In our first class we had an interesting conversation to answer the question "What is Math?" Surprisingly, in a classroom of students with many math classes under their belt this proved to be a difficult question. Math can be defined in many different ways and is a pretty broad concept. Despite these challenges we were able to come up with a few different responses. A few of them include "Math is a language to communicate and problem solve", "Math is a way to describe the world using numbers and logic", and "Math is creative problem solving with numbers, letters, and/or symbols." Personally, I think there is truth to all of these simple definitions of math. Throughout my life I have found math as something in school that I could excel at. I have used math as a way to solve problems, analyze patterns, and play with numbers. I think math is interesting, challenging, and often fun. However, many people don't see math this way. Many people ask me why in the world I would choose Math as a major, or why I even find it interesting. I think many people have had poor past experiences with math and it is portrayed with a negative connotation. I am glad to be someone who enjoys math amongst many who don't and I think it is great to take math classes with other people who excel and enjoy math. I hope that in my classroom someday I can help my students see the practical important uses of math, and that they can start to appreciate math if they don't already.
As far as math history I am sad to say that I really don't know much. I hope to learn more about the history of math in this class. One event that I am familiar with is the discovery of the Pythagorean Theorem by Pythagoras the Greek Mathematician. I think Pythagoras was credited with this because he was the first to write a proof about it, but it may have been discovered before his time, and/or by other people in different parts of the world. I also know that Albert Einstein was responsible for some important equations and ideas about math including E=MC^2. Like I said, I hope to learn more about math history in this class because I think it is important that I know more than I do now for the sake of my future teaching and future students.
As far as math history I am sad to say that I really don't know much. I hope to learn more about the history of math in this class. One event that I am familiar with is the discovery of the Pythagorean Theorem by Pythagoras the Greek Mathematician. I think Pythagoras was credited with this because he was the first to write a proof about it, but it may have been discovered before his time, and/or by other people in different parts of the world. I also know that Albert Einstein was responsible for some important equations and ideas about math including E=MC^2. Like I said, I hope to learn more about math history in this class because I think it is important that I know more than I do now for the sake of my future teaching and future students.