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Most US states require 2-4 years of math credits for graduation. Typically that means algebra and geometry. Schools may offer trigonometry, calculus, probabilit

Most US states require 2-4 years of math credits for graduation. Typically that means algebra and geometry. Schools may offer trigonometry, calculus, probability and statistics, but those classes would attract students already motivated and inclined to study mathematics. The OP asked about motivating students in high school math (country not specified) by teaching the math underlying LLMs. That assumes LLMs or "AI" look more interesting or relevant to high school students than the math they learn now. But they would still need a good grounding in algebra at minimum, and the average high school student in America barely gets through that, and with little motivation to continue studying math. So I don't think dangling LLMs in front of them will spark more interest.

defrost 2y ago
In general, no .. the point remains that there exist high school math students that would be motivated to read further given a brief overview of how LLM's work. Eg: at least one fellow high school student I studied calculus with now teaches machine learning and other math as a professor in a Canadian university.
- gregjor 2y ago
  I don't think anyone argues otherwise. Students already motivated can learn how LLMs work. But the OP didn't ask that. As I read it, the question seems to ask how to motivate "most" students by making high school math "more interesting." I read that as a reference to the poor student performance and lack of interest in high school math. How to motivate "most" students has nothing to do with what the few motivated and interested students do in school. My high school (in the US) offered programming classes that counted as math credits. Very few students took those classes, and quite a few students lost interest in the first few weeks. A handful of us had sufficient motivation to learn how to program, back when that was the next big thing (1970s).
  - defrost 2y ago
    You can only throw breadcrumbs on the water, you can't make ducks eat them. The strategy in my state was to have a standard curriculum, on top of that all manner of things were tossed out to high school as bait to catch students with an aptitude or interest in languages, law, physics, chemistry, biology, applied trade skills, etc. Can you motivate all high school students studying { X } with Y? - No. Will that motivate some? Possibly - it's worth a shot.
    - gregjor 2y ago
      Maybe school curricula changes faster in Australia, but in the USA by the time LLMs get into the textbooks, and enough teachers get trained to motivate students, either AI will have turned us into paperclips, or the LLM craze will get taught as a modern Extraordinary Popular Delusion and referred to as the Third AI Winter.
      - defrost 2y ago
        > Maybe school curricula changes faster in Australia I currently work part time as a teachers aid at an Australian rural school, I have a background in exploration geophysics (field work and coding aquisition, processing, interpretation suites for mag, grav, radiometrics), in computational symbolic algebra ( CAYLEY|MAGMA, being used to today to crack quantum encrypt candidates ), and general engineering (the nuts and bolts mech|civil type). I talk to farm kids about drones, programming, multi spectral signal processing, ANOVA & sample crops, linear programming constraint optimisation and farm budgets. And a slew of other things, I prep a few weeks in advance and CC my notes to others in ed chat groups. There's a strict regular curricula, I'm outside that in the "and also" after school activities. Not all of them are into everything, a few of them at most will get into the nitty gritty, all of them can grasp how these things apply to modern agriculture. Othe part time teachers aids include semi retired trades people that can and have fixed everything from locomotives, boom cranes, combine harvesters, screens, crushers, light aircraft, helicopters, etc. It's been that way in this state for 50 odd years, my son went to a high school with an aviation program, they built and flew a plane over two years. We also have sensible health care and a minimum wage that people can get by on without tips.

defrost 2y ago

In general, no .. the point remains that there exist high school math students that would be motivated to read further given a brief overview of how LLM's work. Eg: at least one fellow high school student I studied calculus with now teaches machine learning and other math as a professor in a Canadian university.

gregjor 2y ago
I don't think anyone argues otherwise. Students already motivated can learn how LLMs work. But the OP didn't ask that. As I read it, the question seems to ask how to motivate "most" students by making high school math "more interesting." I read that as a reference to the poor student performance and lack of interest in high school math. How to motivate "most" students has nothing to do with what the few motivated and interested students do in school. My high school (in the US) offered programming classes that counted as math credits. Very few students took those classes, and quite a few students lost interest in the first few weeks. A handful of us had sufficient motivation to learn how to program, back when that was the next big thing (1970s).
- defrost 2y ago
  You can only throw breadcrumbs on the water, you can't make ducks eat them. The strategy in my state was to have a standard curriculum, on top of that all manner of things were tossed out to high school as bait to catch students with an aptitude or interest in languages, law, physics, chemistry, biology, applied trade skills, etc. Can you motivate all high school students studying { X } with Y? - No. Will that motivate some? Possibly - it's worth a shot.
  - gregjor 2y ago
    Maybe school curricula changes faster in Australia, but in the USA by the time LLMs get into the textbooks, and enough teachers get trained to motivate students, either AI will have turned us into paperclips, or the LLM craze will get taught as a modern Extraordinary Popular Delusion and referred to as the Third AI Winter.
    - defrost 2y ago
      > Maybe school curricula changes faster in Australia I currently work part time as a teachers aid at an Australian rural school, I have a background in exploration geophysics (field work and coding aquisition, processing, interpretation suites for mag, grav, radiometrics), in computational symbolic algebra ( CAYLEY|MAGMA, being used to today to crack quantum encrypt candidates ), and general engineering (the nuts and bolts mech|civil type). I talk to farm kids about drones, programming, multi spectral signal processing, ANOVA & sample crops, linear programming constraint optimisation and farm budgets. And a slew of other things, I prep a few weeks in advance and CC my notes to others in ed chat groups. There's a strict regular curricula, I'm outside that in the "and also" after school activities. Not all of them are into everything, a few of them at most will get into the nitty gritty, all of them can grasp how these things apply to modern agriculture. Othe part time teachers aids include semi retired trades people that can and have fixed everything from locomotives, boom cranes, combine harvesters, screens, crushers, light aircraft, helicopters, etc. It's been that way in this state for 50 odd years, my son went to a high school with an aviation program, they built and flew a plane over two years. We also have sensible health care and a minimum wage that people can get by on without tips.