Re:Steven Strogatz on chaos theory, game theory, and why mat...
by chestervonwinch on Sunday November 27, 2016 @06:18PM
(#13052231)
> If it was taught as ... a toolbelt to understand the universe ...
While true, I think that this is still a bit abstract. Rather than "a toolbelt to understand the universe", I would say "a toolbelt to formally characterize problems in order to analyze and solve them".
Let me add in addition that in order to learn to use the fun tools in the toolbelt, one must first grasp the basic ones. This (in my limited experience teaching lower level math courses) is another obstacle in teaching math: (continuing with the tool analogy) it would be quite boring to spend 3 months studying screwdrivers, another 3 months on wrenches, etc. without applying these tools to any "fun" problems.
While true, I think that this is still a bit abstract. Rather than "a toolbelt to understand the universe", I would say "a toolbelt to formally characterize problems in order to analyze and solve them".
Let me add in addition that in order to learn to use the fun tools in the toolbelt, one must first grasp the basic ones. This (in my limited experience teaching lower level math courses) is another obstacle in teaching math: (continuing with the tool analogy) it would be quite boring to spend 3 months studying screwdrivers, another 3 months on wrenches, etc. without applying these tools to any "fun" problems.