The great result in education is passed by for so many students. How can I compete with Hollywood when everyone is trying to be out "shock" the general public, how can a math lesson complete with a Meat Suit or an interesting Mickey Mouse outfit at an awards show.
After leaving my MAT 641 class at Grand Valley, I was in awe with the Euler line (see http://www.geogebratube.org/material/show/id/52099 ). How can the line found by finding the curcumcirlce, orthocenter, and incircle of a triangle form a straight line. It was amazing these three different points found inside and around a circle where so closely intertwine. It was almost beautiful how they worked.
I was so moved by the Euler Line, I showed my advanced class this amazing piece of math when they finished their quiz. I created the work using geogrebra in front of them so they could see the complexity of each of the points. Once I completed the work, I was glowing with anticipation to show them the true meaning of Math. When I hit the climax, ready to move the vertices around showing the Euler's Line always holds true. The response I got in return was, crickets, nothing, not even a, wow that's kind of cool.
Was I over hyping an idea only Math Geeks would enjoy or was my delivery wrong. I pondered my conundrum over the weekend. My conclusion is that if you don't see the beauty in math when it hits you right in front of your face your not going to get it. Similarly if you pass a 1971 GT 500 Mustang and you don't turn and watch it drive away. I blame you and not the car. But how can we fix it so all students can have a love for a subject in which they seem is dislike.
My mission this year is to have students see the beauty in math. It is so much more than adding fraction and converting between different units and finding roots. Math is an art that should seen as breath taking ideas ideas and thoughts. I want them to enjoy the great result that is mathematics.
5Cs:+ you could add more detail about your pitch to the students, but it's okay as is.
ReplyDeleteHow did you share what's amazing about it to you? Sometimes I feel like students will give it a try if I've built a relationship and I care. Maybe the story of the guy who discovered it, to humanize it.
Who do they think is brilliant nowadays?
(I'm just brainstorming here.)
Trevor, I think every nerd teaching math has experienced this frustration at one time or another. :-) My students never really understood why I got so excited about e. I think, though, that for a sequence of learning experiences to lead to the amazement you would like to see, they have to be carefully designed. Obviously I have no idea what happened in your class to lead up to this point, but clearly watching you construct an Euler line wasn't an awesome conclusion to those experiences. What would have been an awesome conclusion? What could be changed about those experiences to make the geometric relationships more visceral, more puzzling? Just some food for thought!
ReplyDeleteTrevor, I hear your frustrations. In part, I think the problem is that students are largely motivated extrinsically, by grades. They don't care how they get the A (or B or C), they just care that they get it. I have very few students that I would peg as a "math nerd" that actually appreciates the beauty of math. Was is always this way? Or was I just oblivious until I entered the role of teacher?
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. Sometimes maybe the best you can do is let your own enthusiasm show and hope that it's contagious for at least a few of the kids. Our work in 641 has made me believe more and more that I need to give my students as many opportunities to explore and discover on their own, and hopefully spark their curiosity.
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