Real-Life Math: Everyday Use of Mathematical Concepts - Hardcover

Evan M. Glazer; John W. McConnell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0313319987 ISBN 13: 9780313319983

Publisher: Greenwood, 2002

Synopsis

What does this have to do with real life? is a question that plagues mathematics teachers across America, as students are confronted with abstract topics in their high school mathematics courses. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics emphasizes the importance of making real world connections in teaching mathematics so that learning new content is meaningful to students. And in meeting NCTM national standards, this invaluable book provides many insights into the many connections between mathematics applications and the real world. Nearly 50 math concepts are presented with multiple examples of how each is applied in everyday environments, such as the workplace, nature, science, sports, and even parking. From logarithms to matrices to complex numbers, concepts are discussed for a variety of mathematics courses, including:

• algebra
• geometry
• trigonometry
• analysis
• probability
• statistics
• calculus

In one entry, for example, the authors show how angles are used in determining the spaces of a parking lot. When describing exponential growth, the authors demonstrate how interest on a loan or credit card increases over time. The concept of equations is described in a variety of ways, including how business managers estimate how many hours it takes a certain number of employees to complete a task, as well as how a to compute a quarterback's passing rating. Websites listed at the end of each entry provide additional examples of everyday math for both students and teachers.

About this title

About the Author

EVAN M. GLAZER is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Georgia in the Department of Instructional Technology, and a former mathematics teacher at Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, IL. Previous publications include Using Internet Primary Sources to Teach Critical Thinking Skills in Mathematics (Greenwood, 2001).

JOHN W. MCCONNELL is a professor at North Park University.

Reviews

"Why do we have to learn this?" is a common question relative to mathematics study. This reference book intends to answer that query by providing examples of real-life applications related to high-school mathematical concepts.

The authors, both with academic mathematical backgrounds, posit more than 40 concepts that appear in the U.S. mathematics education standards, among them Matrices, Plane, Pythagorean theorem, Rotations, and Series. The intended audience includes high-school students, teachers, and librarians, although mathematics teachers are the ones most likely to understand all the concepts and formulas.

The entries, arranged alphabetically, range from two to six pages. After an opening paragraph definition, various applications in science, sports, business, architecture, and other topics are explained. The term everyday usually refers to public activity rather than school or home life. A few diagrams and graphs accompany the text. Related URLs complete the entry. Some cross-references exist, but they are not consistently used. A bibliography of sources concludes the volume; an index is sorely needed.

Entries on Probability, Perimeter, and Quadrilaterals are very thorough and almost too elementary at points, although those same entries also describe related advanced math concepts. On the other hand, entries such as Tangent and Polynomial functions are at once too brief and complex. Although natural logarithms are briefly mentioned, no accompanying application is clearly noted. Nearly a page is devoted to symmetry, but Markov chains and fuzzy logic are vaguely explained in a sentence or two. The absence of entries on algorithms, measurement, modeling, set theory, transformations, and limits is puzzling.

The book's approach makes it more useful as a reference tool than a math enrichment volume. It does provide some useful application ideas across the math curriculum, more for the adult educator than the teenager, and might be useful in high-school libraries. RBB
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Edition details

• Publisher: Greenwood
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0313319987
• ISBN 13: 9780313319983
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 184