Math is for real

It is easy to get bogged down in blackboards full of equations when teaching mathematical concepts. But often the students get bogged down too, in memorizing equations and methods without having any real understanding of what all the numbers and letters mean.

Ivan Johnson from British Columbia, Richard Clausi from Ontario and André Ladouceur from Ontario have each developed ways of emphasizing the "real" aspects of mathematics: getting students to solve practical problems in the field; demonstrating how complicated, abstract mathematical concepts can be simplified into natural, intuitive terms; and showing students phenomena described by equations and curves.

• Math camp

  Ivan Johnson
  Burnaby South Secondary School
  Burnaby, British Columbia

• From addition and subtraction to chaos one step at a time

  Richard Clausi
  Elmira District Secondary School
  Elmira, Ontario

• The real events the language of math describes

  André Ladouceur
  Collège catholique Samuel-Genest
  Ottawa, Ontario