To me, math is the reasoning and “making sense” of the
relationship between numbers. As I’ve
been (student) teaching 2nd graders over the past year, I find
myself probing for why students answer in a certain way. Not only do I want to know what they are
thinking, but I want the students to be able to explain their reasoning to me
and their classmates. I hope that “math”
the way I learned it - as rote memorization - is a sad and disappointing part
of the past in math education.
There are so many important and pivotal points in
mathematical history. It is difficult to
say that one is more important than another.
What may have seemed like an insignificant idea at one point in time may
have later aided another mathematician in a major mathematical discovery. Since
I have to choose 5 milestones, these are the discoveries that seem significant
to my life right now:
·
Pascal’s triangle – provides rich material for “sense
making”
·
Pythagorean theorem – plays a major role in middle
school, high school, and college math
·
Euclids geometric discoveries – has a significant
role in middle school and high school geometry
·
Pi – we celebrate and study this “number” from
elementary school through college
·
The calculator – has eased the labor intensiveness
of studying the relationships between
numbers
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