Mathalicious – An Innovative Approach To Teaching Math

I am really curious how well the team at Mathalicious will do at integrating into the wider math curriculum. I have long been a proponent that most of our math teacher/professors are great at teaching the fundamentals, but that the approach often lacks the necessary connection to the real world. Heck, even though I excelled at math all the way through a Masters in Engineering, I would typically just “go through the motions”. The light bulb didn’t go on for me until I was trying to solve problems in the real world while working as an engineer. Would it have been that difficult for professors to start a semester off with a real world example rather than just diving into proofs? Maybe you begin with a scenario that would be difficult to solve without the liberal use of say, differential equations, and then revisit this example as the students acquire new skills. I have always found that I retain knowledge better if I first construct a framework upon which to hang new knowledge on.

Of course, it is possible that some of the higher order math classes are just meant to teach us how to think critically, but some of the lower level and useful course are taught with the same amount of obscurity.

So, good luck to the team at Mathalicious. I hope they spark a revolution, or at least give the best teachers at least one more tool in their arsenal.