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
This was just a starter to get the student's attention and to ask them what their thoughts and opinions were about these quotes. Most of them had heard of Galileo so they could understand the first quote, and the last quote sparked a lot of discussion because some didn't want to believe that math was used in music. So I asked the class how many of them played musical instruments and some students shouted out the different instruments they play. I mentioned that I also have played piano and clarinet, and how the rhythms in music was actually an abstract application of math.
Next, I put up a sheet that had a list of about 30 random career areas that I could think of. Everything from "Law" to "Economics" to "Sociology" to "Engineering." The point to this slide was to show that math is relevant in virtually every career field. This was very interesting because at first glance many of the students argued that some of the careers like "sociology" or "culinary arts" didn't require math skills, but I explained simple examples of how you could use math in those fields to silence them. Then other students tried to challenge me on other careers to see if I could think of examples of where to use math. The only one that stumped me was cheerleading.
Next, I went over some practical examples of math and how it makes you more competitive when trying to find a job. I listed about 10 or so examples:
-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
This one wasn't as interactive, but I just explained the importance of learning math and how it exercises your brain while enhancing 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
And in a separate square, I enclosed the words:
Mathematics
Math literacy = “numeracy”
And I asked them to tell me what would change about the things in the circle if I was in Japan. I got a good response from that, different students shouted out answers basically saying that all of the things in the circle would change - the correct answer. I explained that many of the things in the circle will change even if you just go to a neighboring city. Its not necessary to travel around the world to find differences. Then I asked them what would happen with math if I traveled to Japan. Some of the students hesitated on this one, and then a couple of them answered that math would change depending on where you were in the world - interesting. Some were confused and thought that because the language changed, the math would change too. I explained that although the languages may change, and the way in which the math was taught may change, the mathematics is still the same anywhere in the world.I also asked them to fill out information sheets with their name, hobbies/interests, and two jobs that they thought were cool. I got good participation with this and it has been interesting to thumb through all of these to get a feel for what they are interested in. For my next presentation, I plan to show them some stats comparing this information by class and grade and then putting together a booklet with information on different careers. This should be fun!
I am an Industrial and Operations Engineering student helping out Algebra and Geometry classes at Ypsilanti Highschool. My first day brought back so many memories as I parked my car and saw all of the students marching into school. As I walked to the cafeteria trying to find the classroom, it was obvious that I was an outsider and I could feel eyes on me as the students tried to survey a new face.
As the warning bell rang and students started filing into the classroom bright and early at 7:20 in the morning, their energy was off the charts and hard to contain. I don't remember being that energized so early in the morning, but its easy to feed off of their energy. I gave a brief introduction to the students and began observing the classroom and the students to get an idea of what to expect. My first day was more laid back since Ms. Mills and I are still trying to establish a routine and get into a groove.
I think that I will be able to contribute a lot to this classroom mostly with providing a new perspective and hopefully more motivation to understand the practical importance of Algebra and Geometry. During my second week, I was a little overwhelmed because we were scrambling to find substitute teachers and I ended up partially teaching the class by myself. Although it was a challenging task, I got an opportunity to interact more directly with the students. I had a run-in with one of the students because I discovered he was cheating on his homework, and had to rip it up and make him start over. I already have more admiration for the teachers who endure this challenge everyday. After talking to a few of the students and understanding various excuses and reasons as to why algebra / geometry is not important, I am going to think of a mini-presentation that integrates real life problems with their class material. I think that taking the time to explain the benefits of learning basic algebra are just as important as learning the material itself.
