Comments on: Utility or beauty: why teach mathematics

By: Beautiful mathematics | Tricotomania and more

Beautiful mathematics | Tricotomania and more — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:57:20 +0000

[...] that recurring theme, someone on the LivingMath Forum posted a link to a talk by Ron Eglash on fractals in the [...]

By: Christina

Christina — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:43:14 +0000

A great resource I use for fun, practical, beautiful math is How Math Works by Carol Vordeman. It has sections on algebra, geometry, measurement, statistics, and so on, with plenty of concept and plenty of activities.

By: Angela, MotherCrone

Angela, MotherCrone — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:00:07 +0000

How I wish that I had ever once had a teacher who could even articulate beauty in math to me, let alone teach it to me. This is why I have my kids take upper level math at our co-op, because once they were being taught by people who not only got it, but were excited about sharing it, they can move beyond me and my phobias!

By: Tricotomania and more » Useful math

Tricotomania and more » Useful math — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:24:56 +0000

[...] raises a good point in the comments to my last post. “it’s not that school doesn’t teach useful real-world things, it’s [...]

By: Tara

Tara — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:17:34 +0000

I am in the early stages of convincing a seven year old that math does not consist of arithmetic solely, and that learning those math facts will come, in time. He’s interested in geometry, so that’s where we spend our time. I am an advocate of Living Math to introduce concepts- because I am NOT skilled in math- generally.
I have plans to use Primary Challenge Math soon.

By: shaun

shaun — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:51:26 +0000

Great thoughts. We worked in the Primary Challenge math book a couple of years ago — we should get the next one too. I am with Willa in the above exchange — that is, that’s how my mind works.

One of my gifted e-lists is run by a total math expert who recently won a national award as a math coach. He recommends the book “Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics” by Liping Ma and the materials put out by The Art of Problem Solving (find them on line.)

I have come to appreciate mathematics as a very elegant (in the scientific sense) language, in addition to a very elegant form of logic, and these things have given me a better attitude about math than I did as a student.

BTW, Violet is still far from perfect on her times tables too, but it has been so much better for her to learn and memorize “math facts” as a function of studying concepts and solving problems. She may occasionally “skip count” on her fingers, but she gets the answer right and eventually it will stick.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:18:37 +0000

I only skimmed, becasue I got stuck on fixing toilets and geometry/math and how they are actually related.

it’s not that school doesn’t teach useful real-world things, it’s that they don’t teach that the things you’re suposed to be learning can actually be applied in the real world.

I find that’s how we’ve really only formally instructed anything.