How to Learn Math for Teachers by Sarah Gullett I recently had the opportunity to take a professional development course titled “How to Learn Math for Teachers” offered by Youcubed.org. The course was taught by Jo Boaler, Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University. Throughout the course, Boaler explores new research on mathematics learning and student mindsets in an engaging format. …
Math teachers know that providing real world context for mathematical concepts is so important for student engagement and understanding. Students focus and retain information better if the ideas in your lesson are related to something students already know or (even better) something they are interested in. In an effort to expand my repertoire of real world examples, I read two …
All of mathematics is built upon a solid foundation of fundamental mathematical facts. These building blocks allow subsequent ideas to be hypothesized and in many cases proven, adding to the never ending list of theorems and definitions taught in schools today. For Geometry, these fundamental axioms were formalized by the Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria around 300 BC in a …
We all know numbers and use them in our everyday life. There are different number systems in mathematics. The decimal system is the one most commonly used. In this article, we will use the binary system to create a fun classroom activity. The binary number system uses only 0 and 1. We can convert binary numbers to decimal numbers and …
In the last 20 years, a growing movement has been calling for Pi (π or 3.14…) to be replaced by Tau (τ), which equals 2π or about 6.28. Students should be taught Tau, the argument goes, because it makes many concepts and equations more elegant and informative. And, the argument continues, nothing is lost by converting from Pi to Tau. Tau, like Pi, …