Making Your Own Sense
Reflections on maths, learning, and the Maths Learning Centre.
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There is no such thing as "just a quick question"
We often get students in the MLC saying that they have "just a quick question": "Finally you're up to me - it seems like a long time to wait when it's just a quick question..."; "I know it's 4:05 and the Centre closed five minutes ago, but it's just a quick question..."; "I'm sorry to interrupt you when you're talking to another student, but it's just a quick question...". I do understand these students' need to have their question answered, but the problem is that at the MLC there is no such thing as a quick question. Here's why...
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Two wrongs make a right
Students make a lot of mistakes when doing their maths, but sometimes they will make two mistakes in such a way that their final answer is still correct. This happened last week with one student quite spectacularly, because his doubly wrong method of doing a particular problem always produces the correct answer.
Two kinds of division
If you had to explain what the expression "10 ÷ 5" (that is "10 divided by 5") meant, what would you say? To be clear, I'm not asking for the answer, I'm asking for a story that will give it meaning.
Elsa's Freedom
Disney's Frozen came out on DVD last week and my family and I watched it on Saturday. It's a very good movie with an excellent theme about the real nature of true love which is not usually seen in a "princess movie". There are also two different stories about freedom, which is pretty common in a princess story (consider Rapunzel in Tangled and Jasmine in Aladdin). It's this I want to talk about today.
The Right Hand Rules
Students in Maths 1M are learning the cross product at the moment. This is a way to multiply two vectors in 3D space – let's call them v1 and v2 – to produce a new vector, which is called v1Ìý× v2. The length of this new vector is related to the lengths of the two original vectors and the angle between them, and the direction is perpendicular to both of the original vectors. However there are two possible directions it could point and still be perpendicular to both. We need a consistent way to choose which of the two options to use, and this is provided by the so-called "right-hand rule".
Life Impact
The University's current slogan is "Seek Light", but the one we used to have before that was "Life Impact". I have decided that at least for myself I would like to keep the old one, because recent events have shown me its true meaning.
Why I'm not a "lecturer"
Every so often a student asks me why I am not a "lecturer". Often it happens after I've helped them understand something from their course, or (as it did this week) after I've given a revision seminar on some topic from their course.
Assignments don't teach people
It is a well-known truth that assessment drives learning. Students will often not learn a particular topic or concept unless it is assessed by an assignment or exam. Fair enough – often students are not choosing to do a particular course for the sheer love of it, are they?
Wrapping up integrals
I love wrapping presents. I'd like to say it's because of the warm glow I have inside from giving a gift to someone else – and that feeling is certainly there to an extent – but I'm sorry to say the main reason is because I like the process of wrapping presents itself.
Maths is not Science
Let me say it again a little more emphatically: Maths is NOT Science. The major difference I want to focus on here is the concept of truth. Things are true in Maths, but they are not in Science.
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