Uses for Math

So far, I've mostly been observing in Ms. Colwell's Advanced Algebra class and occasionally helping a student with their individual work in class, but today I had a short presentation put together, which I gave to both her third hour and fourth hour classes. It was titled " What’s math good for, anyway? A true story of an engineer on vacation, a desperate customer, and a literal back-of-envelope calculation." It was about a drive-train calculation that I did on an envelope, in a parking garage in Milwaukee, on my cell phone with a customer. I'm not sure if the students followed all of the math, though it wasn't anything really beyond algebra, but at least they got to see that math has some actual uses in real life. I tried to engage them in the presentation by asking them questions and showing them that they already know at least some of the stuff that I was using as a practicing engineer. Ms. Colwell seemed to think that it was of some use to them - breaks up the usual routine and shows them something new. As an assignment, she asked them to take a few notes on what I had to say and include them with their homework when they turn it in tomorrow, so I know they were at least half listening. Some seemed more interested than others, of course - not everyone has the same level of interest in the same things.

I'm going to e-mail her a copy of the presentation so she can have it for her files - it might come in useful in the future as an example for an advanced math class.