Pure and Applied Math

In one of my blogs I had mention these things called pure and applied math. Just to refresh your memory, pure math is doing math with just numbers. It’s what we do in the math lab now. Applied math is taking pure math and putting it in a context that is important to you. You would be learning math, but it would be based around something like the economy or robots. It’s something that interest you and that’s what makes it applied math.

In my meetings with Mr.Payeur we’ve discussed how next year instead of just having the math lab, applied math classes will also be offered. This will be another opportunity to help earn math credits. Although you’ll still be enrolled in the math lab, you have the opportunity to take an applied math class along with it.

A few classes that will be offered next year are:

• Beep Bot

In this class, you will learn how to control robots. You will use real-world math skills to control robots and to analyze their data. By the end of the semester, you will have completed a Critical Thinking complex assessment focused on an inquiry about robots or your choice.

• Destination: Unknown

In this class, you’ll take on the role of a scientist who is sent to an interesting location. You’ll decide what you want to study, what your house/laboratory will look like, how to secure potable water, and what to do with waste – all while maintaining a strict budget. By the end of the semester, you will have a completed Critical Thinking complex assessment that showcases a 3D scale model of your living space and your budget proposal.

• Wealth and Poverty Economics

In this class you’ll explore the true cost of the wealth gap through stories, data, and the mathematics of our economic system. By the end of the semester, you will have a completed Critical Thinking complex assessment focused on an inquiry of your choice.

• Cipher This! (Steganography and Cryptology)

In this class you will create your own enciphered message, with the deciphering process, and the application of the cipher to a real world situation. By the end of the semester, you will have a completed Critical Thinking complex assessment where you have explored other methods of encrypting.

Pure and Applied math are both important things and the math lab was designed so that you could do both. In the math lab you would continue to do pure math, but on the side you would be able to take another class which would be an applied math class. You’d have the opportunity to do both. This way you would be doing math that relate to real world problems.
All the time students rant and rave about how the math in the math lab doesn’t apply to the real world. Now, with applied math classes ,they will have the opportunity to do so. Changing the math program made it possible to do this. It may not be everyone’s favorite, but it made both students and teachers schedules flexible so they could do both. Keep leaving suggestions and visit my blog again for the latest information on the math lab.

How Our Brains Learn Math

 

I figured since I was doing research on the math lab, I might as well dive into how the brain operates and how it learns math.

According to Kevin Hartnett, researchers identified three regions of the brain that predict improvement in math learning: The posterior parietal cortex, ventral temporal occipital cortex, and the prefrontal cortex.

Cortical territory: Most researchers agree that memory, language, attention, temporal-sequential ordering, higher-order cognition, and spatial ordering are among the neurodevelopment functions that play a role when children think with numbers.

Posterior parietal cortex: The Posterior parietal cortex plays an important role in planned movements, spatial reasoning, and attention. (Blue Part)

Ventral temporal occipital cortex: The occipital lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The occipital lobe is the visual processing center of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex. (Green part w/ arrow)  

Prefrontal cortex: This region of the brain has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making, and moderating social behavior. The activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals. (Pink Part)

According to the Basics of Mathematics, for children to succeed in mathematics, a number of brain functions need to work together. Children must be able to use memory to recall rules and formulas and recognize patterns; use language to understand vocabulary, instructions, and explain their thinking; and use sequential ordering to solve multi-step problems and use procedures. In addition, children must use spatial ordering to recognize symbols and deal with geometric forms. Higher-order cognition helps children to review alternative strategies while solving problems, to monitor their thinking, to assess the reasonableness of their answers, and to transfer and apply learned skills to new problems. Often, several of these brain functions need to operate simultaneously.

(The section that is highlighted is the most important part)

Reviewing alternative strategies while solving problems: Means that when solving new problems, you reach out to others to see how they are solving them, and respecting different ways of solving problems.

Monitoring their own thinking, assessing the reasonableness of their answers: Means thinking about how you think about the problem, changing the way you literally see it (for example graphs, tables, equations), and then making sure that your answer is possible for the situation.

Transferring and applying learned skills to new problems: Means using old techniques in new problems, finding similarities and testing those out.

So, basically when it comes to learning math many things in your brain need to work together and aside from that, people need to focus on these key things; These are the things that help people succeed in math. And in the math lab for the most part these things go on which is good. This means that the math lab is supporting student’s math learning. Keep leaving suggestion and comments and please visit my blog again for the newest information about the math lab.

Link to website used

Link to website used