It sometimes takes a provocative topic to get the juices flowing, so this is
all good.
The lack of contextualization is a major problem in all subjects, especially
mathematics and computing. But also, in arts and humanities. For example, I
attended a recent lecture on the social culture of Japanese Anime. Two colleagues
who helped host this lecture pointed out to me that through science fiction and
genres such as Anime, students in science and engineering are treated to issues
in culture, the arts, and narrative. This provides context for scientists and
engineers to appreciate the humanities. Take a context that interests the audience
and fit the topic to be taught within that context. Sounds simple but apparently, we
still rarely do it at universities.
So, let's promote the context argument across all disciplines. It may be that the
problem is more severe in STEM. Thoughts?
-p
On Oct 11, 2013, at 6:15 AM, Guillermo Muñoz <m.m.guillermo@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> My opinion is just coincident with Roger. Math, Science is related to their
> context. For example, i just borried my secondary school math lectures. For
> me all were just a few collection of rules, without any significance.
>
> For example, when my teacher shows to all of us the concet of derivative,
> she appeal to the rule: f'(x) = lim h->0 f(x+h)-f(x)/h. And when we said,
> "why?" the history becames confused (teachers start to say strange things
> as: this is a limit, this is a velocity, you would understand it at the
> university !!. But, what would be happened if the teacher shows to us the
> figure of Newton at the XVII century. The very interesting discussion
> between Newton and Liebniz. The discovering of the infinitesimal calculus
> and the real amazing new way to study nature opened by this math knowledge.
> And of course, the visualization of the derivative with crafts and art
> would be a powerfull tool. I ´m sure that after this contextualization and
> representation techniques we would see a lot of human development and
> culture behind the last formula, and may be this keep us to undertand it in
> more detail, and even love it !!.
>
> Guillermo.
>
>
> 2013/10/11 roger malina <rmalina@alum.mit.edu>
>
>> yasminers
>>
>> I never imagine that my referring to the web site
>> on the need to contextual mathematics would launch
>> this discussion on the root of all evil but paul and simon's
>> responses have focused the discussion on the basic argument
>> that the root bernstein's are making about the evidence that
>> scientists and engineers work as better as scientists and
>> engineers if they are also involve in arts and crafts in
>> their early education
>>
>> this is the basic argument in the stem to steam argument
>>
>> the way we have organised education we put art and
>> science in separate streams as if they were not
>> fundamentally linked in human curiosity and imagination
>>
>>
>> anecdote: in a discussion with someone responsible
>> for programming in Marseille as the european city
>> of culture- i got a response that " science is not part
>> of culture'
>>
>> wow
>>
>> what he meant was that the minister of culture in france
>> which was the lead ministry for the city of culture did
>> not fund " science outreach or education"
>>
>> science is part of culture and children dont care
>> which agency is funding what
>>
>> paul : of course there is a rational for
>> pure math= but thats not the issue here=the
>> issue is how in primary and secondary education
>> we create a context=driven by student interest
>> and imagination- we teaching in a way that motivates
>> and captures the motivation of young children
>>
>> anecdote: in my undergraduate education i had
>> the pleasure of taking a class on statistics and
>> probability from the celebrated mathematician
>>
>> we certainly learned pure math -but what i remember
>> is that all the math was continously contextualised
>> in social contexts and applications ( gambling at las
>> vegas. sociology. politics etc) i did great in that course
>> but the next semester i took a course in mathematical
>> logic and i got the first C grade as a student- it just
>> didnt connect
>>
>> the arts and crafts are one way to powerfully
>> contextualise science and mathematics and
>> motivate students= and in addition the evidence
>> that root bernsteins show is that the children that
>> learn that way make better scientists and engineers
>>
>> roger
>>
>> The term "naked math" refers to mathematics without context. Mathematics
>>> "within a context" usually refers to mathematical modeling -- that the
>>> mathematics models or represents something in the real world. My point
>>> was simply to rephrase this in terms of something that the Yasmin group
>>> might find equally appalling (or not?): what is the art analogy of naked
>>> math? It would probably fall into the general area of abstract art --
>> something
>>> performed and executed that is not representational of the world, and so
>>> is equally as "naked".
>>
>> --
>> Roger F Malina
>> Is in Dallas right now
>> please contact me by email but
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Paul Fishwick, PhD
Chair, ACM SIGSIM
Distinguished Chair of Arts & Technology
and Professor of Computer Science
Director, Creative Automata Laboratory
The University of Texas at Dallas
Arts & Technology
800 West Campbell Road, AT10
Richardson, TX 75080-3021
Home: utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick
Blog: creative-automata.com
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