There are some people out there who are doing a great job of trying to integrate math problems into real world scenarios. One of my favourite examples has been Dan Meyers with this simple photo.
Students may be quick to decide on one that they inherently believe will be the better deal and it can be a fun discussion to see where the tipping point to their beliefs may be with various other factors included (e.g. original price). Unfortunately this type of practical math is hard to come by in the Ontario curriculum and becomes even more obscure as they become seniors with Calculus and Trig being their primary options for the University streams (with the exception of the Financial math unit in grade 11).
As I continue down my path of becoming an adult I am always shocked at the conversations that I have in my personal life that indicate I have no clue how to properly calculate compound interest or mortgage rates anymore even though now is when I need it most. Even to scale is back to an intermediate level, why do we not teach students how to properly manage a budget? Yes it may get touched on here and there in superficial ways during cross-curricular activities but never in a meaningful way. Stereotypically a boy aged 13-15+ is just trying to get his hands on a car of his own and yet we do not give them the skills to learn how to budget and save for the car, or make them aware of costs related to owning a car and how those add up over time (gas, repairs, tires and let’s not even start with insurance).
Marc Sollinger wrote in a blog on Innovation Hub (http://blogs.wgbh.org/innovation-hub/2016/5/6/strogatz-math/) about why secondary math may look the way it does. Maybe it is time to reevaluate what we think is worth the time of our general population to learn and what may be actually beneficial to our society at large?
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