How often have you heard someone say something like, "kids these days can can't do anything without a calculator"? The thinking behind such a statement assumes that if you can't do math with pen and paper or better yet, in your head, then you aren't really doing math. The flawed logic that drives this assumption is that math = calculations. In the TED talk below, Conrad Wolfram correctly asserts that math is not equivalent to making calculations, but something much greater. So often in our math classrooms students spend a great deal of time performing calculations. Why spend so much time performing calculations when we have machines/computers that can do it much quicker and accurately than ourselves. One of the great takeaways from Conrad's TED talk is that math can be used to solve so many interesting real world problems. Formulating a question, identifying a problem and being able to solve the problem using math is interesting and exciting. What is not interesting and exciting (to many) is the calculations. Yet we have students spend hours and hours doing calculations. If computers were integrated more heavily in the math classroom then students could use math to solve real problems instead of just doing calculations. For example, in the video there is a sample exam question which could be posed (on computer, not pen and paper) which is "which is the best life insurance policy?". Students would use the computer to input variables to determine the answer. Let the computer do the calculation and let the students solve the real problem. Conrad Wolfram suggests that math curriculum should be reformed to emphasize computer based math. I believe this would be far more relevant to students lives, more practical, and definitely more interesting. It should be pointed out that this doesn't mean there isn't a place for hand calculations or that they should be forgotten completely. But if it computer based reforms can make students more more interested in math and perhaps help them in everyday life, then I am all for it.Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Teaching Kids Real Math With Computers
How often have you heard someone say something like, "kids these days can can't do anything without a calculator"? The thinking behind such a statement assumes that if you can't do math with pen and paper or better yet, in your head, then you aren't really doing math. The flawed logic that drives this assumption is that math = calculations. In the TED talk below, Conrad Wolfram correctly asserts that math is not equivalent to making calculations, but something much greater. So often in our math classrooms students spend a great deal of time performing calculations. Why spend so much time performing calculations when we have machines/computers that can do it much quicker and accurately than ourselves. One of the great takeaways from Conrad's TED talk is that math can be used to solve so many interesting real world problems. Formulating a question, identifying a problem and being able to solve the problem using math is interesting and exciting. What is not interesting and exciting (to many) is the calculations. Yet we have students spend hours and hours doing calculations. If computers were integrated more heavily in the math classroom then students could use math to solve real problems instead of just doing calculations. For example, in the video there is a sample exam question which could be posed (on computer, not pen and paper) which is "which is the best life insurance policy?". Students would use the computer to input variables to determine the answer. Let the computer do the calculation and let the students solve the real problem. Conrad Wolfram suggests that math curriculum should be reformed to emphasize computer based math. I believe this would be far more relevant to students lives, more practical, and definitely more interesting. It should be pointed out that this doesn't mean there isn't a place for hand calculations or that they should be forgotten completely. But if it computer based reforms can make students more more interested in math and perhaps help them in everyday life, then I am all for it.
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Michael,
ReplyDeleteI quite enjoyed your spirited argument for computer based math and the accompanying TED talk. I see this type of pedagogy being important for allowing students to have a better understanding of the visual aspect of math. Wolfram's example of a life insurance policy is effective, and I could see countless scenarios (e.g., savings plans, post secondary education costs) that could be used that are applicable to students' lives. There have been several occasions that I have heard students say "when are we EVER going to use this?" I think that there is validity in the point, considering that the math that we are teaching may not be of use to some of our students. However, visionaries like Wolfram discuss a direction for education that seeks to deal with practical problems. Critical thinking is a skill that we want all our students to have, and this concept looks to take education in this area to the next level.
Thanks for sharing. I think there's a lot of wisdom here that would resonate with many of our students.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I tell my precalculus students often is that no one applies for a job whose description is "we need someone to solve 5*2^x = 4". What they apply for is a job that says something like "optimize the bus routes for the Oakland School System". This is then a problem that the mathematician would have to break down into its component variables (# of buses, locations of students, traffic on each street, distances, etc), formulate their relationships in some form of model with equations as its basis, and then yes, ultimately, solve that system of equations and inequalities as an optimization problem. I find that a lot of students perk up at this discussion because it feels more intuitively real to them. It is then incumbent on us as teachers to deliver on introducing the skills to solve these more authentic problems, be they on computer or otherwise.