Hate Math? Think Again!

The twitter account I've been following is @RenLearnUS tweets about "Teaching Math to People who Think they Hate it" which I of course clicked on instantly.  There is nothing I hate more than when people say they "hate math" or "aren't good at math."  At some point in your life, you did like math and you were good at it.  When you were a toddler, you played with toys with shapes and counted and games to that degree.  The tweet linked to the article Teaching Math to People Who Think they Hate it where a professor from Cornell University studies how to "make math" rather than learn math.  From the picture alone, I realized this was probably going to be a great strategy for students who are hands on learners.  Basically, this mathematician, Steve Strogatz, now offers a class to students who are non math majors because he enjoys a challenge, and he wants these students who don't particularly like math, to learn it in a new way.  A way in which they may discover a love for it.  The course allows students to engage in math through games and puzzles, much like a course offered at Stockton taught by Dr. Brad Forrest.  His students are engaged, and feeling a sense of joy when they have figured out the puzzle, much like I do when I finish a game of Sudoku.  The way Strogatz is teaching these students is by using intellectual discipline and creative endeavor which is extremely important.  Through all of the things I have learned in Instructional Technology, I have certainly learned that students engage more with hands on work which allows them to grasp the concept.  Its not something that can be done in every class lesson, but it something that will engage students more and allow them to enjoy what they are experimenting with.