Meme Thread... no politics

Duke said:

My first 2-1/2 years in college it took me 5 semesters to barely pass 2 required calculus courses. This was partly due to the sheer volume of rote formula memorization required, but that's another story. Rote memorization sucks.

My first year of grad school I had to take 2 structural engineering courses, which I was dreading because of the calculus involved.

But as soon as I had something understandable to relate it to, the calculus made sense and I aced both structures classes.

 

Gods, Calc II sucked so much.  
My prof sucked as well.  I had an A in Calc I from the community college, went to USF for Calc II and tried to explain to the prof that I wasn't getting something and asked for help.  She asked me how I did in Calc I and when I told her she asked me if the tests had been multiple choice.

If I were the person I am now, I would have immediately filed a complaint on her.  Or maybe poured brake fluid on her car because the school wouldn't have done anything.

Horrible Prof.

Anyways, meme time:

I'm pretty smart. Arguably obnoxiously so at times. Up through Alg 1, geometry, and trig, I half paid attention and figured things out while taking the tests, much the chagrin of my teachers who could tell I wasn't cheating, but weren't quite sure what I was doing. I didn't even use a calculator until Trig when I needed it for Sin/Cos/Tan.

Then I got to Algebra 2 and the weird quadratic equations and such. I couldn't picture it. It didn't make sense. I tried to rote memorize formulas and would just plug and chug numbers into them, but they meant nothing to me.

Today as a brewer, I use basic algebra (your wort concentration is X, but needs to be Y. How much water do you need to add to dilute down to your target), geometry (what is the volume of this tank), and trig on the regular. Never had any use for the stuff that didn't make sense.

Obligatory meme:

I admit I'm confused by the Tom Lehrer meme.  I gather it's a joke that's lost on me?

I have had many a Principal tell me "it's more about the process, not the finished product" and I say "heck yes it's about the product - if your resume is not a quality product, you don't get the interview.  If your interview is not a quality product, you don't get the job. If you don't produce on the job, you don't stay employed.  My job is to help the kids find their way to a quality product.  If we "graduate" a hoard of kids who haven't learned that you need to produce, what they heck have we done??"

Admin now tends to avoid me.

Obligatory Meme, because I don't want to forget that:

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

Tom Lehrer has a song called "New Math". It's pretty amusing. It was the first math "meme" that popped into my head.

That said, I used to be a teacher and do think it's more important for students to learn the skill of how to create and solve math problems to get the answers they need, than to just get an answer right, especially if it's a simple rote error. Rote errors will make you wrong sometimes, and its easy to find and correct the mistake. Structural errors will make you wrong ALL the time, and you will need an external person to recognize you've done the whole thing wrong.

But the song is still funny.

Actually, doubly funny is how this mirrors the arguments over common core math. The people who think this new method is stupid, all learned a system that 60 years ago, people were mocking for being frivolous and stupid.

Due to years-long gaps in my education I've had to repeat a few classes to get caught up. I was always in the advanced classes through erase school without much effort. Memorization came easily, but practical application was elusive especially once I got to higher level algebra. Never made it past calculus 1. We'll see if I ever end up going back for a degree. 
Having repeated trig, I can absolutely say that the teacher (and the method) make all the difference. First time was in grade 10 (2003?) and I relied on the TI and couldn't apply anything. Second time was at local U in 2015 and the professor was awesome and taught using the almighty Unit Circle. I kept that textbook. I was fascinated to learn why there are 360* in a circle, and how to calculate sin/cos/tan instead of just pushing the button on a calculator. Admittedly I'd have to reread a bunch at this point, and there's not much use for it in my work, but I consider that class and E 2010 to be the highlights of my education. 
Anyway 

Memes 

I needed three hours of calculus to apply for vet school. Didn't have enough credit hours to get to register with the teacher I wanted (her classes filled two hours after registration started).

The teacher I ended up with wrote on the board with his right hand while simultaneously erasing with his left. I had no clue what he was doing and couldn't even follow him. Dropped that the first day. 
 

Got an A the next semester from my first choice. 32 years later, I still am grateful for what a wonderful teacher she was. 
 

Beer Baron said:

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

Tom Lehrer has a song called "New Math". It's pretty amusing. It was the first math "meme" that popped into my head.

Ah!  That's funny!

I hate math.  Like, I really hate math.  I wasn't good at it in high school, I struggled with it the whole way through, but because I didn't take Chemistry or Biology in high school and because I refused to take Arts, I ended up majoring in Math in University. I taught Math 9 for the smrt kids for a few years, and lately have been teaching "Workplace Math 10."

I think what works for me as a teacher is that I struggled so much with math, that I show the kids how to understand it when you don't understand it, and tricks to help them get the right answer, and ways to check that you got the right answer, and even ways to kind of estimate what you think the answer would likely be. I use many, many, many "life" examples, and "application" examples, and break it up with "life lessons" that may or may not have anything to do with math (because there is more to life than school). I know many math teachers teach math because they love math and it comes naturally to them - but statitically, they are teaching to only 10% of their students; 90% of the students are not where the teacher was at that age.

I cannot do simple math in my head, I don't know my times tables - but I know how it works.

I have had many students tell me that the ONLY time they ever understood math, or enjoyed math is in my class.  I don't really know what it is that I do that makes it work for kids, except that I go about it from the perspective of someone who hates it and struggles with it, and here are some tricks that work.

On the other side of that, I love Mechanics, and teach mechanics, and it's taken me years to simplify it enough so the kids who don't come to it naturally can still figure it out.

Obligatory:

Duke said:

My first 2-1/2 years in college it took me 5 semesters to barely pass 2 required calculus courses. This was partly due to the sheer volume of rote formula memorization required, but that's another story. Rote memorization sucks.

My first year of grad school I had to take 2 structural engineering courses, which I was dreading because of the calculus involved.

But as soon as I had something understandable to relate it to, the calculus made sense and I aced both structures classes.

 

I graduated with my BS in engineering with a 2.2 GPA. The math killed me, same as you.  I failed differential equations.

A few years later, I reluctantly went back for my masters in engineering. And did -much- better.  Having some experience and relating math to reality really helped.

volvoclearinghouse said:

Duke said:

My first 2-1/2 years in college it took me 5 semesters to barely pass 2 required calculus courses. This was partly due to the sheer volume of rote formula memorization required, but that's another story. Rote memorization sucks.

My first year of grad school I had to take 2 structural engineering courses, which I was dreading because of the calculus involved.

But as soon as I had something understandable to relate it to, the calculus made sense and I aced both structures classes.

 

I graduated with my BS in engineering with a 2.2 GPA. The math killed me, same as you.  I failed differential equations.

A few years later, I reluctantly went back for my masters in engineering. And did -much- better.  Having some experience and relating math to reality really helped.

My Algebra 1 teacher ruined math for me in 8th grade. She was more interested in papers without eraser marks than she was in teaching. All work had to be shown and any pencil smudges or eraser marks were an automatic zero. This included tests. The only thing I learned in that class was how much the school system sucked. 68% of the class failed. Went to summer school and had the same E36 M3ty teacher. I have despised math ever since. 

Man, I am sure glad that I had the math teachers I did. 

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

"C's" get degrees.  

Toyman01 + Sized and said:

My Algebra 1 teacher ruined math for me in 8th grade. She was more interested in papers without eraser marks than she was in teaching. All work had to be shown and any pencil smudges or eraser marks were an automatic zero. This included tests. The only thing I learned in that class was how much the school system sucked. 68% of the class failed. Went to summer school and had the same E36 M3ty teacher. I have despised math ever since. 

I think I would have burned the school.  I had some truly awful teachers, but that beats my French teacher with the cleft palette by quite a margin.