Friday, February 17, 2012

Algebra

During my years of teaching algebra to middle schoolers, I was often asked, "Why do we have to learn algebra?" Knowing that it is the perfect subject to help students work their way from the concrete to the abstract, I would respond with, "It's a way to help you think differently than you do now."

Here is an excellent 4-minute interview between NPR's Scott Simon and math guy Keith Devlin discussing algebra.

1 comment:

Pie charts said...

Algebra is a major component of math that is used to unify mathematic concepts. Algebra is built on experiences with numbers and operations, along with geometry and data analysis. Some students think that algebra is like learning another language. This is true to a small extent, algebra is a simple language used to solve problems that can not be solved by numbers alone. It models real-world situations by using symbols, such as the letters x, y, and z to represent numbers.