getting over math phobia

[marni]

I took four years of math in hs- all the way through calculus and trig but the only things that have stuck are some of the geometry about areas of shapes and some simple proportions, these are things that I have used and continue to use. As for the rest of it, I vaguely remember being in the class but...... Even fractions tend to give marginal results, but I am a whiz and adding and subtracting in my head.

marni

[channlluv]

Here you go: http://www.amazon.com/Math-Doesnt-Su...4736492&sr=8-1

This is the girl who played Winnie on The Wonder Years, all grown up, gorgeous, brilliant, and a summa *** laud grad in math something from UCLA. This book helped my daughter and me both, because I wanted to be able to help her with her homework.

McKellar has a couple more books, too, that I haven't read yet, but only because I didn't know about them until just now. I'm going to go order them.

Roxy



“Danica McKellar has a message for girls: Cute and smart is better than cute and dumb.”
— The Associated Press

“[A] fun and accessible resource to help spark undiscovered math abilities in girls.”
— Dr. Sally Ride, first American woman in space

“McKellar is probably the only person on prime-time television who moonlights as a cyberspace math tutor.”
— The New York Times

[smilingcat]

When math becomes counter-intuitive, I get to hate it.

Statistics always drove me bananers... Classic problem is "Lets make a deal" problem. Three doors to pick your winning. Hopefully, the one you pick is the winner and not the dud. You pick one of three doors and Monty shows you one of the losers. And he asks "do you want to switch or stay with the door you chose?" The question is should you switch or stay with your original choice? does it make a difference?

Ans: If you stay with your original decision, your chance of winning is only 1/3. If you switch, your chance of winning goes up to 1/2 or is it 2/3.

go figure...

I went over this with people who have graduate degrees in semiconductor physics from Cal Tech, Stanford and other elite schools. It took a while before they realized yes its better to switch.

[Veronica]

I'm part of a math grant in my district with a focus on really helping the students understand what's going on in math, not just memorizing algorithms. Why is one tenth times one tenth equal to one hundredth? Why is one half equal to two fourths? That sort of thing. We're in our second year, so it's hard to see if it's making a difference yet. I know it's made math a bit more fun.

Veronica