I agree that putting things into context should be used wherever possible. Sometimes I struggle to put things into a context that is simple enough not to confuse the kids though. For example - off the top of my head I can't think of a simple real life situation to teach vectors in. Trying to link them to force diagrams in physics in likely to confuse my students - most of them won't have come across anything that complicated in physics.

Also - off the top of my head I can't think of a simple real life situation where the Alternate Segment Theorem would be handy for me!

Here's a real life situation for cos: A low flying military aircraft using radar cannot compute the range to a target directly. It can only compute the slant range which provides the radar echos and is extended due to the aircraft's height. The situation can be very easily sketched. To compute the actual range (across the earth's surface) the radar multiplies the cosine of the angle of the aircraft's radar scanner depression by the slant range to produce the actual range. The radar scanner, the slant range and the actual range form the vertices of a right angled triangle. I can give you many other engineering applications for trig as a whole which are too numerous to mention here. You could also use simple applications from AS level mechanics such as resolution of forces.

lizdoig

Hi.  Had a few discussions with teachers recently and one argument came up time and again. 

I think that all maths can, and should, be taught with real-life examples and practical tasks.  Liz

To my mind, this statement is too general. Perhaps it's just symantics, but I don't think that there are many areas of maths that can (let alone should) be taught with real-life examples.

I like assessing, securing and extending the learning through real-life examples wherever possible. Many of my lessons will start with a "real-life" question, we'll discuss how to solve it, identify that we need some "new maths", so I'll teach it, they'll practise it, then go back to answer the original question. But that's a different thing in my mind.

Your trig example demonstrates what I mean by this. I don't think that we, as maths teachers, should be scared of teaching a topic exactly as and for what it is. By all means, then assess, secure and extend the topic through real-life settings (I think, when I was at school, these were often referred to quite simply as "worded questions").

Some maths should be taught for the sake of teaching it and enjoying its beauty rather than trying to justify it to pupils who are not engaged.

The intrinsic satsifaction of solving problems in pure maths for many pupils is something that should not be watered down.

I believe the curriculum should change rather than having to water topics down to make them appeal to pupils. Some foundation pupils (at GCSE) will benefit from 'real world maths' but sometimes the response to "why do we bother learning this?" should be met with "Because its maths and its nice" rather than trying to find a flimsy link to justify it.

"Why do we have to do circle theorem? when we we ever use it?" is a typical top set disengaged pupil question......."Because there is something very pretty about it" rather than having to take a rope out to the playground and sell them a story about some far fethced situation where it occurs beyond the class.

I agree with some maths being taught for a practical reason, some certainly not.

At school I often used to wail 'Why do I have to know about cosin, sin and tangent?  What good will it be in my life?'  Well, no, I didn't have to use cosin, sin and tangent in life UNTIL I had to brush up on it to....teach children cosin, sin and tangent! 

I suggest telling students that, even if they're not going to be taking A-level Maths, that circle theorem, trig etc, are excellent brain training for them.  It's about being given some information, but not all, and using what one already knows to work out what the missing information is.  It's about bravery when facing problems, about working hard to build up a sufficient arsenal to vanquish all mental foes (eg that little voice telling us 'I can't do this!').  Tell them the brain (and our self-esteem) thrives on this sort of activity and it's good training for all sorts of situations we might meet in life.

deborahtook

At school I often used to wail 'Why do I have to know about cosin, sin and tangent?  What good will it be in my life?'  Well, no, I didn't have to use cosin, sin and tangent in life UNTIL I had to brush up on it to....teach children cosin, sin and tangent! 

I suggest telling students that, even if they're not going to be taking A-level Maths, that circle theorem, trig etc, are excellent brain training for them.  It's about being given some information, but not all, and using what one already knows to work out what the missing information is.  It's about bravery when facing problems, about working hard to build up a sufficient arsenal to vanquish all mental foes (eg that little voice telling us 'I can't do this!').  Tell them the brain (and our self-esteem) thrives on this sort of activity and it's good training for all sorts of situations we might meet in life.

 

 

Many dont want to train their brains though and say "thats boring"

My point focuses on the idea that we should not have to justify why we are teaching them anything even if they may never use it again as other may on some level.

Things I learned at school:

• How to play the triangle with a bit of string tied to a chunk of metal
• The subtle differences between written words in German grammar
• How to draw the school building with a technical drawing kit
• The French revolution in the 18th century

plus many many other things I will never do again.

None of this is remotely useful to everyday life for the majority yet the teachers of the subjects involved rarely have to justify why they spent large parts of a school year doing it.

I believe we as maths teachers should not have to justify or water down a beautiful subject to spark motivation or control behaviour. We are doing it because we are doing it.

Betamale

I believe we as maths teachers should not have to justify or water down a beautiful subject to spark motivation or control behaviour. We are doing it because we are doing it.

I believe that too.

As a teacher who "had a life" before teaching, I've used all the maths I did at school (and a lot more) professionally and I can give the kids examples of where pretty much everything we do is used or can be used.

When I started, I thought that being able to do that would be a great asset.

It's not really.

"Where will I use this" isn't a real question; it's a distraction technique.  Some kids might genuinely be interested but they can find out for themselves pretty easily and anyway, all KS2/3/4 textbooks include wordy questions that give actual contexts for everything so they can see possibilities there.

No, the kid that asks "where will I use this" is looking to kill a bit of time in the hope you'll expect them to do less work this lesson - and if they're really lucky they'll even get you to legitimise their intent not to do the work.

"Where will I use sines and cosines?"

"Well, I don't know where you'll use them as who knows what the future brings.  What I can tell you is they're used in electronics, mechanical engineering, video game design, audio processing, construction, navigation and all sorts of other things".

"Yeah, but I'm going to be a car mechanic / hairdresser when I leave school, where am I going to use them?"  (Hoping you'll now get into some sort of careers discussion with them which will involve them talking about their favourite subject - themselves - and them completely getting out of doing any work this lesson.)

It doesn't work.

The answer to "why are we doing this" is:

"Because it'll be in your test at the end of term."

Betamale

I believe we as maths teachers should not have to justify or water down a beautiful subject to spark motivation or control behaviour. We are doing it because we are doing it.

Wouldn't hurt though to use a bit of real life stuff to sparkle some motivation? Or don't you want motivated children in your class?

As for vectors - yes, I enjoyed the mathematical aspects of it. Then when I was 23, I did a diving course and a course on navigation. Had to use tide charts to work out speed and direction of tides, plot a route, take into account the tide. Fascinating. 

I think the RAF have some resources on using maths in real life situations. 

And yes - there is plenty of stuff I learnt at school that has no use now and I did it because I had to. Luckily I knew the value of education so I worked hard. Some people might not know the value and anything we can do to motivate them and interest them is not a bad thing, is it?

It seems that my initial reply here has been deleted so I must have broken one of the forum's rules. I apologise for that and will try again.

Learnalot attempts to engage students in maths by fusing mathematical concepts with engaging real-life scenarios. These scenarios are then presented in resources that have audio-visuals more often associated with the latest video games and popular culture, which results in a valuable maths resource that children actually *want* to use.

As a testament to this we actually had students logging in and completing challenges on Christmas day during our testing phase, which is not something that applies to every maths resource.

learnalot_uk

I agree not to use the Service for uploading, posting, emailing or otherwise transmitting any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation, except in those areas (such as shopping rooms) that are designated for such purpose.

Hi DM. The OP is asking for resources that use maths in a real-world scenario. How is one supposed to answer that question with a resource that does exactly that without naming it?

Good post from Paul

robyn147

Wouldn't hurt though to use a bit of real life stuff to sparkle some motivation? Or don't you want motivated children in your class?

Dont patronise me please.

Clearly you have glossed over the fact that some kids just love learning. Instrinsic motivation and the sense of joy at getting something right is amazing and so much of pure maths is simply mathematicians willy wanging to out do others anyway.

Watch a kid solve a trig identity at C3 for the first time and who needs to justify anything. See a pupil crack recurring decimals for the first time and why on earth would I say "Do you know they use that in marine biology the scrape the seaweed of unicorns heads" just to try and keep them interested in learning?

I motivate my kids in a room through success, the subject, some applications, my teaching and passion and simply through the love of learning. Constantly relying on "PLease learn because it might come in use" is IMO wrong.

learnalot_uk

Hi DM. The OP is asking for resources that use maths in a real-world scenario. How is one supposed to answer that question with a resource that does exactly that without naming it?

You google the word spam and then realise that most commercial ventures sponsor websites.

You have offered 0 prior to you posts promoting this and you are not likely to get much support.

Betamale

Dont patronise me please.

Clearly you have glossed over the fact that some kids just love learning. Instrinsic motivation and the sense of joy at getting something right is amazing and so much of pure maths is simply mathematicians willy wanging to out do others anyway.

I'm not patronising you. Yes - I was one of those children who loved maths for maths sake. I enjoyed quadratics, trigonometry, mechanics etc. Some children do get a sense of joy out of getting something right. 

And then some children don't. They don't achieve, don't get it, don't understand and not get things right. So it does not hurt if lessons showed them where this is used in real life, make it interesting, relevant and not abstract. Very much the same for other subjects - history  and its relevance to contempory politics and situations, geography and land development / usage, science and modern ethical problems / scientific developments. 

It's a way of engaging pupils. Doesn't have to be all singing and dancing but telling someone to do something because "they have to" does not motivate me. That's one of the reasons why I hated art and DT - I got severely punished because I did not put a lot of effort into my  work.

Betamale

I motivate my kids in a room through success, the subject, some applications, my teaching and passion and simply through the love of learning. Constantly relying on "PLease learn because it might come in use" is IMO wrong.

Who said anything about CONSTANTLY? Just showing them some applications, like you apparently do is what I suggested.

robyn147

Betamale

I believe we as maths teachers should not have to justify or water down a beautiful subject to spark motivation or control behaviour. We are doing it because we are doing it.

Wouldn't hurt though to use a bit of real life stuff to sparkle some motivation? Or don't you want motivated children in your class?

Key words are "a bit of real stuff to sparkle some motivation"

Hi Betamale

I see from your other discussion that you're in an argumentative mood, so I'll take that with a pinch of salt.

I think it's obvious from the relevance of my reply that it is not spam. It is in fact a direct answer to a good question. That I happen to work for the company responsible for these resources is immaterial.

In response to your second point that I have not posted on here before, that's right - I've been too busy working on the resources themselves to talk on forums but with the bulk of the work now behind us I'm free to start contributing to such discussions in earnest.

You guys are great! 

Thank you for the informative and supportive suggestions you've made!  Such a relief to have secondary teachers who DO try to 'make it real' for their students!  Even if you've exhausted all other replies and there are still questions - "It's on your test" - that's real!  No psycho, happy-clappy stuff going on in this forum!

If you don't mind, I'm going to send the link to this forum to our Secondary Teachers in case they have anything to add...

Again - You Are Great!

Liz