problem or to win a debate, both of which need critical thinking skills). What the average citizen does need, however, is math literacy. We are inundated by math and data every day in our personal and professional lives. We need to be able to estimate an answer, to extrapolate, etc. What has been shown with supporting data, is that students who take algebra have better quantitative literacy than those who don’t. I believe that this is what we need.

Comment on Pythagorean Theorem Part 1 (Video) by Dan

Dan — Tue, 08 May 2012 04:45:57 +0000

Steven–
My experience has been that giving students an activity that centers around an engaging question tends to bring out the best in them. It may be a little foreign to some, but I think it ends up being gratifying pretty quickly. You’ll notice further that someone used this activity in his class and the students really got into answering the questions at the end of the video.

If you do use it, let me know how it goes!

Comment on Pythagorean Theorem Part 1 (Video) by Steven Case

Steven Case — Tue, 08 May 2012 04:35:11 +0000

Nice! I like it. I’m trying to think of ways to restructure my approach to teaching Formal Geometry in High School. My question is this: Is this discovery an appropriate activity for HS students who may have never been asked to think this way? I don;t want to be a nay sayer because i would love to present this to my high school students but I’m afraid of how long the students will stay engaged before they just say… WTF!

Those are awesome thoughts!

I’m going to think of to structure this so students stay engaged!

Comment on Forgot Algebra by Bryan Meyer

Bryan Meyer — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:24:05 +0000

I agree. BUT, I imagine if we made students become perfect guitarists in 9th grade, drummers in 10th grade, pianists in 11th grade, and violinists in 12th grade (and graded them against perfection the entire time) that they might develop similar feelings about playing music.

Comment on When Girls Leave Math and What To Do About It by Cindi Anderson

Cindi Anderson — Tue, 01 May 2012 01:59:30 +0000

Thank you for sounding out. I am a mother of four, three of which are girls and a math coach. It’s so disheartening to consistently see my girls (daughters and girls on my teams) sound out that the boys are better and just sit back and let them take the lead. I’m constantly encouraging them that this just isn’t so! They are soo smart! I really appreciate your post and will be forwarding it to my parents and husband.

Comment on You Will Not Win the Lottery by mathmom

mathmom — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:34:53 +0000

I would love to know how you presented the lesson about the dice games – my second grader LOVES making up his own games, and also loves math. I’d like to try this with him at home, but I’m not sure where to begin.

Thanks for the great blog.

Comment on The Coolest New Thing on the Internet by Najwa Hirn

Najwa Hirn — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:26:03 +0000

Very informative site. I especially liked all the links you included.