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Math 1 Mathematics For General Education

Mathematics can be viewed in many ways - as numbers and arithmetic, problem solving, patterns and relationships, a language, and a way of thinking. Different stakeholders like students, parents, and teachers also have varying perspectives of mathematics. While some see it as rules and procedures to follow, others view it as a relational subject involving understanding concepts. Mathematics is also found in nature, art, and beauty through patterns like prime numbers, Fibonacci sequences, the golden ratio, and more. It can thus be appreciated not just as a technical subject but also for its elegance.

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Jeoff Libo-on
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68 views

Math 1 Mathematics For General Education

Mathematics can be viewed in many ways - as numbers and arithmetic, problem solving, patterns and relationships, a language, and a way of thinking. Different stakeholders like students, parents, and teachers also have varying perspectives of mathematics. While some see it as rules and procedures to follow, others view it as a relational subject involving understanding concepts. Mathematics is also found in nature, art, and beauty through patterns like prime numbers, Fibonacci sequences, the golden ratio, and more. It can thus be appreciated not just as a technical subject but also for its elegance.

Uploaded by

Jeoff Libo-on
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Math 1

Mathematics for
General Education

What is your view of


Mathematics?
Do a reflection on what you think is
mathematics(anything that you can think
of).
After 15 minutes, Meet with your group
and share your views of Mathematics.
Compile your insights and ideas.
Select a representative to present what
youve come up as a group.

Sample questions
What is Math all about?
Is it necessary to take Math even if the
course youre taking is not a Math related
course?
How is math applied in the real world?

Result of a study on students


views (Schoenfeld, 1992)

Mathematics problems have one and only


one right answer.

Mathematics is facts and rules with one


way to get the right answer. You find the
rule and get the answer. Usually, the rule
to use is the one your teacher just taught
you.

You dont need to understand why the


rules work.

If you dont solve a problem in five


minutes, then youll never solve it. Give
up.

Only geniuses discover or create


mathematics, so if you forget something,
youll never be able to figure it out on your
own.
Mathematics problems have little to do
with the real world. In the real world, do
what make sense. In mathematics, follow
the rules.
Mathematics is arithmetic

Parents Views
Mathematics is about numbers and
arithmetic, unbending accuracy and
infallible rules.
The students should know the basics.
Mathematics is an innate ability.
Mathematics is difficult, and so, students
should not be expected to do too much.

Teachers View
Richard Skemp (1976) : there are two
effectively different subjects being taught
under the same name mathematics.
1. Instrumental Mathematics
It consists of a limited number of rules
without reasons

2.

Relational Mathematics
It is knowing both what to do and why.
It involves building up conceptual structures
or schemas from which a learner can
produce an unlimited number of rules to fit
an unlimited sets of situation.

Comprehensive View
Mathematics is not arithmetic.
Mathematics is problem posing and
problem solving.

-Meaningful problems take a long time to pose


as well as to solve. They stimulate curiosity
about mathematics, not just about the answer to
a problem. They engage a variety of students
ideas and skills.

Mathematics is the activity of finding and


studying patterns and relationships.
Mathematical activity includes perceiving,
describing, discriminating, classifying, and
explaining patterns everywhere in number,
data, and space, and even in patterns
themselves.

Mathematics is a language.
Mathematics is also used to communicate
about patterns.

Mathematics is a way of thinking and a


tool for thinking.

Mathematics is a changing body of


knowledge, an ever-expanding collection
of related ideas.

Mathematics is doing mathematics.


The process of doing mathematics is far more than just
calculation or deduction; it involves observation of
patterns, testing of conjectures, and estimation of
results.

Mathematics is a path to independent


thinking.
Mathematics is an area in which even young
children can pose and solve a problem and have
confidence that the solution is correct not
because the teacher says it is, but because its
inner logic is so clear.

Mathematics is useful for everyone

Mathematics involves
Seeking solutions, not just memorizing
procedures.
Exploring patterns, not just memorizing
formulas.
Formulating conjectures, not just doing
exercise.

Math is beautiful and elegant


Consider the tidiness of proofs about
concepts
How beautifully science uses math to
explain the world

Patterns in math prime


numbers
There is something about prime numbers and the
nature of math that is endlessly interesting. Lets
look as some discoveries to see why.
Goldbachs conjecture
Goldbach was a mathematician who claimed
that every even number could be demonstrated
to be a sum of two prime numbers.

Lets try it:

2=1+1
4=2+2
6=3+3
8=5+3
10 = 5 + 5
12 = 7 + 5
14 = 7 + 7
16 = 13 + 3

Goldbach
We could go on doing this for a long time.
Indeed, using computers mathematicians
have proven this for every even number
up to 100,000,000,000,000.
But they have found no way to prove
Goldbachs conjecture true.
No deductive rigorous proof yet accepted
by the mathematical community

Eulers constant

Eulers constant, or e, can be arrived at


using infinite series of factorials:
e = 1/0! + 1/1! + 1/2! + 1/3! + 1/4! ...

Numbers do interesting things. But this is just pure


math, right?
Well, no e shows up all of the time in study of the
natural world. You need it to explain things such
as radioactive decay (which we use to know how
old things on the Earth actually are), the spread
of epidemics, compound interest, and population

We could say that these are the five most


important numbers in math:
e, , 1, 0, and i 1

Euler discovered this equation:


e i + 1 = 0

What can be more mystical than an imaginary number


interacting with real numbers [that show up
everywhere in the world] to produce nothing?

Fibonacci sequence

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144,


233, 377, 610, 987

Fibonacci shows up in nature

Where?
Rabbit

births
Honeybees and family trees
Petals on flowers
Seed heads
Pine cones
Leaf arrangements

Math in art and nature

The golden ratio

5 1

In nature

Leonardo Da Vinci

Uses this proportion


in his artistic work
representing the
body

Math in Beauty
What has mathematics got to do with
beauty? Actually, a lot. Physical attraction
depends on ratio.
Our attraction to another person's body
increases if that body is symmetrical and
in proportion. Likewise, if a face is in
proportion, we are more likely to notice it
and find it beautiful.

It shows up in ancient architecture

Parthenon

Is there not something beautiful, even


spiritual, about all this?
How do we explain it?

Math as a language
Not the same and does not have fluency
as any natural language
Restrictive/limited form of language
What it can do has its origin in language
Proofs and theorems can be traced back
to thoughts and arguments that were once
voiced in language

The power of language lies in the way


meaning can be conveyed through form
and transformation.
The Ancient Greeks, for example, realized
that truth could be arrived at through
various patterns of sentences.

All men are mortal


Socrates is a man
Therefore: Socrates is mortal.

Some mathematicians are clever.


All mathematicians are animals.
Therefore: Some animals are clever.

What is striking about these patterns is


that the truth of the conclusion does not
depend on the content of the sentences
but on their form.

The normal way we express and


communicate our thought is through
language and mathematics becomes a
formal extension of this process.
mathematics is both more, and less, than
a language.

More than a language


it involves a particular kind of visual and
sensory motor thinking that does not seem
to be characteristic of ordinary language.
mathematical thought has direct access to
a form of thinking that is deeper and more
primitive than anything available in any
natural language.

Less than a languge


it lacks the richness, the ability to deal with
nuance, the inherent ambiguity and the rich
strategies for dealing with this ambiguity.
mathematics is a limited, technical
language in which much that is of deep
human value cannot be expressed.

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