{"id":571,"date":"2007-03-06T06:39:05","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T06:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/?p=571"},"modified":"2007-03-06T08:47:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-06T08:47:00","slug":"shaving-cream-polynomials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/mathematics\/shaving-cream-polynomials-571","title":{"rendered":"Shaving cream polynomials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I like this story from USA Today, <a href=\"http:\/\/usatoday30.usatoday.com\/news\/education\/2007-03-04-allstar-teacher-bryan_N.htm?POE=NEWISVA\">Math plus creativity equals learning that lasts<\/a>. It is about a teacher who has reduced the abstract nature of mathematics into something that is hands-on, concrete and fun.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Luajean Bryan's algebra class is graphing polynomials on an X and Y axis. Pretty standard stuff, except they're drawing the equations in shaving cream that Bryan has sprayed on their desktops.<\/p>\n<p>[Bryan says:] \"Now, clear your slates and draw a six-power equation with all real roots.\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>[To know what she was getting at in this lesson, see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/equations-of-higher-degree\/polynomial-equations.php\">Polynomial Equations of Higher Degree<\/a>.]<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Bryan's classroom at Walker Valley High School bristles with energy, creativity and enthusiasm all day long \u00e2\u20ac\u201d through algebra, statistics, pre-calculus and calculus.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And from one of her students:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\"You learned about a parabola, and how the sun's light focuses it to flow to the vortex,\" says John Gibson, 17, a junior. \"She works hard to make sure you grasp the concepts more than anything. She doesn't leave anybody behind.\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>There should be more of this. mathematics does not need to be dry and boring. Just letting go of the \"must sit in class and drill-and-kill\" approach is very liberating. Teachers always worry about \"getting through all the curriculum\". I will leave the last word to Ms Bryan:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\"Before, I didn't think I could teach with the projects without interfering with the curriculum,\" she says. \"But the administrators here encouraged (projects), and I saw that the students responded well. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 The learning lasts. The students connect with the material in a way they wouldn't have otherwise.\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"alt\">See the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/mathematics\/shaving-cream-polynomials-571#comments\" id=\"comms\">1 Comment<\/a> below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How mathematics education should be - concrete, applied - and fun. This is a nice story from USA today about a mathematics teacher who appears to be doing it right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[134],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}