Maggie Gaster

5/9/08
Lambda

Math Reflection

What do you believe about learning math?

For the past 12 years, I have attempted to learn a different language. That

language is math. As with any language, you have to know basic things before you can do

anything else. The foundation is the most important part of learning math. Without it,

nothing makes sense, and you're constantly feeling left behind. Every year when I come

back to school from summer break, I need to be refreshed on old math concepts before I

move on to more complicated things. If I do not, I always forget important foundation

building blocks that enable me to know how to do the new math I learn. This year, when

we started school with Ms. T, we were doing things with area and perimeter and

circumference. At first I could not remember all of the different equations and which one

went with which concept and why, but when I got a quick refresher lesson, it all came

back to me.

I know that when you teach a math concept to somebody else, it helps you learn

and remember it. For some reason, explaining math in words strengthens my

understanding of it. Coming up with a definition for a certain concept and making it easy

to understand helps me remember it. This year, when I was doing corrections on one of
my quizzes for the Farrell Ferris wheel project, I could not figure out why the sine value

is always on the y axis. I asked a bunch of people and nobody could really explain it for

me until, Sarah Jane showed it to me visually. Then I understood it and explained it to

everybody else in the room who could not explain it to me. Now I know that concept

backwards and forward, because I was able to put it into understandable terms and I was

able to visualize it.

I believe that math can be interesting if it's presented in the right way. In middle

school we did all of our math learning out of textbooks. Every night we were assigned

certain sections of the textbook that we hadn't gone over in class, and I found it

impossible to do. During class we would go over what we did not understand the night

before, but I never understood any of it even when we went over it. As a result, I grew to

hate math. It was the most boring class of the day. In eighth grade, my dad made me take

math tutoring to prepare me for high school. I learned that there are some math concepts

that are not boring, and are actually kind of engaging. I can't remember exactly which

ones interested me at the time, but I know they have come up in high school.

I have learned that if you can break a problem down into small pieces, it is

easier to solve. In High School, I have encountered a number of really difficult math

problems that couldn't be solved in one big step. They needed to be broken down into

smaller problems and each one needed to be solved before you could solve the main

problem. In IMP these multi-step problems that need to be broken down, are usually the
unit problems. This year when we were working on the What Are The Odds problems, we

had to break down the problems or they were impossible to solve. We god a few different

equations from breaking down the main problem, and then had to solve those equations

and put them together to get the main answer. In the Green Backs or Green Space project,

we had to come up with a bunch of constraint equations from the information given in the

big question.

I think that the reason the IMP unit problems were designed to be broken down

before they could be solved, is because in real life that what we have to do. In order to

tackle any kind of situation you have to be able to break it down so that you can process

it better. When I'm feeling overwhelmed with schoolwork because I got behind somehow,

I have to break down my problems into little pieces so that I can solve one thing at a time.

For example, if I have to write two big essays and have to finish work on one big project

in a week, I have to make a plan, just like before I solve a unit problem. The plan

involves breaking everything down into solvable steps. I will come up with a thesis for

each essay and start work on the project on one afternoon. Then the next day I will write

one of the essays and do what I can on the big project. Then I will finish the second essay

the next day and do what I can on the project, and at school I will finish the project.

That's how I logically organize my time so that everything gets done. Before I started

taking IMP, and learning to do this, I would just get overwhelmed and overly stressed out.

Now I know how to manage my stress and break big problems into small, manageable
ones.

I believe that it is good to use the math part of your brain because it is a

different kind of thinking than you do for any other subject. It helps you become a lot

more logical and discerning when you make decisions. I never used to think that math

was very important because I did not like it. But little by little, I started to appreciate

what math gave me. In a complicated situation I am able to break things down in a way

where they make sense and I can solve the problem facing me. Logic is very important

because it lets you see things in a more sensible way instead of getting all emotional and

unreasonable. I think that the most unreasonable people I know are bad at math and do

not understand logical reasoning. If I can take anything from my math knowledge with in

life, it will be the ability to logically asses things instead of jumping to conclusions and

letting the non-logical part of my brain take over.

Although I sometimes do not like math, I appreciate what I have taken away

from it. I know now, that I can push myself to do things I do not really like to do, and I

can manage to make them a little bit fun in the process. I also know the importance of

having a good teacher in a subject that I struggle in. It makes all the difference because I

can actually understand what is going on. Doing IMP math at CAT has given me the

ability to teach what I learn to my peers and also learn from them. Learning from a good

teacher, and my peers, while also being able to teach what I learned, has really helped me

solidify the knowledge of math I have been provided. Math is the biggest challenge for
me in school, and I'm grateful for that because it has challenged my ability to reason

logically, and push myself to actually do work that is difficult for me. If there is one thing

I can take away from my math education, it is being able to take the big problems that I

am faced with, and break them down into manageable little pieces.