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Do we even use math in the real world?

By Colin Davitt

I remember asking my teachers when we would use the math we were learning in our lives. The answer was usually to take next year's math or to know how much carpet to buy. Carpet to buy? I was pretty sure I would never install my own carpet and next year was so far away it might as well be a million years from now.

As a student learning math was the worst, I never was given a reason why.

Without a why I wasn't interested in learning it.

Rothfus and Munoz on gun 2

I was 19 when I was shown how math was used in the real world. Jon Recor patiently sat with me for countless hours teaching me how to use actual math to run the mortars. It was a lot of different types of math we had to calculate quickly and with 100% accuracy. If it wasn't perfect unfortunate things happen.

This was the first time in my life that I understood math to this degree, I had a why. Having a why is critical to long term learning.

How can we give our kids a why for math now so they don't have to wait for some desert classroom?

Dan Meyers

Dan created the idea of 3 Act Math and linked to a bunch of activities to show how math might be used in the actual world. Not every math type is represented but working some of the problems helps to start making a connection.  Click into the activities to find all the information. The formula to create a 3 Act Math problem is somewhat simple, I wonder what the kids could come up with if you turned them loose. How could they create some 3 Act Math problems for their classmates in other hours?

On his page he lists a number of PBL math problems. These are worth checking out as well.

Edutopia

There are a TON of great articles on edutopia, this one is a good read about helping kids see math concepts as relevant. 

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