Teaching August 2, 2006
Posted by hunterp in teaching.add a comment
I came accross a free text book http://www.totallyfreemath.com/, and while its a nice effort, it brings to mind an itch that I’ve had that needs scratching.
look at the table of contents, its clear that these are traditional categories of an algebra textbook.
One of my large gripes with education today is the lack of an example driven curriculum. For example, tell a story instead of teaching the traditional categories of algebra as listed in that text, which may a well rounded approach.
Eg: You’re on a desert island trying to build a boat, here is a breakdown of the categories of calculations you will need to make….example 1: there are pirates surrounding the island, your cannon fires a ball at 2 m/s how high do you need to point the cannon off the deck to hit their ship 100m away.
Sigh…we need holodecks and good AI to drive their simulations 
