Thursday, July 5, 2007
Math in the Media
When asked to look in the media for mathematics, one does not have to look far. Everyday the weather man tells us the average temperature, the historical highs and lows, the average rainfall. The business news tells us about the Dow Jones Industrial Average. They will plot the Dow on a graph and they do the same for the other businesses. The price of gas and the price of crude oil are mentioned almost daily. The taxes we pay everyday and on the 15th of April. The sports dept talks in terms of averages routinely. It would be interesting if the media could not use math on a given day. What would they have to talk about? I think the point of the question is to make us aware that Mathematics is an integral part of our daily lives. Your Thoughts?
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3 comments:
The irony is that math is so integral, yet so despised. People are proud to admit that they can "do" math or they don't "get" math. If people would take a more critical look at the math around us, I believe they would be a little more embarassed and strive a little harder.
I think because the average person has not had the need or opportunity to exam what they believe math to be that they mostly view it as some abstract thing with numbers that you have to 'get through' to go to the next graph. If people embraced it as the useful, necessary concept that it truly is students would do better off. I think one reason other nationalities excel at math is because they understand its importance not because they are naturally better than us.
I also see mathematics everywhere. I think the purpose of this blog is for us to reflect on how we can use the mathematics seen in the real world and bring them into the classroom. The more we can connect mathematics to the real world for our students the better they will understand the importance of the lesson.
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