Geared Towards Teaching - as a Teacher Engineer

Task: Interview  someone working in mathematics or mathematics education from outside CDU’s  College of Indigenous Futures, Education and the Arts whose work connects with your topic area - covering  their  work, my topic and applications for mathematics pedagogy. `      In this post, I will be going through the interview I did with a Police Officer in a remote town of Australia. He is working in the Law enforcement field for the last 5 years and has been working with mathematics on an everyday basis knowingly and unknowingly. He loves Mathematics and enjoyed learning mathematics during his schooling and University degrees. He holds a Masters degree in Engineering and is interested in solving cyber crimes. He worked as an Engineer for 7 years before becoming a Police Officer. Some important parts of conversation from the interview is as outlined below: Did you love Mathematics as a subject while you were in school? I always did. One of my favourite subjects were Mathematics and I alway

Drawing Kolam is a very important tradition followed by women in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. Women from different educational backgrounds follow this tradition, and they teach girls the types of Kolam and how to do Kolam figures to keep up the tradition in their culture. There are similar traditions outside Tamil Nadu that practices drawing patterns on the floor which includes Rangoli, Muggu and Alpana. Each type of figures differ as the pattern and their meanings differ from each other.  According to Ascher (2002), in the recent decades the tradition has attracted the interest of computer scientists in analysing and describing the patterns, and has found that the Kolam tradition has contributed to the modern computer science in several ways.  In this article, we will be looking into the connection of Kolam figures to mathematical ideas. The Kolam is drawn by following continuous curves which are drawn symmetrically around horizontal lines, vertical lines, dots or several kinds o

The more I research about Ethnomathematics, and the Cultural roots and histories of Mathematics, it is getting more and more fascinating. As teachers, we always enjoy doing new activities with students and crave to bring that connection for students with our lessons. Some of my posts can be used as a topic for research to design activities for your classroom.  While I was researching the Cultural History of Mathematics, I came across this wonderful book named - Math is a Verb in which the author explores eleven world cultures and applications of mathematics presented via classroom activities. Barta et al., (2014) identified t he following cultures and traditions as related to mathematics and is explained in detail in each of the chapters: Conrow Hair Braiding - Intersection of mathematics and culture found in communities in Africa, Jamaica, and the United States. This cultural practice uses data patterns, Cartesian coordinates, geometric transformations and sequence, iteration and thu

Pinch of coloured rice flour, imagination, shapes and patterns are the foundation of South Indian traditional art form named 'Kolam'.  According to  Steen, L. (1985), a ll cultures have mathematics hidden in their traditions, drawings, writings and many more. Eventhough there are multiple researches conducted about the significance of mathematical knowledge in our current society, the understanding of public about mathematics still lies in abstract level. Analysis of mathematics and development of higher order mathematical skills lies in the application of mathematics in the current world. Therefore, it is vital that we establish a connection between learning and real world scenarios and practices.  When it comes to the traditional art called 'Kolam', people of South India draws patterns on ground in a symmetric manner to complete this beautiful art as shown in the photo shown above.  How is this relevant to mathematics is one question that you may have.  I grew up watc

 Assignment 1 - Part A Mathematics as a cultural practice - Ethnomathematics According to Fitzsimons (2002), Mathematics is viewed by people as a subject that has calculations and formulas laid out neatly in textbooks for students to study. The practices of mathematics education was mostly based on theorems and calculation with no connection to emotions and human connections, and therefore, the students mostly relate mathematics as formulae and numbers. According to When mathematics is delivered to students by focussing on developing practical mathematical knowledge, it allowed the development of higher oder thinking skills.  Therefore it is important that researches are conducted to understand more about the cultural aspects in mathematics education by recognising that mathematical knowledge is a cultural product shaped from cultural practices in past and current generation that relate to mathematics.   According to Bishop (2002), Ethnomathematics is the most significant area of resea