Algebra is the favorite math activity
By Murray Bourne, 12 Mar 2008
A recent poll on Interactive Mathematics indicated the following about readers' preferences. The question was...
What is your favorite math activity?
Doing algebra: 39%
None of these: 22%
Drawing graphs: 15%
Doing calculator: 14%
Doing geometry: 9%
Total votes: 1000
This is curious to me because nearly all students respond negatively to algebra lessons, but are more motivated when there is graph drawing or even geometry involved, since they get to do something with their hands.
OK, I know, this is not a scientific poll in any way and could be suffering from several distortions.
A lot of people (22%) responded with "none of these". I'm wondering if I left out something vital from my choices? Or are these respondents saying they don't like doing any math activity? This is actually remarkably consistent with the 22% (yes, the same) who said they didn't like math at all in an earlier poll. See earlier poll results.
Do any of you have any thoughts on this? What math activity do you like doing and why?
See the 17 Comments below.
