Dan Meyer on fixing math education…
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!
Join over 38,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord
CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org
New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — New Products 11/15/2024 Featuring Adafruit bq25185 USB / DC / Solar Charger with 3.3V Buck Board! (Video)
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: CircuitPython 2025 Wraps, Focus on Using Python, Open Source and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
Adafruit IoT Monthly — The 2024 Recap Issue!
Maker Business – Adafruit Daily — Apple to build another chip at TSMC Arizona
Electronics – Adafruit Daily — Lower power!
Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !
5 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I saw this awhile back, and he definitely has some good points, but I couldn’t agree entirely with his approach. While math should certainly not be reduced to plug-n-chug and things of that sort, a vital part of learning math is adopting quantitative and formulaic approaches. If you remove all of the numbers and ask an open-ended question, you remove much of what is most valuable to the mathematical process in my opinion. An alternative approach that might be good is to incorporate some curriculum from Analysis, which explains WHY math formulas and theorems work the way they do, and could interest students who don’t really understand math at a fundamental level. That’s just my thought on the matter, however.
A brilliant talk and a brilliant approach. To address the first commentor — I don’t think he’s advocating *only* this method. At some point you have to do the brute memorization (or brute learning of factoring a quadratic). For example you can’t have a conversation about multiples of something until you know your basic times tables…
That being said, the biggest complaint in math classes is that people don’t see the point of it. This method addresses that complaint head-on, and I think it’s a great way to teach.
The first problem with math education is the system — teachers have to teach the curriculum, and frequently they are mandated to teach to the specific book chosen by the school board.
I think one needs to read Paul Lockhart’s essay A Mathematician’s Lament
http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf
It expresses the opinions and thoughts of a PhD mathematician who teaching high school mathematics. Before the topic can be successfully discussed, you need to know what it is you wish to achieve, unfortunately the dire of mathematical understanding in public life is so severe, most people don’t understand what mathematics is.
I’m not trying to be snobbish or elitist, but my mathematics education makes me painfully aware of the inequality of public awareness.
@Craig – What Dan Meyer was describing here was how to take that mandated textbook and use it to teach math reasoning, by stripping out the hand-holding and formula-feeding.
I thought it was great talk.