I’ve always loved math. Along with physics, it’s been one of the academic subjects that’s kept me interested for as many years as I’ve been able to grasp the concepts. However, while it did cross my mind, I didn’t minor in either subject…. I didn’t even really take any electives. Most likely, it’s because of exactly what Dan Meyer has mentioned in this TED Talk: math is not taught in a way to make it valuable or interesting to students.
As much as I find the subjects intriguing, I’ve always known that what they teach in classes isn’t what interested me. Anyone can take a formula, shove numbers into it and type it into a calculator. But what people really need to learn is how to ask why and how the formula was developed. Even better, as Meyer demonstrates, is to let students develop and test the formulas themselves.
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