DEMONSTRATING QUADRATIC EQUATIONS IN THE REAL WORLD

Quadratic Equations are one of the more abstract mathematical concepts for high school students. Even if you can remember and solve the formulas, it’s hard for teens to think about how quadratic equations could ever help them in their future job, or even how they could save a life. It is the main goal of the RobotsLAB BOX to help bridge the gap between concepts and what they truly mean in a world that doesn’t revolve around white boards and exams.

A QUICK LOOK AT OLIVER HEAVISIDE

Oliver Heaviside 

Who says dropping out of high school is the biggest mistake you’ll ever make!? OK, for about 99% of us, dropping out is a huge mistake… not for Oliver Heaviside. However, if you could teach yourself telegraphy and electromagnetism like he did, then I doubt that you would have a need for high school either. Heaviside would also go on to develop a few useful things still popular today. 

LESSON PLAN IDEAS FOR TEACHING VECTORS

SHOULD EDUCATORS TEACH ALGEBRA 2?

Florida and Texas passed laws no longer requiring proficiency in Algebra 2  in order to graduate. Based on a recent federal report roughly one quarter of all high school students do not take Algebra 2 or its equivalent, however those fundamental math skills are needed to pursue STEM careers. 

WHY ARE WE TEACHING MATH THE SAME WAY WE DID 10 YEARS AGO?

If you were to buy a cell phone 10 years from now, do you think that it will be the same phone you bought a year ago? Probably not. If you buy a car 10 years from now you’d want it made with better technologies, right? The same thing should be applied to education. But rather than 10 years from now, we need to have that sort of change within 1 year.

GE GRANT PROVIDES HELPS MATH PROFICIENCY AND GRADUATION RATES

Unfortunately, almost everyone has a friend that didn’t graduate from high school. Sometimes this person excels with tests but never does their homework, it could be that friend’s home life makes school incredibly difficult to get through, or there’s the friend who lands an awesome job programming and decides they don’t need school anymore. There are many reasons for dropping out but a common factor is a lack of an understanding of basic education ideas, like math for example. GE understands this and has responded to this with the introduction of the GE Foundation's Developing Futures in Education program.

MUSEUMS OPEN DOORS TO INFORMAL MATH LEARNING

Math students are notorious for asking the question: When will I ever use this? The answer isn’t simple, (or convincing to most teens) and has been known to keep math teachers up at night, at least I think it does, to be honest I have no idea if a math teacher even sleeps but I digress. The point is math is not exactly a “sexy” subject in the eyes of many K-12 students… until now.

The National Museum of Mathematics in New York City is attempting to change math’s image problem and make it cool to learn about. In conjunction with other math exhibits around the nation (side note: the National Museum of Mathematics is the only museum dedicated to the subject in the country), curators are inviting the public to look and think about math in a hands-on, fun way. Sounds awfully similar to what we do here at RobotsLAB with the BOX.

4 WAYS SCHOOLS CAN PREPARE FOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CLASSROOM

Remember having to smash together chalk erasers when you got in trouble during class? It seems like an old punishment, but in fact some schools have been unable to adopt newer technologies, like white boards (or even more advanced: smart boards) in their classrooms. Despite how many times you personally had to clean the erasers, and how you may be fond of the taste of chalk dust, chalkboards (and thus their erasers) should be a thing of the past.

In a recent report, the Alliance for Excellent Education agrees, addressing four challenges that school leaders need to complete in order to give their students an advantage in the modern world and begin utilizing new digital learning and education technologies.

WHY YOU'RE NOT SMARTER THAN YOUR 5TH GRADER

Can you solve a problem involving slope-intercept? How about a quadratic equation?  If you can’t that’s OK, typically our ability to recall how to solve problems like these gets weaker with time, especially without a strong STEM education background. Just think of how you feel when the more complicated questions come up on “Are you smarter than a 5th grader!” You know you learned that in school, but can you recall the answers off the top of your head now? It's OK if you can't.

NCTM President: My Summer Math Reading List