Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Change Blindness
Last week, I had a great time giving the students a glimpse of my research, tactile change blindness. I did a short presentation to remind them again of who I was (there are a few new students in the classroom this semester who I don't know as well). We reviewed the five senses and the technical names for each sense. I was surprised how many students knew about each sense. I then showed them a youtube clip of visual change blindness so that they could understand the phenomenon from a real life scenario and most of the students were floored by the experiment shown in the video. The rest of the presentation just involved short examples that tested whether or not you can detect change blindness and they were really involved. It was a bit challenging to keep students who detected the change from blurting it out and spoiling it, but after awhile they calmed down. I think it was good to show the students that engineering is much broader than they may be aware of.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
"He Reminds me of Myself"
I experienced a very bittersweet moment last week in the classroom. One of my favorite students, who I would give "Most Improved" for the semester just continues to surprise me. He's a freshman and just a bundle of energy. He was the kid that just could not pay attention and seemed to disrupt the class no matter where he was in the classroom. He's the one who always has a joke to tell, and sometimes you don't want to laugh but you do because its genuinely funny. He's the one who is very light hearted and you want to yell at him, but you know he really doesn't mean any harm. For 75% of the first semester, he played a huge role in controlling the dynamic of the classroom. If he was quiet, the class could move on. If he was having a bad day, everyone had a bad day. I started talking to him and striking conversation with him when I first got there, partly to just shut him up, but it ended up that now I am excited to find out how he is doing with his schoolwork when I visit the school.
All of a sudden, I came in one week and he went through a transformation. I was shocked, I thought he may have hit his head. He was working conscientiously, getting his work done, asking questions pertaining to the lesson, and even trying to help others! I was flabbergasted to say the least. Last week, he was actually trying to learn from his mistakes, and asked me to even write some challenge problems for him to work on after the starter. He sat quietly in the back of the classroom so that no one could disturb him, did his work, then asked me to check it. Amazing. He continues to surprise me. Ive heard that he may have an ipod on the line, but whatever his incentive or motivaton is, its working!
There's another student, a sophomore who acts similar to the freshman student. He is very disruptive, and I spend time talking to him during the lesson mostly to keep him from talking to other students if possible, and trying to get to know him. He's very intelligent, one of those kids who doesn't need to read the book and just 'gets it' On one hand, that is great for him, because he's naturally intelligent but doesn't have the work ethic. He refuses to do the homework, and is fine with settling with a 'B' in the class as long as he can slack on the homework. He started out ok, but his behavior is steadily getting worse.
Last week, my 'Most Improved' freshman student came in to 4th hour during his lunch period to ask a question and the sophomore student was being loud and obnoxious. It was absolutely priceless when the 'Most Improved' freshman looked at my teacher and said "You know, he reminds me a lot of myself, well how I used to be" My teacher replied "You're right, but the thing is..he's a few years older than you are." Although an absolutely priceless moment, it was also bittersweet. One student has improved drastically, while the other took a huge blow.
All of a sudden, I came in one week and he went through a transformation. I was shocked, I thought he may have hit his head. He was working conscientiously, getting his work done, asking questions pertaining to the lesson, and even trying to help others! I was flabbergasted to say the least. Last week, he was actually trying to learn from his mistakes, and asked me to even write some challenge problems for him to work on after the starter. He sat quietly in the back of the classroom so that no one could disturb him, did his work, then asked me to check it. Amazing. He continues to surprise me. Ive heard that he may have an ipod on the line, but whatever his incentive or motivaton is, its working!
There's another student, a sophomore who acts similar to the freshman student. He is very disruptive, and I spend time talking to him during the lesson mostly to keep him from talking to other students if possible, and trying to get to know him. He's very intelligent, one of those kids who doesn't need to read the book and just 'gets it' On one hand, that is great for him, because he's naturally intelligent but doesn't have the work ethic. He refuses to do the homework, and is fine with settling with a 'B' in the class as long as he can slack on the homework. He started out ok, but his behavior is steadily getting worse.
Last week, my 'Most Improved' freshman student came in to 4th hour during his lunch period to ask a question and the sophomore student was being loud and obnoxious. It was absolutely priceless when the 'Most Improved' freshman looked at my teacher and said "You know, he reminds me a lot of myself, well how I used to be" My teacher replied "You're right, but the thing is..he's a few years older than you are." Although an absolutely priceless moment, it was also bittersweet. One student has improved drastically, while the other took a huge blow.
A New Appreciation for Teachers
As always, I have a lot of respect for teachers. Their role in any given student's life is very elaborate and often misunderstood until you spend a day in their shoes. I have gotten a chance to observe the complex layers of teaching for a whole semester, from a teacher 's perspective, and a couple of weeks ago..the unexpected happened. I had spoken with my teaching partner on Tuesday, but when I stepped into the classroom on Thursday I was surprised to see another woman at her desk, a substitute teacher.
I happened to get there a couple minutes late, and I was welcomed with the usual chatter among the students. I walked over to the desk to introduce myself to the substitute teacher who was nervously thumbing through some lesson plans. She explained that there were worksheets for the students, but she hadn't been through the material in so long and could not remember any of it. I looked through the material and quickly referenced an Algebra book to confirm a couple of quick things and said that I could teach the lesson if she wouldn't mind helping with the administrative things.
I had one thing on my side, and that was that the students at least recognize and know who I am, so they warmed up to me teaching the class a little easier. First hour was a little rough, trying to get attendance down to the office, and trying to teach the lesson when half of the students didn't have books or pencils. I ended up having students come up to the board and do problems, and I would help them if they were nervous or afraid of getting something wrong. It is incredibly hard to maintain a balance of being stern and encouraging at the same time. That day made me step out of my traditional role as a 'teaching fellow' who is normally there for encouragement and support. I wouldn't mind doing this, but I would have liked to prepare a little more for it.
As the hours went on, the substitute and I got better and better managing the students. She worked on making sure the attendance sheet we passed around was filled out, and I taught the lessons. By third hour, I had the students partnering up and doing problems and then I would randomly choose any student to write their answer on the board. That worked well because each person had the responsibility of making sure their partner knew how to do the problem in case they were called. It seemed to encourage some of the students, but others did take the opportunity to form groups 'larger' than intended which was somewhat distracting. It was a little bit annoying that the students are allowed to carry ipods around. While the students were working, I would hear traces of music and I would have to go and make them turn off their music. Its amazing that all these highschoolers seems to have some sort of technological device at all times whether its a cell phone, an ipod..PSP..its always something!
Overall, it was a great learning experience for me. Its incredibly hard to teach a diverse range of students. Some of them know the material and are bored, then others are barely keeping up and need extra help. And when they are not given the proper attention, they become disruptive and time never seems to be on your side. When it gets down to it, I see that conventional methods do not always address the varying range of ability in the classroom and its extremely hard for one person to maximize any given student's absorption of material. I would be curious to do more research on different approaches to secondary schooling across the world.
I happened to get there a couple minutes late, and I was welcomed with the usual chatter among the students. I walked over to the desk to introduce myself to the substitute teacher who was nervously thumbing through some lesson plans. She explained that there were worksheets for the students, but she hadn't been through the material in so long and could not remember any of it. I looked through the material and quickly referenced an Algebra book to confirm a couple of quick things and said that I could teach the lesson if she wouldn't mind helping with the administrative things.
I had one thing on my side, and that was that the students at least recognize and know who I am, so they warmed up to me teaching the class a little easier. First hour was a little rough, trying to get attendance down to the office, and trying to teach the lesson when half of the students didn't have books or pencils. I ended up having students come up to the board and do problems, and I would help them if they were nervous or afraid of getting something wrong. It is incredibly hard to maintain a balance of being stern and encouraging at the same time. That day made me step out of my traditional role as a 'teaching fellow' who is normally there for encouragement and support. I wouldn't mind doing this, but I would have liked to prepare a little more for it.
As the hours went on, the substitute and I got better and better managing the students. She worked on making sure the attendance sheet we passed around was filled out, and I taught the lessons. By third hour, I had the students partnering up and doing problems and then I would randomly choose any student to write their answer on the board. That worked well because each person had the responsibility of making sure their partner knew how to do the problem in case they were called. It seemed to encourage some of the students, but others did take the opportunity to form groups 'larger' than intended which was somewhat distracting. It was a little bit annoying that the students are allowed to carry ipods around. While the students were working, I would hear traces of music and I would have to go and make them turn off their music. Its amazing that all these highschoolers seems to have some sort of technological device at all times whether its a cell phone, an ipod..PSP..its always something!
Overall, it was a great learning experience for me. Its incredibly hard to teach a diverse range of students. Some of them know the material and are bored, then others are barely keeping up and need extra help. And when they are not given the proper attention, they become disruptive and time never seems to be on your side. When it gets down to it, I see that conventional methods do not always address the varying range of ability in the classroom and its extremely hard for one person to maximize any given student's absorption of material. I would be curious to do more research on different approaches to secondary schooling across the world.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Aerospace Engineering, Celebrity Worship, and You
The past month at Ypsilanti High School has been successful and rewarding. At the beginning of the year, I did a couple of presentations about careers involving math and science, and a goal setting presentation. A student with an extreme interest in Aerospace Engineering approached me and asked if I could give him information that would guide him to work for NASA when he grew up. I researched the internet and University of Michigan's Aerospace Engineering program and printed out some light reading for the student to read. I then mentioned to another teaching fellow, Serge Badiane, that I had a student interested in Aerospace Engineering, and he was able to come and give a brief introduction explaining his research and the field of Aerospace Engineering. During one of the periods, he was even able to show the students videos of his research in small groups and they really enjoyed it! Even better, he was able to spend some one on one time with the student that expressed extreme interest in Aerospace from the beginning. It happened to be on the student's birthday, so that was a special treat.
In addition, I did another presentation "Celebrity Worship and You" Now this turned out to be pretty fun, although I want to expand on this topic with the students in future presentations. I think its interesting to discuss the effects of the media with the stduents. Espeically seeing that this is a time where they are experimenting and exploring their own identities which unfortunately may be heavily influenced by what they see on tv. I could see this was a topic of interest since such a large portion of students showed interest in pursuing performing arts (Musicians, actors/acresses, athletes) when we talked about careers. The media glamorizes these careers but does not put much emphasis at all on the education needed to succeed in these careers. Although many actors/actresses, athletes and musicians may not have college degrees, there are a surprising amount of them that do. Even better, there is handful that have or have pursued degrees in Math, Science or Engineering.
For the activity, I looked on the internet and found 20 - 25 celebrities that the students would recognize, printed their pictures and created a brief profile of who they are (i.e what movies they have been in, what team they are on, etc.). All of these celebrites have or have pursued college degrees in Math, Science or Engineering. I passed them out so that each student had one, and then gave them their task. Their task was to choose a leader/organizer and answer a few questions: 1)Which of these people do you think was the valedictorian of their highschool 2) Which of these people (up to three) do you think could help you with your math homework 3) Whcih of these people (up to three) do you think would be a good businessman/businesswoman. So they got about 10-12 minutes to debate adn discuss these questions and write their answers on the board. Meanwhile, Ms. Mills and I picked our own answers but we had a cheat sheet that listed the accomplishments of each individual.
It was very surprising that in each class, most of the students didn't know what a valedictorian was. It was not surprising that most of the students could not figure out the link between the celebrities, but that was the plan. There were a couple of students who had knowledge of a few of the celebrities educational background but very few. And when these students would speak up, it was interesting to see how they got shot down, because other students didn't believe them. Most of the students choices were based on what they perceive as the requirements needed for the celebrities' associated career, and even more surprising, how 'smart' the celebrities "looks". Montel Williams and Terrence Howard were a popular picks for "smart people", but Cindy Crawford wasn't even considered (although she was valedictorian of her high school and pursued a degree in chemical engineering).
After explaining that all of the celebrities despite their present careers have or have pursued college degrees, I passed out a table outlining the accompplishments of each celebrity for them to look over. This was a surprise to many of the students and a few of them started asking about other celebrities not on the list. It was rewarding that a couple of the students wanted to look into this further to see what other celebrities had other interests than what they see on tv. I urged the students to research the celebrities they like and to find out more about their career paths and how they really have been able to succeed as celebrities.
In addition, I did another presentation "Celebrity Worship and You" Now this turned out to be pretty fun, although I want to expand on this topic with the students in future presentations. I think its interesting to discuss the effects of the media with the stduents. Espeically seeing that this is a time where they are experimenting and exploring their own identities which unfortunately may be heavily influenced by what they see on tv. I could see this was a topic of interest since such a large portion of students showed interest in pursuing performing arts (Musicians, actors/acresses, athletes) when we talked about careers. The media glamorizes these careers but does not put much emphasis at all on the education needed to succeed in these careers. Although many actors/actresses, athletes and musicians may not have college degrees, there are a surprising amount of them that do. Even better, there is handful that have or have pursued degrees in Math, Science or Engineering.
For the activity, I looked on the internet and found 20 - 25 celebrities that the students would recognize, printed their pictures and created a brief profile of who they are (i.e what movies they have been in, what team they are on, etc.). All of these celebrites have or have pursued college degrees in Math, Science or Engineering. I passed them out so that each student had one, and then gave them their task. Their task was to choose a leader/organizer and answer a few questions: 1)Which of these people do you think was the valedictorian of their highschool 2) Which of these people (up to three) do you think could help you with your math homework 3) Whcih of these people (up to three) do you think would be a good businessman/businesswoman. So they got about 10-12 minutes to debate adn discuss these questions and write their answers on the board. Meanwhile, Ms. Mills and I picked our own answers but we had a cheat sheet that listed the accomplishments of each individual.
It was very surprising that in each class, most of the students didn't know what a valedictorian was. It was not surprising that most of the students could not figure out the link between the celebrities, but that was the plan. There were a couple of students who had knowledge of a few of the celebrities educational background but very few. And when these students would speak up, it was interesting to see how they got shot down, because other students didn't believe them. Most of the students choices were based on what they perceive as the requirements needed for the celebrities' associated career, and even more surprising, how 'smart' the celebrities "looks". Montel Williams and Terrence Howard were a popular picks for "smart people", but Cindy Crawford wasn't even considered (although she was valedictorian of her high school and pursued a degree in chemical engineering).
After explaining that all of the celebrities despite their present careers have or have pursued college degrees, I passed out a table outlining the accompplishments of each celebrity for them to look over. This was a surprise to many of the students and a few of them started asking about other celebrities not on the list. It was rewarding that a couple of the students wanted to look into this further to see what other celebrities had other interests than what they see on tv. I urged the students to research the celebrities they like and to find out more about their career paths and how they really have been able to succeed as celebrities.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Ypsi High Election, 2008!
This week was very fun! In response to the historical election, I decided to create an activity for the students to teach them about the voting process and relate it to math. Fortunately, my teacher gave me virtually the whole hour to do the exercise in most hours, so I wasn't crunched for time, and I was very pleased with how things went.
The exercise went something like this. I created a couple of overheads for an interactive presentation of how the United States uses the electoral college system and went into detail about how electoral votes are calculated and different rules between states that are of importance to the voting population. I then taught them how to calculate electoral votes given the population data. I also introduced some of the positive and negative things about the electoral system and asked them their opinions on it. I was impressed to see that the students had been keeping up with the election and had an interest in current events.
After explaining to them the basic principles involved with the electoral college, I split the class into groups, or "states." Some states had a large number of students while some states had only two or three students. I helped them calculate a theoretical number of electoral votes they would get using the United States current system, but the number was based on the population of the classroom. Then they were to come up with a name for their "state" and write their respective electoral votes on the board for the rest of the class to see. Then, I had them check whether or not each group's electoral votes was correct.
After this, the class chose two presidential candidates. The rules were that one candidate had to be male, and the other female to recognize the historical campaigning system. I then isolated the presidential candidates and made them pick between two issues which they would debate to the class. The first was whether or not schools should offer healthier food. The other was whether or not uniforms should be allowed. I flipped a coin that decided who would argue the affirmative and negative positions. They got a couple of minutes to review the electoral votes on the board to come up with a strategy to recruit votes.
Then, I introduced the presidential candidates to the rest of the class, and explained that they would be debating on a specific issue. The candidates presented some very interesting arguments to the class, and we had a mini question and answer session which I feel was the best part of this activity because the students seemed to get really involved.
Then, the 'states' voted on the candidates with a majority, winner take all policy (simulating how the United States acquires electoral votes in most states). We then tallied up the votes for each candidate and determined a theoretical winner. After determining the winner, Mrs. Mills and I briefly reflected on the experience. I told them a few reasons as to why this mock election was not completely realistic and got some feedback from them. I also explained to them the importance of math in politics and offered suggestions to those who were interested in this area that they may want to pursue a career in political science or economics. Mrs. Mills explained the importance of emotion in the elections and how many of the students were using emotions to characterize the presidential candidates and straying off the issues (similar to the real election).
Overall, I thought the exercise went very well, and I am going to make an effort to create interactive presentations like this one. I had a lot of fun
The exercise went something like this. I created a couple of overheads for an interactive presentation of how the United States uses the electoral college system and went into detail about how electoral votes are calculated and different rules between states that are of importance to the voting population. I then taught them how to calculate electoral votes given the population data. I also introduced some of the positive and negative things about the electoral system and asked them their opinions on it. I was impressed to see that the students had been keeping up with the election and had an interest in current events.
After explaining to them the basic principles involved with the electoral college, I split the class into groups, or "states." Some states had a large number of students while some states had only two or three students. I helped them calculate a theoretical number of electoral votes they would get using the United States current system, but the number was based on the population of the classroom. Then they were to come up with a name for their "state" and write their respective electoral votes on the board for the rest of the class to see. Then, I had them check whether or not each group's electoral votes was correct.
After this, the class chose two presidential candidates. The rules were that one candidate had to be male, and the other female to recognize the historical campaigning system. I then isolated the presidential candidates and made them pick between two issues which they would debate to the class. The first was whether or not schools should offer healthier food. The other was whether or not uniforms should be allowed. I flipped a coin that decided who would argue the affirmative and negative positions. They got a couple of minutes to review the electoral votes on the board to come up with a strategy to recruit votes.
Then, I introduced the presidential candidates to the rest of the class, and explained that they would be debating on a specific issue. The candidates presented some very interesting arguments to the class, and we had a mini question and answer session which I feel was the best part of this activity because the students seemed to get really involved.
Then, the 'states' voted on the candidates with a majority, winner take all policy (simulating how the United States acquires electoral votes in most states). We then tallied up the votes for each candidate and determined a theoretical winner. After determining the winner, Mrs. Mills and I briefly reflected on the experience. I told them a few reasons as to why this mock election was not completely realistic and got some feedback from them. I also explained to them the importance of math in politics and offered suggestions to those who were interested in this area that they may want to pursue a career in political science or economics. Mrs. Mills explained the importance of emotion in the elections and how many of the students were using emotions to characterize the presidential candidates and straying off the issues (similar to the real election).
Overall, I thought the exercise went very well, and I am going to make an effort to create interactive presentations like this one. I had a lot of fun
Thursday, November 6, 2008
My Experience at UPSM!
Last week, I went to UPSM (University Prep Science and Math) in Detroit with Rachel Phillips where I enjoyed observing a learning environment different than one I have ever witnessed before. As I walked into Compuware's beautiful gigantic headquarters equipped with an amazing water fountain, a Hard Rock Cafe, a Borders and other stores, I was already overwhelmed that middle schoolers were somewhere in the building. As soon as we got to the 11th floor where the middle schoolers were, I heard a bunch of kids screaming at the top of their lungs. It was Halloween so everyone had colorful costumes and tons of energy. Even most of the teachers and staff had costumes on!
Although I mostly observed the students, I learned so much about how a different learning environment can enhance a student's motivation and willingness to learn. This is an amazing experience for the students because there are only a couple hundred students and they receive a lot of attention from their teachers. Even more exciting, within the next year the prep school will be having daily classes at the Detroit Science Center so they will be exposed to museum exhibits and the like on a daily basis! That is an extraordinary opportunity in my opinion!
There were a few small things that I noticed that were different than conventional methods / approaches to teaching that I would like to highlight:
The layout: Although the Compuware headquarters is a temporary location for the students, it works extremely well for middle school students or students with high amounts of energy. Everything is in close proximity, even the superintendent's office is a heartbeat away from anyone of the classrooms. There were no 'doors' to the classrooms. I really can't even classify the rooms as 'classrooms' because all that separated any one of them was a wall, which I thought was very effective because it gives the students an opportunity to have more face time with all of the teachers. Also, the classroom was not set up with rows of desks like most normal classrooms. There were about 4 - 5 tables in the room so students were forced to sit in groups which makes it easier for the teacher to be more interactive. Although the rooms were a little crunched, the intimacy between the students and teacher, with the teacher not standing in the front of the room, but walking around constantly seemed to encourage the students to ask and answer questions and be motivated to be involved with the lesson.
Teachers going to lunch with the students: I understand that these kids are a little younger, so they need more guidance, but the fact that some of the teachers have the chance and the time to eat lunch with the students is an important factor which I believe builds respect and trust, which could really enhance their limited time in the classroom.
Letting the Students Pioneer: This was a brilliant idea in my opinion. There are a lot of advantages to starting a brand new school system, and that is there are no rules! It seems that the management of this new school is very focused on reaching the students in a way that takes the least prying and that is the most effective. Since a lot of communication in our generation is through technology, and this school has the resources to use different communication devices and applications, they are appropriately making an effort to use technology whenever possible. I briefly met the superintendent and she was discussing to Rachel, another TF, how there are currently no student clubs and how the students need active extracurricular activities like a debate club, or a student council. The neat thing is, they are going to let the students pioneer these student clubs, kind of like they will be entrepreneurs starting their own business. Not only is this a practical experience, the students would have credit for building their own organizations from scratch which is generally not offered in traditional systems that don't offer much leverage.
Students looked happy: One of the biggest things I noticed is that the students looked happy to be at school. Again, this is slightly hard to compare to high school students which are a little older and mature, and have a million and one other things to worry about, but these students were definitely excited about learning and I feel as though the openness of their environment and the setting had a lot to do with it. They seemed motivated by the fact that they could feel like someone had a lot invested in their learning and took pride in beginning to appreciate their self-worth.
Although I mostly observed the students, I learned so much about how a different learning environment can enhance a student's motivation and willingness to learn. This is an amazing experience for the students because there are only a couple hundred students and they receive a lot of attention from their teachers. Even more exciting, within the next year the prep school will be having daily classes at the Detroit Science Center so they will be exposed to museum exhibits and the like on a daily basis! That is an extraordinary opportunity in my opinion!
There were a few small things that I noticed that were different than conventional methods / approaches to teaching that I would like to highlight:
The layout: Although the Compuware headquarters is a temporary location for the students, it works extremely well for middle school students or students with high amounts of energy. Everything is in close proximity, even the superintendent's office is a heartbeat away from anyone of the classrooms. There were no 'doors' to the classrooms. I really can't even classify the rooms as 'classrooms' because all that separated any one of them was a wall, which I thought was very effective because it gives the students an opportunity to have more face time with all of the teachers. Also, the classroom was not set up with rows of desks like most normal classrooms. There were about 4 - 5 tables in the room so students were forced to sit in groups which makes it easier for the teacher to be more interactive. Although the rooms were a little crunched, the intimacy between the students and teacher, with the teacher not standing in the front of the room, but walking around constantly seemed to encourage the students to ask and answer questions and be motivated to be involved with the lesson.
Teachers going to lunch with the students: I understand that these kids are a little younger, so they need more guidance, but the fact that some of the teachers have the chance and the time to eat lunch with the students is an important factor which I believe builds respect and trust, which could really enhance their limited time in the classroom.
Letting the Students Pioneer: This was a brilliant idea in my opinion. There are a lot of advantages to starting a brand new school system, and that is there are no rules! It seems that the management of this new school is very focused on reaching the students in a way that takes the least prying and that is the most effective. Since a lot of communication in our generation is through technology, and this school has the resources to use different communication devices and applications, they are appropriately making an effort to use technology whenever possible. I briefly met the superintendent and she was discussing to Rachel, another TF, how there are currently no student clubs and how the students need active extracurricular activities like a debate club, or a student council. The neat thing is, they are going to let the students pioneer these student clubs, kind of like they will be entrepreneurs starting their own business. Not only is this a practical experience, the students would have credit for building their own organizations from scratch which is generally not offered in traditional systems that don't offer much leverage.
Students looked happy: One of the biggest things I noticed is that the students looked happy to be at school. Again, this is slightly hard to compare to high school students which are a little older and mature, and have a million and one other things to worry about, but these students were definitely excited about learning and I feel as though the openness of their environment and the setting had a lot to do with it. They seemed motivated by the fact that they could feel like someone had a lot invested in their learning and took pride in beginning to appreciate their self-worth.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Why is Math Important?
Last week wasn't as exciting because the students had to take tests during the hour so I just helped answer questions and watched the class when Mrs. Mills had to step out for a few minutes for a meeting. This week, I decided to start my series of mini-presentations to the classroom. One of the students had raised the question "Why is Math Important?" - a valid question, especially for beginning highschool students who have little to no interest in math. As I begin shaping my goals for the class this year, one thing that is important to me is that the students understand the practicality of math, and the infinite applications of math in their everyday lives and future careers. Personally, when I find that I don't 'like' something, more often than not its because I do not 'understand' it or haven't taken the time to understand it, or haven't used and applied it. I think that one way to make math seem more appealing to the students is to see math in action in more areas outside of the classroom. For the first presentation, we had to use overheads, but we plan to use powerpoint in the future. I started off with a slide with four quotes about math:
"The great book of nature can be read only by those who know the language in which it was written. And that language is mathematics." - Galileo “Father of Science”:
“Mathematics is biology’s new microscope – only better.” - Rita Colwell, Director of National Science Foundation
"For example, how can we exploit the world-wide network of seismic sensors to predict earthquakes? How can we mine the vast genomic databanks to advance biology and medicine? How can we sift through the massive amounts of text, video, web, and satellite data to detect terrorist events before they happen? Well, data means big collections of numbers--remember that text and images are digitized and stored as numbers--and data mining means discovering the patterns and structures hidden in those collections. That's practically a definition of mathematics: the study of structures and patterns in large numerical sets. So you can be sure that in the 21st century--the century of data--math will again have a huge impact." - Unknown
Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting. ~Gottfried Leibniz
- Math is the most widely used subject in the world
- Every career uses some kind of math
-Doing math helps the mind to reason and organize complicated situations or problems into clear, simple, and logical steps.
- High paying jobs often demand someone who can take complicated situations and simplify it to the level that everyone can understand.
- Therefore, by knowing more math, students give themselves the competitive edge they will need to compete for these high paying jobs
- The ability to identify and analyze patterns
- Logic and critical thinking skills
- Ability to see relationships
- Problem solving skills
Lastly, I put up a slide to portray the universality of math. In one circle, I enclosed the words:
Medicine
Religion / Beliefs
Culture
Race
Government
Environment
Language
Mathematics
Math literacy = “numeracy”
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