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WIMC

The document discusses strategies for making math lessons more inspiring and engaging for students. It notes that math has an image problem and can be difficult and scary. The author advocates hooking students with real-world applications and surprising them with interesting math facts. Examples given include using math related to mazes, social media, the Battle of Britain, and origami. The goal is to convey the excitement of math while not trivializing the subject or turning students off.

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KEHKASHAN NIZAM
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41 views17 pages

WIMC

The document discusses strategies for making math lessons more inspiring and engaging for students. It notes that math has an image problem and can be difficult and scary. The author advocates hooking students with real-world applications and surprising them with interesting math facts. Examples given include using math related to mazes, social media, the Battle of Britain, and origami. The goal is to convey the excitement of math while not trivializing the subject or turning students off.

Uploaded by

KEHKASHAN NIZAM
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Inspiring Maths

iπ
e = −1

Chris Budd
€
1,1,2,3,5,8,13 …
What are we really trying to achieve in a maths lesson

• To communicate some real mathematics and developing


an argument
• To get the message across that maths is important,
fun, beautiful, powerful, challenging, all around us and
central to civilisation
• To entertain and inspire our students
• To leave them wanting to learn more about maths and
not less
But let’s face it, we have a problem

Let− Df=f(f).Aweaksolutionofthis PDEsatisfiestheidentity


∫ ÑfÑydx=∫ f(f)ydx} } yÎH rSub { size 8{0} rSup { size 8{1} } } \( %OMEGA \) . } {} # Assumethatf \( f \) grows ital - critically is clear ¿ Sobolevembedding that$fÎH rSub { size 8{0} rSup { size 8{1} } } {} } } {¿¿¿
¿

• Maths genuinely is hard, can be scary, and requires thought to do well


• And it suffers from an image problem with teenagers

• The challenge is to convey the excitement and importance of maths in


a way which does not trivialise the subject or switch off the audience
Things that have found to have worked with
students

•Hooking them with an application relevant to their


lives and then showing the maths involved eg. Mazes,
ipods, Google, Facebook
• Being proud of our subject!
• Surprising them …. Maths is magic!
• Linking maths to real people … all maths was
invented by someone!
• Not being afraid to present them with a real
formula or real mathematics!!!
iπ π 1 1 1 1 1 1
e = −1 4
= 1 − + − + − + −...
3 5 7 9 11 13
Some possibilities

• Maths and magic


• Mathematical surprises
• Maths in the Battle of Britain
• Maths will save your life
• Maths and art.
Magical Maths: Where’s the Joker?

10 1 9
11 2 9
12 3 9
13 4 9
14 5 9
15 6 9
16 7 9
17 8 9
18 9 9
19 10 9
Surprising Mathematics

What is the chance of winning the lottery?


6/49*5/48*4/47*3/46*2/45*1/44=1/13 983 816

How likely are you to live to see the result?


Chance of dying in one week in a car crash
(3000/52)/60 000 000 = 1/1 040 000

How predictable is maths?


Chaos, climate change
Useful Maths: The Battle of Britain

July-Sept 1940.

H. Dowding

600 RAF vs. 2000 Luftwaffe

Germans dismissed Radar thinking that a ground station could only


control one aircraft at a time!!
Maths was used to find and track the enemy aircraft!
Aircraft detected using a mixture of
statistics and trigonometry
Position
combining the
two
Projected
position using
trigonometry

Last known
position of
German aircraft Estimates
of position
from Radar
stations
HAEMOLYMPH
VENTRICULUS
0.05mm
Maths can save the world!
Source

X-Ray Detector

Object

ρ : Distance from the object centre


θ : Angle of the X-Ray

Measure attenuation of X-Ray R(ρ, θ)


REMARKABLE FACT

If we can measure R(ρ, θ ) accurately we can calculate the


X-ray attenuation factor f(x,y) of the object at any point
Knowing f tells us the structure of the object

• Mathematical formula discovered by Radon (1917)


• Took 60 years before computers and machines were
developed by Cormack to use his formula
Artistic Maths Robert Lang
Crease patterns are worked out using mathematics

Deer Beetle

• Maths is used to create origami patterns


• We can use origami to teach maths eg. Trisecting the
angle
Twitter: @RobEastaway
www.robeastaway.com

Chris Budd [email protected]

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