[Part 1 of 4] - Reflections on a 119 Year Old Curriculum
Channel: ahbdog
Date: 02/07/2011

America's current mathematics curriculum is, for the most part, designed to prepare students for the next math course. What would a mathematics curriculum look like whose primary focus is to prepare students for the quantitative challenges they face every day as well as those they will face in the future? Simplifying radicals or exploring the implications of credit card debt? Solving absolute value inequalities or using the normal distribution to understand a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) charge? Proving trig identities or doing a quantitative analysis of global warming trends? In this talk, Nils Ahbel will offer his analysis of our current curriculum, present characteristics of a curriculum that might be more useful and relevant to our students, and share classroom-ready examples.  (Recorded Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at the Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics, Science, and Technology at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, U.S.A.)