by Sherry H. Bowen

Created on: February 04, 2009

Galileo summed it all up when he concluded "Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has created the universe." Sounds complicated? Well, math isn't. Have you ever tried to get through one day without using math? How about an hour? It can't be done, because even if you try to get through one minute, you're still using math. How? Using measurement and time by counting the seconds in a minute!

When students are in a math class learning the concepts in isolation, many struggle because they cannot connect the concepts they are learning with how they'll use it in the real world. This leads to failure and many struggle from then on to "learn" math.

There is a difference between math in the classroom and math in the real world. In the real world, the problems are usually not very difficult. You can work with others to solve the problems. Many times, the problems are simple math adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing. In a classroom, students are working individually and competing with each other. They take tests to see how well they can solve a problem by themselves. That's not what happens outside the classroom.

How do we use math every day? Besides the basic math computation that a calculator can be used for? Here are some examples and below those are some websites for those people who always want to know more.

Money: This is an easy one. We all need to know how to use money, but we also need to know how to calculate the interest in our checking and savings accounts, mortgage payments, car payments, and other things. But what about calculating the finance charge on credit cards; which is cheaper owning or leasing a car; did our pay check show the right amount when overtime was worked;

Fractions: We use fractions in measurement, recipes, and calculating time and discounts. And don't forget about dividing up the pizza! Decimals and percentages are also fractions. Is gas ever a whole dollar amount? What about that half off sale? And the down payment for the dining room suit you really want? Fractions are a part of a whole. Most of what we do every day is a fraction.

Algebra: Algebra allows us to take our spoken language and convert it into mathematical terms. In other words, we take a real life situation and turn it into an equation and then we can solve it. Here's an example: Catherine had 25 jelly beans. She put them in her pocket to take to school for her snack. Unfortunately, she had a hole in her pocket. She lost 6 jelly beans on the way to school. How many

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>