Why are we here? - Planning Day 1

It is one of life's great questions

Today's post is about what I feel is the most important question to discuss with students on the first day of any course.  That question is "Why are we here?"  Not here on this Earth, but here in this room.  More directly, why are my students supposed to learn College Algebra-- or Differential Equations or Cultural Anthropology for that matter.  In the ever crowded and ever shrinking modern curriculum, why are three precious credit hours squirreled away for the material you will be studying (or not) for the next 15 weeks?

In my opinion, we owe it to our students at the least to let them know why we feel the material in our courses is relevant to them.  And "I had to learn it when I was your age by cracky, and you're gonna learn it too." is the wrong reason.  From most modern perspectives on learning, it makes sense for students to be active participants in this discussion.  Ironically, it is difficult to have a discussion of much substance without cutting into the amount of material we can present, so I intend to keep this part of Day 1 brief.  About a half hour sounds right, and that's a good way to introduce the syllabus as well.

What this means for Math

As numerically literate people in general and mathematicians in particular, we should all have a short answer to the question "Why is Math important?"  And yet, it's akin to asking musicians why they study Bach instead of Michael Bolton.  It's as if we can't get over the novelty of a genuine question whose answer seems so obvious to us.

Math is important for many reasons both philosophical and practical.  For starters, knowledge of math is necessary to balance a checkbook, build a barn, and estimate the time to drive from Louisville, KY to Auburn, NE.  Incidentally, it's about 12 hours.  On top of that, there is a large and old body of evidence suggesting that a free and Democratic society depends on a populace that is numerically sophisticated enough to understand that $0.002 is not the same thing as 0.002 cents.

But what about your subject in specific?  For me, College Algebra is necessary for many things, both on its own merits as well as a gateway to things like statistics, medicine, and finance.

Back to Day 1

So, how do students get the message quickly, on the first day of class?  I suggest picking an example that is at least partially relevant to them.  For instance, how far is it from home plate to second base on a major league baseball diamond?

A good brain teaser might also work.  Suppose two players each flip a coin and show the other player the result.  If both people must simultaneously guess the result of their own flip, is there a strategy that will guarantee that at least one of them is right all the time?

What about something more like a construction?  The handshake lemma is non-trivial, but most students can derive it in a group in about 15 minutes or so.

Another possibility is either demonstrating or showing a video demonstration of math on a current event topic. The Mathematics of War TED talk of Sean Gourley can be a crowd pleaser.

When the student in prepared...

When the student is prepared, something good will probably happen.  For myself, the goal of Day 1 in any course is to let students know what they're in for and let them know that they will have to work if they want to succeed.  But perhaps more importantly, my job is to let students know that the knowledge and skills I will present to them are worth working for.

Exactly how I do that remains to be seen, but at least I'll have something to think about for next time.  In between, I've got to decide what I'm going to do about homework.