Why Is Math Important? Here's Your Simple Answer

July 29, 2019

Why is Math Important?

How to explain the importance of mathematics to your students.

A Post By: QUORA CONTRIBUTOR

Teachers sometimes struggle to answer the question, Why is Math Important? The truth is that mathematics is intertwined into every element of our lives in both direct and indirect ways. By helping your students to understand the importance of mathematics and its connections to the real world, you can teach them to value their math skills as necessary life skills and not just rules and procedures needed to pass an exam.

Helping students understand why math is important can be challenging.Photo by NeONBRAND on unsplash.com — **Helping students understand why math is important can be challenging.**
Photo by NeONBRAND on unsplash.com

This question originally appeared on Quora.

Answer by Hans-Edward Hoene, Computer Engineer:

“Everything in the world can be presented in terms of math. Unless you plan on having a career that requires no intellect (which is okay, it’s your life), you can bet your butt that math will play a prominent role in solving problems. Math is the language of nature.”

“ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IS MATH!!! The circuit topography which runs your computers and phones, the electromagnetic waves (represented as trigonometric equations) which transport data between telecommunications devices (otherwise known as making a call, text, web search, etc.), etc. The thing is that you can’t really understand how something is used unless you understand what is being used.”

***

Answer by Paul Graig Ellis

Mathematics is important for several reasons, including:

“Maths has provided humanity and especially those who’ve created/discovered it, with a scheme of structured reasoning, causing us to evolve/learn how to reason, more deeply than using natural language alone”

“Maths has wide-ranging applications, especially in engineering, science and finance, enabling humanity to escape the limitations of inherently ambiguous natural language, allowing the establishment of more reliable knowledge and the accelerating development of the modern world. I should add the role of statistics in allowing knowledge to be obtained in the complex areas of e.g. psychology, sociology and politics.”

***

Answer by Arlen Agiliga

Mathematics is important because…

“You need to be able to understand the fundamental, basic concepts of math to be able to survive in the world independently. If you didn’t know how to count, add, subtract, multiply, and divide, think of the number of things you wouldn’t be able to do. This is why math is so important. It’s a form of communication that people use in so many different ways every day. Without it, the world would be a mess.”

***

Answer by Shubham Jain, Civil Engineer:

Math skills are life skills. Here’s why:

Basic math skills help you to solve general math problems in your life, including simple addition and subtraction to managing your finances.
If you only master one skill in your life, math should be it. Otherwise, you will spend your life being vulnerable to being cheated, robbed or abused. You simply cannot survive without mathematics.
Practicing and learning mathematics develops your ability to think critically and to reason. It sharpens your mind and applies to all aspects of your day-to-day life.
Students often perceive mathematics as boring, overly abstract, uncreative, and extremely difficult to understand, which is why many of them develop math phobias as adults. However, the idea of having or not having a math brain is completely untrue. Everyone is capable of understanding mathematics at a high level.
Mathematics can be applied to a variety of career fields including chemistry, programming, technology, accounting, biology, and physics.

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An Interview with Numeracy Specialist Margie Pearse

July 27, 2019

Margie Pearse shares her expertise on teaching numeracy, learning from failure, and how to prevent unrecognized students from falling through the cracks.

Margie Pearse has over thirty years of teaching experience with certifications in mathematics, elementary education, and ESL. She presently works as a math coach/curriculum head and numeracy specialist, college instructor, and trainer of pre-service teachers on how to create effective numeracy based lessons.

Margie is also a contributor to Edutopia and is the author of Teaching Numeracy: 9 Critical Habits to Ignite Mathematical Thinking and Passing the Mathematics Test for Teachers.

You can connect with Margie on Twitter: @pearse_margie

Questions and Answers

Question #1:

What grades do you currently teach (or what is your current role)? And approximately how many years of experience do you have in math education?

Answer:

I am currently a math coach/curriculum specialist and I have 35 years of teaching experience in math.

Question #2: In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, teaching habit has most improved your teaching?

Answer:

I was greatly influenced by The Formative 5. I taught in a district that was committed to infusing literacy strategies across content areas, so assessing BDA style in math was something I was very familiar with, but The Formative 5 took the idea of checking for understanding throughout a lesson one step further. I knew there were certain points in each lesson where understanding was critical to moving forward, but I couldn’t put my finger on it until the idea of a hinge point was introduced in the book and that was revolutionary to me.

Question #3: If you were designing a mandatory 2-week course that every student has to take on mastering one single math topic, which topic would you choose and why?

Answer:

It would be about fractions—I think they can be the most misunderstood. When talking with students about fractions, I hear explanations that just don’t make good number sense and I hear them a little too consistently. For example, I still hear middle schools students say that 1/8 is greater than ¼ because 8 is greater than 4. Ugh!

“I took a risk, I failed, I dug in, learned as much as I could and found a home as a math coach and curriculum specialist. I am better because of it.”

— Margie Pearse

Question #4: What purchase of $50 or less has most positively impacted your teaching in recent memory?

Answer:

The top 14 books that absolutely changed my math world:

1. 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions

2. Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All

3. Number Talks: Whole Number Computation, Grades K-5

4. Number Sense Routines: Building Numerical Literacy Every Day in Grades K-3

5. Choral Counting & Counting Collections: Transforming the PreK-5 Math Classroom

6. Children's Mathematics, Second Edition: Cognitively Guided Instruction

7. How Children Learn Number Concepts: A Guide to the Critical Learning Phases

8. The Formative 5: Everyday Assessment Techniques for Every Math Classroom

9. Putting the Practices Into Action: Implementing the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice, K-8

10. Talk Moves: A Teacher's Guide for Using Classroom Discussions in Math, Grades K-6

11. Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms

12. Motivated: Designing Math Classrooms Where Students Want to Join In

13. Powerful Problem Solving: Activities for Sense Making with the Mathematical Practices

14. Good Questions for Math Teaching: Why Ask Them and What to Ask, K-6

Question #5: As an educator, how has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?

Answer:

At one point, I was pursued by a consulting company to join them. I decided to leave the classroom and join their company, but it just wasn’t a fit for me. I was away too much and didn’t feel comfortable presenting things that were not my own. I felt like a failure and really missed my family, students and colleagues. I had to be strong and move forward, pushing myself to learn more, be better and find a way to still live my dream of making math accessible to all children.

It took courage to quit and start from scratch. I took a risk, I failed, I dug in, learned as much as I could and found a home as a math coach and curriculum specialist. I am better because of it.

“Learn and try something new every month. Let your students in on the fact that you are doing that and ask their opinions about everything you try. Use their feedback and try it again.”

— Margie Pearse

Question #6: If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it — metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions — what would it say and why? It could be a few words or a paragraph.

Answer: I have a few:

“I don't teach math for a living I do it for fun.”

“Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be”.

“Play is exactly what mathematicians do.”

Question #7: What is one book that every teacher should read?

Answer: I can’t pick just one. I’d say start with the 14 math-changing books from question 4.

Question #8: What advice would you give to a smart, driven first-year teacher about to enter the classroom? What advice should they ignore?

Answer: Stay connected, you are not in this alone.

Get to know your students – academically, socially, and emotionally.

Appreciate different kinds of colleagues, students, parents. We all have a story.

Watch your words, they are powerful.

Stay positive, surround yourself with positive people. Naysayers are toxic, stay away from them.

Learn and try something new every month. Let your students in on the fact that you are doing that and ask their opinions about everything you try. Use their feedback and try it again.

Some things will fail, but it’s not the end of the world.

Laugh a lot. We just can’t take ourselves too seriously.

Stay humble. My Dad always told us as kids, “Never be over-impressed with your own importance.”

Be kind whenever possible.

Give people the benefit of the doubt.

Listen to what is spoken and what is often unspoken.

Be present

Look out for the students who sometimes feel invisible. They won’t misbehave, they are not the most popular, and they probably don’t get recognized as being the smartest, most athletic, or most musical. But they are gems. If you don’t realize one particular student was absent, that may be the student you need to get to know more. (My daughter lived this. She finished High School a semester early and then went back to see teachers, but they never realized she had already graduated. She was heartbroken that no one knew she was no longer there.)

Question #9: What is one message that you would like to share with all of your students’ parents and caretakers?

Answer: Everyone can be good at math. There is no such thing as a math gene. Everyone can enjoy math as long as they are willing to take risks, welcome a good challenge, and insist that math makes sense, wonder how ideas in math connect, know that making mistakes is okay, find time to play and discover more about numbers, and believe they can succeed with effort.

Question #10: When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do?

I immediately go back to research. I reach out to my amazing Twitter Personal Learning Network (PLN). They encourage me, challenge me, and support me with all my math wonderings.

Closing and Takeaways

I want to thank Margie for taking the time to complete this interview and share her expertise with both myself and everyone reading. Whether you are a pre-service math teacher or have 10+ years of experience, there are plenty of helpful takeaways from this interview.

Here are my 3 main takeaways:

Takeaway #1: Effective teachers are highly skilled in formatively assessing their students and they rely on using research-backed strategies.

Takeaway #2: We all experience failure at some point, but these moments are often what sparks our personal growth and allow us to become better educators.

Takeaway #3: It’s easy to overlook the quiet students who sometimes feel invisible, because they’re not always the loudest or most recognized, but these students are vulnerable to falling through the cracks. Teachers have tremendous power to make a difference in these students lives by being attentive and building meaningful relationships that give them a sense of belonging.

You can gain more insights from Margie by reading her books (available on Amazon) and her posts on Edutopia, including What Would Happen If Students Assigned Their Own Math Homework? and Non-Math Essentials for Learning Math.

Interview By: Anthony Persico

Anthony is the lead educator and founder of Mashup Math. He lives in Denver, Colorado and is also a YouTube for Education partner. Follow him on Twitter at @mashupmath.

Keep reading about what works in math education:

Featured

Free Printable Math Puzzles for Middle School Students

How to Divide Decimals Explained—Step-by-Step Examples and Tutorial

Are You Using This Genius Strategy for Math Writing?

10 Free Counting Worksheets for Kindergarten

Can Different Variables Have the Same Value?

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21 Time-Saving Strategies, Activities, and Ideas All Math Teachers Should Know

July 6, 2019

21 Time-Saving Strategies, Activities, and Ideas All Math Teachers Should Know

A Post By: Anthony Persico

Some have been around for a while others have only emerged in recent years – but all have been selected from our archives for math teachers of all grade levels, including first year math teachers. Enjoy!

Useful Resources and Strategies

Photo by Wavebreakmedia/iStock / Getty Images

1. Free Math Worksheets — Topic-specific math worksheets are an essential tool for giving your students opportunities to practice and apply what they are learning in class. And while I do not recommend using worksheets as a primary teaching tool, they can be used effectively to supplement instruction and give students the extra practice that they need. Just be sure not to include time restrictions on completing worksheets or other math activities, as this practice can be damaging to students.

2. Puzzles, Riddles, and Brain Teasers — This collection of math puzzles and brain teasers (with answers) is a great ice-breaker activity (I share these with my students on the first day of school) or to use whenever you want your students to engage in creative and outside-of-the-box thinking. The activity comes as a printable PDF worksheet that is easy to share with your students.

3. The 10 Best Math Movies — Whether you want to give your students a break from testing, supplement your instruction, or share some well-earned Friday fun time, showing a math-themed movie in class can be an educational and enjoyable experience. This list shares the ten best school appropriate math movies. I always keep a copy of one or two of them in my desk drawer for a rainy day.

4. An Awesome Way to Teach Kids Fractions — Math teachers of all levels know that many students fail to gain a deep understanding of fractions and decimals. Creating fraction kits is an effective strategy for getting students to explore the idea of equivalent fractions and acquire a conceptual grasp of the topic, which is critical for being successful at higher levels of math. Once students master this topic, they are better equipped to perform more complex tasks like converting a decimal into a fraction.

5. Celebrate Pi Day — I’m always surprised by how many math teachers fail to celebrate Pi Day with their students, since March 14th is the only widely recognized mathematical holiday on the calendar. This collection of Pi Day resources includes a printable infographic and 5-minute Pi Day Fun Facts video that can be shared with students of all grade levels.

6. Inject Pop Culture Into Your Lesson Plans —You can easily boost student engagement by bringing elements of pop culture into your math activities. You can use my popular math activities involving The Avengers, Star Wars, and Nintendo’s Super Mario to channel student interest in movies and video games into meaningful learning experiences.

Boosting Student Engagement

7. Step Up Your Warm Up Activities — I’m a firm believer that the first five minutes of any math lesson are the most important. If you don’t engage and excite your students within the first few minutes, then you will be fighting an uphill battle for the remainder of the lesson. This collection of activities will help you to open your lessons with strong hooks that will keep your students on their toes and excited for whatever comes next. And it includes one of my favorite activities, Two Truths and One Lie, where students are presented with three mathematical statements (only two of which are true) and they have to identify which statement is a lie and justify why their choice is correct.

8. Use More Hands-On Activities — Who said that learning math is a spectator sport? I’m a huge fan of giving my students opportunities to explore mathematical concepts via hands-on activities. Why? Because hands-on activities are a highly effective strategy for developing a strong conceptual understanding of a math topic. Some ideas include using Cheez-Its to explore area and perimeter, using Starburst candies to explore probability, and building fraction kits to explore equivalent fractions.

9. How to Get Your Students Writing About Math — More and more math teachers are incorporating more writing activities into their lesson plans—a trend that is being driven by the use of daily math journals and highly engaging think-notice-wonder writing prompts which help students to organize their thinking, apply key vocabulary, and communicate mathematically.

10. Which One Doesn’t Belong? — If you are looking to make your math warm-ups more visual and thought-provoking, then starting your lessons with Which One Doesn’t Belong? (WODB) activities is a great strategy for instantly sparking creative and critical student thinking that will last for the entire lesson. If you haven’t tried WODB activities yet, give them a try and watch your student engagement skyrocket!

11. Take Advantage of Holidays — I always make a point to steer my students’ enthusiasm for major holidays into meaningful learning experiences by incorporating math in some way. Whether you are building an entire lesson (like this math history lesson on Famous African American Mathematicians during Black History Month) or are just looking for a fun warm-up up or cool down activity to celebrate Christmas, Halloween, or Valentine’s Day, injecting some holiday spirit into your math lessons is always a good idea.

Teacher Well-Being

12. Support a Growth Mindset in Your Classroom — Learning math with a growth mindset— the attitude that learning is a process where mistakes are celebrated as opportunities to grow—can change the way our students feel about the subject. With a growth mindset, I can’t becomes I can’t...yet, which blazes the trail to I can! You can support this mindset for learning in your classroom by sharing the right messages (like these inspiring growth mindset quotes), hanging a growth mindset poster in your classroom, and learning more about the supporting research.

13. Does Your Classroom Have the Essentials? — You know that, when it comes to learning, the environment plays a huge role. What does it take to make your classroom a warm and engaging learning environment? I like to start with organization (where my classroom teacher desk is always organized and packed with the essentials). Then I focus on decorating my classroom with colorful math posters and inspiring math quotes to create a supportive learning environment that is easy to set up and break down at the end of the year.

14. 21 Back to School Tips Every Teacher Needs — This collection of back-to-school tips will help you to reflect upon the previous school year to develop your weaknesses and build upon your strengths, make the most of your summer vacation, learn valuable lessons—like how to say ‘no’ more often—and how to use Twitter to engage in world class professional development from the comfort of your home.

15. Have a Plan for the End of the School Year — Savvy math teachers know that having a solid plan in place for getting through the final weeks of the school year is the key to preventing burnout and promoting personal well-being. I rely on using student-centered math projects at the end of the school year to keep my students engaged. This saved energy can be applied to packing up your classroom the right way, and entering your summer vacation feeling great.

16. Math Teacher Humor — It’s always a good idea to plan many opportunities to laugh during the school year. You can incorporate some math humor in your classroom by sharing funny math jokes and puns for kids, and you can lighten the mood in the teachers’ lounge or at your next faculty meeting by sharing some hysterical memes that every math teacher can relate to.

Professional Development

17. Attend a Conference — Every math teacher should attend a conference at least once every few years. Conferences are a great place to network with fellow educators, learn new things (most conferences give you the flexibility to pursue topics that you are most interested in), discover emerging trends in math education, collect some awesome goodies and gifts, and make new friends.

18. Use Twitter for Personalized PD — Twitter has become a place where teachers go to network, swap ideas, and interact with math education gurus like Jo Boaler. This guide to using Twitter for personalized professional development will walk you through setting up an account, using hashtags, connecting with influencers, and building your personal learning network.

19. Embrace More Technology — This post shares simple and approachable ways to make your lessons more tech-friendly, including how to implement a bring your own device policy, setting up an online classroom, flipping you instruction using video lessons, and how to use popular software like Minecraft for Education.

20. Utilize YouTube — YouTube is a treasure trove of high quality and 100% free K-12 math video lessons that you can use to supplement your instruction both inside and outside of the classroom. These video lessons are especially helpful for students who need to brush up on topics while away from the classroom and they are a great resource for supporting your visual learners.

21. Make Real World Connections — I often tell my students that math is everywhere in an effort to blur the lines between the classroom walls and the real world. This collection of interesting real-world applications of mathematics will allow you to empower your students with the knowledge of the amazing places their math skills can take them.

Of course the above 21 Time-Saving Strategies, Activities, and Ideas for math teachers just scratch the surface of all there is to learn about the art of teaching mathematics effectively. Subscribe to our mailing list here to get more free daily resources, lessons, and tips in your inbox every week.

Fraction to Decimal: An Easy Way to Convert

July 1, 2019

An Easy Way to Convert Fraction to Decimal

Are you ready to learn how to convert a fraction to a decimal?

(Click here to learn how to do the opposite and convert a decimal to a fraction)

Before you learn an easy way to convert a fraction to a decimal (with and without a calculator), you need to understand what decimals and fractions are:

A decimal number is used to represent a non-whole number where a decimal point is used followed by digits that represent a value that is smaller than one.

A fraction represents a part of a whole number. A fraction is a ratio between the upper number (the numerator) and the lower number (the denominator). The numbers are stacked vertically and separated with a bar.

The key takeaway from these definitions is that decimals and fractions are different ways of representing the same thing—a number that is not whole.

How to Convert Fraction to Decimal

You can easily convert a fraction to a decimal by using a few simple strategies:

1.) By Using a Calculator

The easiest way to convert a fraction to a decimal is to divide the numerator (the top of the fraction) by the denominator (the bottom of the fraction) by using a calculator. The resulting answer will be the value of the fraction expressed as a decimal number.

For example, to convert the fraction 7/8 to a decimal using a calculator, simply perform 7 divided by 8 and press enter. The resulting decimal would be 0.875.

Therefore, you can say that 7/8 expressed as a decimal is 0.875

2.) Without a Calculator

How can you convert a fraction to a decimal without a calculator?

The solution is using long division.

For example, if you wanted to convert the fraction 7/8 to a decimal without using a calculator, you would have to use long division where the dividend is 7 and the divisor is 8.

Just like in the last example, by using the long division strategy, you can conclude that 7/8 expressed as a decimal is 0.875

How to Change Fraction to Decimal on Calculator

If you need a fast and easy way to convert a fraction to a decimal, then you can take advantage of the many free online fraction to decimal conversion calculators that are available.

This free decimal to fraction calculator from www.calculatorsoup.com not only performs the conversion, but also shows the calculations (how the long division was performed to get the result), which is a handy tool since it will not only help you find a correct answer, but also understand the process as well.

To use the fraction to decimal calculator, simply input the decimal value and press calculate. This calculator can convert both a fraction and a mixed number to decimal.

Are you looking to learn more about working with decimals and understanding place value? Click here for more free resources

Fraction to Decimal Chart

A fraction to decimal chart is a handy tool for making quick conversions.

While there are many free fraction to decimal chart resources available online, I prefer this free fraction to decimal chart from www.sciencemadesimple.net for its readability and simplicity.

Pro tip: Keep a printed copy of your fraction to decimal chart with you while you study and practice math. This strategy will help you to memorize the common conversions (ex. 1/2=0.5 or 1/8=0.125).

Fraction to Decimal Worksheet (with Answers)

Do you need more practice with learning how to convert a fraction to a decimal? The following decimal to fraction worksheet and answer key will give you plenty of opportunities to apply the three step process to converting a decimal to a fraction.

Click here to download your free Fraction to Decimal Worksheet with Answers.

And if you are looking for a more in-depth lesson on how to convert fraction to a decimal, check out this free fraction to decimal video lesson:

More Free Decimals and Fractions Resources

Decimal to Fraction: 3 Easy Steps

June 28, 2019

Decimal to Fraction: Everything You Need to Know

Are you ready to learn how to convert a decimal to fraction?

(and if you’re looking to learn how to convert a fraction to a decimal, click here)

Before you learn an easy way to complete both of these conversions (with and without a calculator), let’s make sure that you understand what decimals and fractions are:

A decimal number is used to represent a non-whole number where a decimal point is used followed by digits that represent a value that is smaller than one.

A fraction represents a part of a whole number. A fraction is a ratio between the upper number (the numerator) and the lower number (the denominator). The numbers are stacked vertically and separated with a bar.

The key takeaway from these definitions is that decimals and fractions are different ways of representing the same thing—a number that is not whole.

How to Convert Decimal to Fraction

You can convert a decimal to a fraction by following these three easy steps.

In this case, you will use the decimal 0.25 as an example (see the graphic below).

Step One: Rewrite the decimal number over one (as a fraction where the decimal number is the numerator and the denominator is one).

Step Two: Multiply both the numerator and the denominator by 10 to the power of the number of digits after the decimal point. If there is one value after the decimal, multiply by 10, if there are two then multiply by 100, if there are three then multiply by 1,000, etc.

In the case of converting 0.25 to a fraction, there are two digits after the decimal point. Since 10 to the 2nd power is 100, we have to multiply both the numerator and denominator by 100 in step two.

Step Three: Express the fraction in simplest (or reduced form).

If you need more help with simplifying fractions, check out this free video lesson.

By following these three steps in the above decimal to fraction example, you can conclude that the decimal 0.25, when converted to a fraction, is equal to 1/4.

Here is another example of how to convert a decimal to fraction:

Notice that the answer to this example is a mixed number (a whole number and a fraction combined).

Decimal to Fraction Calculator

If you need a fast and easy way to convert a decimal to a fraction, then you can take advantage of the many free online decimal to fraction conversion calculators that are available.

This free decimal to fraction calculator from www.calculatorsoup.com not only performs the conversion, but also shows the calculations (using the three step method shown above), which is a handy tool since it will not only help you find a correct answer, but also understand the process as well.

To use the decimal to fraction calculator, simply input the decimal value and press calculate. Depending on the value that you input, the calculator will convert the decimal to a fraction or a mixed number.

There is also a repeating decimal to fraction calculator (follow the instructions on the webpage to perform this function).

Are you looking to learn more about working with decimals and understanding place value? Click here for more free resources

Decimal to Fraction Worksheet

Do you need more practice with learning how to convert a decimal to a fraction? The following decimal to fraction worksheet and answer key will give you plenty of opportunities to apply the three step process to converting a decimal to a fraction.

Click here to download your free Decimal to Fraction Worksheet with Answers.

And if you are looking for a more in-depth lesson on how to convert decimal to fraction, check out this free decimal to fraction video lesson: