dbu8554

Little Dieter was amazing

Ahh okay I was suppose to start their apprenticeship program decided to goto college instead and be a real engineer. Friend was with them he just quit because it just "stupid" as he says. So glad I made the right choice.

Engineer with 501?

I am not sure how to go about asking my question I should start with my background.

I dropped out of middle school after flunking 7th grade twice, was a mechanic for 17 years or so among other things, then I realized I wanted to be an Engineer.

So I started at Khan Academy and used Common Core system of learning(I liked it) outside of really basic arithmetic I never used math at all so I had to start pretty much all over.

I eventually got my GED and started at community college and just wrapped up with Multivariable Calculus.

But I started from the bottom and went from nothing to where I am in about 2 years. I noticed a TON of problems along the way with the way things are taught and named. I am BIG on naming and not changing the names of things. Also I noticed my biggest hurdle even in college was finding applications for these things.

I for the most part hated algebra topics until we got to the idea of a function because they make a TON of a sense from a computer standpoint I did not know how to program but it clicked the importance of a function. Trig was easy because it was very visual and I could touch it.

But exponent properties and log rules, and systems of equations, while they do not seem helpful in algebra you use them a TON in Calculus to solve problems and I understand how most of calculus is applied towards different real world problems and I LOVE Calculus but I still hate Algebra because maybe it was not interesting on its own. Also professors could not really give me great examples of how any of this is used except "oh you are in engineering you will use this in calc x". Until I had a professor of Applied Math lots of things were just "things" to learn with no purpose. I know I will use series and not for a while but I will use them and he explained why, but my first time taking calculus 2 the answer I got was "no one likes series just do it".

So what different approaches are you taking to connect why things are important and how they are used in the world? How do you connect different peoples learning styles, after taking all of the courses it seems like there is a split between two types of math people and my professors noticed the pattern as well.

People who were really good at standard algebra and equations, excel in proofs classes and sequence and series.

And then people like me, algebra as a whole sucks and I still do not like it much, but Trig is amazing, so is Multivariable Calculus and all the cool volume type problems you see in Calc 2 and such.

How do you effectively teach what may be two types of learners? What helped me was knowing practical applications of things, so even if I had a hard time with theory I could think of it in a physical sense and why and where I would be using it.

Or is it a "myth" of two types of learners and some people just got taught one way and it stuck and other people are taught differently and we all meet in college?

Also I love what you are doing, after learning calculus I realized I could have learned this much earlier in life due to it not being very complicated. I wish it were part of the core curriculum at least through Calculus 2 for everyone.

Sorry this is a mess.