Teach kids Science

Are you involved with FIRST?

Great program. You can mentor at the individual team level, or volunteer at a regional event.
 
Teach math - it's the foundation of all science.

Then teach more math - not arithmetic, but real math.

Teach serious math.

And put duct tape over the mouths of the talking bobble heads on tv who say "oh, that's too difficult for me" when anything more difficult than reconciling the checkbook is on the news.
 
murphey said:
Teach math - it's the foundation of all science.

Then teach more math - not arithmetic, but real math.

Teach serious math.

And put duct tape over the mouths of the talking bobble heads on tv who say "oh, that's too difficult for me" when anything more difficult than reconciling the checkbook is on the news.
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Hard to teach math in school below the 12th grade when knowledge of math is not a requirement for the teacher themselves. They take classes on HOW to teach math, not on what math is and how it is used.
 
murphey said:
Teach math - it's the foundation of all science.

Then teach more math - not arithmetic, but real math.

Teach serious math.

And put duct tape over the mouths of the talking bobble heads on tv who say "oh, that's too difficult for me" when anything more difficult than reconciling the checkbook is on the news.
Click to expand...

i saw Shaq on Leno one night. he said he was like the Pythagorean Theorem. How's that? "Hard to figure out". sigh...
 
ScottM said:
Hard to teach math in school below the 12th grade when knowledge of math is not a requirement for the teacher themselves. They take classes on HOW to teach math, not on what math is and how it is used.
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[soapbox mode]

And yet in Colorado, the "entrance exam" to get a special teachers cert (meaning you haven't been indoctrinated in a college Education program but have been working in industry for quite some time with appropriate degrees and are willing to spend a year or two under the tutelage of a 25 yr new Education graduate who can barely spell "arithmetic") goes into trig, geometry, algebra, linear algebra and calculus.

Excuse me, but my public high school in Arizona (not exactly known for excellence in public schools) had geometry, trig, algebra and for seniors (if interested) calculus. And everyone was required to take geometry, trig & algebra in the first 2 years if they planned on taking chem or physics.

Me.
resume on request but let me state there are multiple degrees that have "math" in the description as well as "computer science" after my name.

[/soapbox mode]
 
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steingar said:
So says Dean Kamen, and I wholeheartedly agree.
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HA I just had that talk with my 15 year old daughter Rachel, a HS Freshman yesterday. So let me brag. She just this minute texted me from Penn State Univeristy where the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science held its State Science fair she was eligible to go because she won a first place ribbon in our County science fair for her project on the effects of temperature variations on magnets.

She prefers the humanaties but we discussed the importance of science in all our lives. So anyway in her text she told me that she was just awarded one of the First place ribbons at the State Science Fair Woooo Hoooooo! Its great to be a proud dad!!:D
 
I love it when teaching flying/soaring and we start talking about vertical, horizontal, and total lift vectors.

This weekend I was building a shed platform with the son-in-law and used the pythagorean theorem to use.
Ever hear about the 6-8-10 rule to make sure the floor is square?
 
AdamZ said:
HA I just had that talk with my 15 year old daughter Rachel, a HS Freshman yesterday. So let me brag. She just this minute texted me from Penn State Univeristy where the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science held its State Science fair she was eligible to go because she won a first place ribbon in our County science fair for her project on the effects of temperature variations on magnets.

She prefers the humanaties but we discussed the importance of science in all our lives. So anyway in her text she told me that she was just awarded one of the First place ribbons at the State Science Fair Woooo Hoooooo! Its great to be a proud dad!!:D
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Congrats Adam. She should keep going with Science and Math. Like it or not, that's where the jobs are, well the important ones anyway. One of the gals serving drinks at the local movie theatre has a degree in the humanities.
 
AdamZ said:
So anyway in her text she told me that she was just awarded one of the First place ribbons at the State Science Fair Woooo Hoooooo! Its great to be a proud dad!!:D
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Congrats!! Excellent, good work on Rachel's part.

Gary
 
BillTIZ said:
Ever hear about the 6-8-10 rule to make sure the floor is square?
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No, but I've used the 3-4-5!

Strangest application ever for me was offshore when determining and describing the exact list of a bottom-supported vessel. Two right triangles to construct a line normal to the deck and then using a plumb-bob for angle and distance. The best part was that it worked.
 
murphey said:
And put duct tape over the mouths of the talking bobble heads on tv who say "oh, that's too difficult for me" when anything more difficult than reconciling the checkbook is on the news.
Click to expand...

And put a superglue coated cork in the mouths of the people pushing the whole "new math" mindset. It's hard, it's impossible, waaaaaa, I can't do that. AIGH! Hey WaaWaa, get over it, there's no such thing. It's 4 function calculator stuff without the need for the 4 function calculator and because someone says "new" suddenly everyone believes it's harder than walking to Mars.
 
Clark1961 said:
No, but I've used the 3-4-5!

Strangest application ever for me was offshore when determining and describing the exact list of a bottom-supported vessel. Two right triangles to construct a line normal to the deck and then using a plumb-bob for angle and distance. The best part was that it worked.
Click to expand...

I prefer the 5 12 13 rule myself.
 
murphey said:
Teach math - it's the foundation of all science.

Then teach more math - not arithmetic, but real math.

Teach serious math.

And put duct tape over the mouths of the talking bobble heads on tv who say "oh, that's too difficult for me" when anything more difficult than reconciling the checkbook is on the news.
Click to expand...

Agreed - the great thing about math, and simple physics, is that it not only teached you to think, it also teaches you HOW to think. Not everybody is a genius, half are below average, not everybody will use the Pythagorean theorem, but almost everybody will end up needing to know how to think at some point in their lives.

It's funny - both my kids are complete opposites when it comes to math/science and the humanities. But both are pretty adept at both those ends of the spectrum even if they don't want to admit it. One of my kids, in engineering school, cringes at the idea of somebody in high-school asking a math teacher, "Do I really need to know this? I'll never use it."
 
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