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When one of my daughters was in high school, a student in her math class stood up in disgust and exclaimed "Why do we have to learn math for 12 years when we are never going to use any of it?" You might think that as a mathematics educator I would find this statement upsetting. Instead, the student's question got me thinking about the fact that she saw no connection between the mathematics and her future, even though her curriculum was full of story problems that at the time I would have called "real-world problems." Every mathematician has probably encountered an "I'm not fond of math" confession. Choose any subject and you can probably find someone who dislikes it or does not care to practice it. But when I have talked with strangers about my experience teaching English and shop and history and physical education, I rarely (if ever) have encountered a negative response. Because math can be a pathway to many careers, the problem seems important to address.
Mathematics in its purest forms has incredible power and beauty. New mathematics is key to innovations in most science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related (STEM) fields. Often at the time new mathematics is invented, we don't yet know how it will relate to other ideas and have impact in the world. Mathematical modelers use ideas from mathematics (as well as computational algorithms and techniques from statistics and operations research) to tackle big, messy, real problems. The models often optimize a limited resource such as time, money, energy, distance, safety, or health. But rather than finding a perfect answer, the solutions are "good enough" for the real-life requirements. These problems can be motivating for mathematics students, who can relate to mathematics that solves problems that are important to them.
To solve modeling problems, mathematicians make assumptions, choose a mathematical approach, get a solution, assess the solution for usefulness and accuracy, and then rework and adjust the model as needed until it provides an accurate and predictive enough understanding of the situation. Communicating the model and its implications in a clear, compelling way can be as critical to a model's success as the solution itself. Even very young students can engage in mathematical modeling. For example, you could ask students of any age how to decide which food to choose at the cafeteria and then mathematize that decision-making process by choosing what characteristics of the food are important and then rating the foods in the cafeteria by those standards. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is providing leadership in communicating to teachers, students, and parents what mathematical modeling looks like in K–12 levels. The 2015 Focus issue of NCTM's Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School will be about mathematical modeling and the 2016 Annual Perspectives in Mathematics Education will also focus on the topic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 25 2016, @11:33PM
How much of anything does anyone need to know? You can live in most Western countries with almost no skills. Rudimentary arithmetic that kids know by age 6 and reading are helpful but that's all you *need* to know. It's a pointless argument - yes kids, you don't need to know anything to be a voting member of society.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 25 2016, @11:35PM
By age 9. an above arverage student is probably above average in all the population.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 25 2016, @11:54PM
Why is it pointless? It may well show that we shouldn't squander too many of our resources trying to teach absolutely everyone things that the average person will not use. I think that making sure people know how to teach themselves is a more valuable skill. Too often people vote based on shallow things like a candidate's charisma or how likable they are, rather than policy. Too often people say that they don't know how to do X but do not have the motivation to learn how to do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 26 2016, @01:58AM
The right solution isn't to improve the electorate; rather, the right solution is to abolish "Democracy".
Only the Free Market makes sense; in order for good decisions to be made, the weight of your future "vote" must must be based on outcomes of your past "votes".
(Score: 2, Funny) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday December 26 2016, @02:32AM
According to many economic theories, people (rational actors) behave as if they know calculus.
Put that in you pipe and smoke it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 26 2016, @08:18AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 26 2016, @11:58PM
You just keep thinking about it, Einstein.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 27 2016, @09:30AM