Math 371 Technology for STEM Educators

It's the day of your exam. You're palms get sweaty and your heart is racing as you flip through your notes, hoping that reading over them one more time will make them stick to your memory. You know you've got time to slow down and truly comprehend the material, but you're too anxious to bring yourself to do just that. You're back in high school and have an algebra exam coming up next class period. You are so focused and worried about it that there is little to no hope for learning to occur in your current class. Finally, you get to the exam just to find your mind blank as you helplessly stare at the squiggly lines and operations symbols in front of you. But you studied for days; there's no way you could be this unprepared for the test. All that studying and worry, all just to leave that classroom feeling helpless and like a failure.  This is the sad reality for many students when it comes to math. The idea of having to understand and solve math problems leaves...

       The way math is taught has changed plenty throughout the years, with new discoveries, new technologies, and new educational requirements. Even with those differences, there is one experience that all math teachers have, and that is answering the age old question, “Why do we have to learn this anyways?” Telling kids that they “simply must” never works, so what are we to say? Most of my teachers told us we will need it for college, for work, and just for everyday life. But the most memorable answer I received was, “You may not ever need this. If a stranger runs up to you and asks you to solve an algebraic expression, you should run. But at least you are learning valuable problem solving skills.” All these answers, however, seemed vague to me. As the impressionable teenager I was, their vague answers did not exactly pique my interest in my studies of mathematics. In fact, it made me think they mattered even less. The issue here is that what all those teachers sai...