Go down deep enough into anything and you will find mathematics.—Dean Schlicter
One of my students asked me a fabulous question this past week. He asked, “How do you know what to do and what not to do in math?” I was so excited because this is the same student that said that he did not like math ... I told him that we would not only discover the answer to that question as we look at the history of math, but that we would also look more at the “Rules of the Road” for math. What are they called? Properties and Order of Operations??? Any of that sound familiar? Using these will help us all end up at the same destination even though we worked independently. Math is not just something we do, math was designed to explain/describe how our world works and to discover new ways of doing things.
Get ready for a great adventure as we discover the why’s and how’s and answer the what if’s…
