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One of my best memories from high school math was our teacher taking us outside to measure the height of our building after teaching us trigonometry. We took a

by jrib 5y ago

One of my best memories from high school math was our teacher taking us outside to measure the height of our building after teaching us trigonometry. We took a triangular ruler outside, leveled the base and lined it up by eye with the top of the building. Then we measured the distance to the point where we were standing and the distance from the ground to the ruler. I really wish education reduced the amount of rote learning involved and focused more on letting students explore and make mistakes with the educator as a guide.

function_seven 5y ago
My high school took this concept one step further. We were tasked with designing a solar hot dog cooker. The physics class specified the reflective area needed to gather enough sunlight to cook the hot dog. They tossed that over the wall to the algebra class, who determined the parabola shape and focal length from the dog. From there it was sent to drafting class, where the plans were drawn up. Those went to the kids in wood shop, to build the thing from the plans. Then one day we all went outside with our solar cookers and hot dogs and had a cookout. IIRC, there was a lot of variation among the cookers. Different reflectors were used (piece of aluminum sheet, bent and held by end brackets. Mylar film laminated to a wooden parabola "bed". One kid got adventurous and designed his with a vertical dog holder, and a circular parabola that was actually several different profiles stacked to "smear" the focal point along the vertical axis. I don't remember if it worked well or not) I think we were meant to learn some sort of process engineering in addition to our respective subjects? Or just "teamwork", I guess.
- nmfisher 5y ago
  I love this. That kind of genuine curiosity and passion is what’s needed to really teach people to embrace maths.
watwut 5y ago
I hated exercises like that. It always seemed like massive waste of time to me.

by jrib 5y ago

function_seven 5y ago

My high school took this concept one step further. We were tasked with designing a solar hot dog cooker. The physics class specified the reflective area needed to gather enough sunlight to cook the hot dog. They tossed that over the wall to the algebra class, who determined the parabola shape and focal length from the dog. From there it was sent to drafting class, where the plans were drawn up. Those went to the kids in wood shop, to build the thing from the plans. Then one day we all went outside with our solar cookers and hot dogs and had a cookout. IIRC, there was a lot of variation among the cookers. Different reflectors were used (piece of aluminum sheet, bent and held by end brackets. Mylar film laminated to a wooden parabola "bed". One kid got adventurous and designed his with a vertical dog holder, and a circular parabola that was actually several different profiles stacked to "smear" the focal point along the vertical axis. I don't remember if it worked well or not) I think we were meant to learn some sort of process engineering in addition to our respective subjects? Or just "teamwork", I guess.

nmfisher 5y ago
I love this. That kind of genuine curiosity and passion is what’s needed to really teach people to embrace maths.

watwut 5y ago

I hated exercises like that. It always seemed like massive waste of time to me.