Reflections on my talk S2E13
This week I was extended the opportunity to give a brief talk about my class the history of mathematics and do a derivation of the Quadratic formula. I was elated to have such an opportunity because I could show students what a great class this was! I spent the week prior preparing and even taking the time to practice my speech with my teacher who I have worked with this entire semester. I felt like this was a culmination of all my hard work from the past year.
The day came and I had an audience of about ~10 students for a Calculus I class. I was elated and I do into the reasoning for the class, the history of the quadratic formula, who created it, and the reason why. I showed a derivation both with real numbers and an abstraction and showed how one defines variables can change how one's end equation will work. After that I opened the audience to questions and comments and it was complete silence. No one really seemed interested in what I was talking about or its application. None the less I then asked the class if given the opportunity if they would take a history of math class or not, I received verbal no's. My heart was broken but given only 15 minutes to talk about the History of Math and do a derivation may not be enough time to persuade students of the wonders and power of studying the development and history of mathematics. Regardless I am happy that I got the chance to make a class, build a strong relationship with a new mentor, and have learn about the creativity needed to do mathematics. This semester I got to learn about some of my new math heroes Euclid, Archimedes, al-Khwarizmi, and Khayyam.
The day came and I had an audience of about ~10 students for a Calculus I class. I was elated and I do into the reasoning for the class, the history of the quadratic formula, who created it, and the reason why. I showed a derivation both with real numbers and an abstraction and showed how one defines variables can change how one's end equation will work. After that I opened the audience to questions and comments and it was complete silence. No one really seemed interested in what I was talking about or its application. None the less I then asked the class if given the opportunity if they would take a history of math class or not, I received verbal no's. My heart was broken but given only 15 minutes to talk about the History of Math and do a derivation may not be enough time to persuade students of the wonders and power of studying the development and history of mathematics. Regardless I am happy that I got the chance to make a class, build a strong relationship with a new mentor, and have learn about the creativity needed to do mathematics. This semester I got to learn about some of my new math heroes Euclid, Archimedes, al-Khwarizmi, and Khayyam.
When I taught statistics, the month or so I would get that same reaction...absolute silence. When I asked my various classes why they seem to have such a dislike of math, they gave me these two answers. I'm never going to use this....I have never been good at math....I would tell them you use advance algebra everyday when you are trying to figure out if you have enough money to pay your bills. In regards to second reason, I tell them everyone is good in math but some people are just more afraid of it. So I would like to say to keep being an ambassador of math. It's people like you that will make this complicated topic accessible to the masses. Math isn't just for Harvard graduates, anyone can fall in love with it.
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