The higher up I got in math, the less connection I could make back to it’s usefulness in real life. I had math mastered in school, I could memorize the formulas and spit back out the steps to get straight A’s in algebra, geometry, calculus and even trig. It wasn’t until I was watching the Social Network movie (as an adult) that I started connecting that higher math to purposes in real life. That is a problem. Remember the scene in the Social Network when Zuckerberg is writing algorithms on his window? I saw that, looked at my husband in astonishment and whispered “I learned that!”. I had NO idea that trig was actually used for anything. Seriously. That is why when I saw Algebra in the Real World movies on Karl Fisch’s Fischbowl blog, I knew it was a site that needed to be shared again. Algebra in the Real World has mini documentary type films that show the ways that Algebra is used in a variety of jobs and real world scenarios. Movies include:
- Aquarium makers
- Backpack designers
- Designing stronger skateboards
- Engineering faster bikes
- First one in the ball park
- The forester
- Landscape architects
- The Lundberg farms
- Maglev trains
- Reliable Robots
- Roller Coasters
- Saving the bald eagle
- Solar power
- The starshade
- Structural engineering
- The surface of Mars
- Testing the robotic hand
- The wind business
- Windsails
Review from ilearntechnology.com
