It's early in the morning--one minute before 6 a.m., to be exact. That the time is 5:59, is math. Your bedside clock receives a 120-volt current. That's math. So is the way your clock displays "5:59" on the front. Exactly 60 seconds after this, the clock sends a signal to change the digits to "6:00," and because that is the matching time to the previously-set alarm, the alarm goes off. There's all sorts of math going on there! Barely awake, your brain sends a signal to the muscles in your arm, which swings over and hits the snooze button. All of that is math. That clock registers 60 times however many minutes your clock's snooze is set for, and after that number of seconds, it goes off again. You guessed it.
You finally get up, whether a multiple of how long each snooze lasts, or if by chance a roommate or family member wakes you up for good. Those decisions involve math. You walk down the stairs, which support you all the way down. Guess what that is. And then you take a look at the cereal carton, and pour yourself what turns out to be 1.5 servings of cereal. That means you get 150% of all the vitamins and ingredients, good or bad. And that's not including the milk.
Folks, that's only the first half hour of the day, and look how much math there is. That doesn't include starting your car, having your car's engine run, the acceleration and aerodynamics on the car, and stopping at the traffic light. Heck, the traffic light cycle is a whole set of math in and of itself.
And you haven't even gotten to work or school yet! Look at all this math!
Now how come our students don't know this? Well, maybe we've forgotten to tell them. Perhaps we've let many of them become so satisfied in their phobia of math that we don't risk bursting their bubble, and make them realize that, Hey, this IS real-world stuff, and I AM going to have to bite the bullet and learn it for the sole reason that I can not only better understand the world, but perhaps change it as well.
You get students that start thinking like this...LOOK. OUT. WORLD. :)
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Barrett, that was extremely creative. I never even considered thinking of the level of math involved in physics or electricity. There are so many things that we take for granted in regards to their foundation being in mathematics. Those are the real world connections that we need expose our students to in hopes of inspiring them to love and appreciate math.
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