Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWUFjb8w9Ps&playnext_from=TL&videos=SWf25LWLJAM&feature=sub[/youtube]

How true, I got very disinterested with math for years due to how crappily it is taught.

Simply crunching numbers is just the tip of the iceberg, dammit.

Once I realized how close it was to physics, and that it wasn't just 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 in various combinations, I really began to love it.

Perhaps if that happened 20 years earlier, I wouldn't have learned about the Riemann Hypothesis so late.

Good film, I think that the creation of a question and the process of solving it is more important much of the time than the final answer.

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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

I suppose, but I just want the answer, dangit. Don't give me 3 or 4 ways to do it, just give me a simple one that works....but I've never been good at Math anyway...

My youngest son LOVES math and really suffers at school because it's taught in such a boring way. He hates having slog through massive amounts of rote memory work but really LOVES using logic and reasoning. He's got a profound gift for it too. I hope this teacher can make things better for math students in our schools. I'm working on getting him a special curricula to do in place of the one the other kids are using. It has to include the stuff our state requires for 4th grade, but will also need to have much more difficult and interesting stuff woven in. He's testing as being on the 8th grade level for math (using the WIAT-II administered in a certain way to obtain his actual grade level not just how good he is at his "proper" grade level).

Check out the recording for NPR's Talk of the Nation's May 11th Show segment entitled Simple Techniques Can Make You A Great Teacher. Lots more available here: http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/r ... 05-11-2010

Once your out of school how do you develop mathematical reasoning? No wonder why so many students find computer science so difficult (including myself). The same type of problem solving is used.
I initially thought it was one of those things "you either have it or you don't"....maybe not.

What good is math if you can't solve REAL problems? (Not given the actual equation or context of problem).