My big mouth striving for justice in educational reform will get me in trouble. I fight for the right brained. Algebra is not for everyone.
Hi Narfstar!
I don't remember which side of the brain is which, but I'm left-handed.
I'm not for rote learning, which is the way many if not most teachers teach math.
Some rote learning is required in math but I liked it BECAUSE relatively little of math learning NEEDS to be rote.
As an algebra student I didn't always remember the quadratic equation but I KNEW I could derive it quickly any time I needed to use it.
Math is logical, so the rational side of the brain needs to be exercised to learn and apply math.
However, math gets to be a lot more FUN when the creative/imaginative side of the brain is exercised as well.
Among the best (or at least my favorite) mathematicians are Don Knuth (author of SURREAL NUMBERS) and Ron Graham, both of whom excel in using both sides of the brain.
Geocaching is one of my many hobbies. I like creating puzzle caches.
One of my puzzles is a magic square composed of 4-digit numbers using only 1s, 6s, 8s, and 9s.
My magic square is the same upside down - 1s remain 1s, 6s become 9s etc. and left and right are reversed.
You may have seen such magic squares.
Now things get weird.
I've noticed that in magic squares using only 8s and 1s, 1s LOOK LIKE 1 over (not divided by) 1 and 8s look like 0 over 0.
Which I related to binary numbers.
Using maybe somewhat crazed reasoning(?)/imagination, 6 looks SORTA like 1 over 0 and 9 looks SORTA like 0 over 1.
In my magic square puzzle, the top halves of the 4 digit numbers form another magic square with cells containing binary numbers 0000-1111,
and ditto the bottom halves.
Etc.
I also play with integer sequences. I have a few sequences and comments at
On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences
http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/Search for my stuff there by "Stump".
Some of the most interesting integer sequences are pretty weird.
Search for "Look and Say", that's a fun one, not one that I came up with, but I incorporated it in a geocaching puzzle.
I (bee_ess) only have a BS in math by the way.
Take care!
Bob