How Watching Football Can Make You Better at Math

The other week my cousin posted on her Facebook page, "It's official we're switching from a man-to-man to a zone defense."  I saw the post and joyously commented congratulating them on their news.  Earlier that same day, my wife saw that same post and thought nothing of it.

I arrived home later that night and asked my wife if she had heard the exciting news.  Not knowing what I was talking about, I explained to her the nuances of the man-to-man and zone defenses in sports.  She then understood the news, my cousin was having her third child!

In my tutoring session the other day, I was reviewing an algebra test that my stuent had recently gotten back from his teacher.  The area that my student struggled with revolved around definitions.  I understood his problem, most of the time definitions in math textbooks are written in a language only a mathematician would understand.

Much like football lingo for my wife, these definitions meant nothing in the words of the textbook.   You need to think of the definitions in your own words and context.  For example, one of the definitions he got wrong referred to the associative property of equations.  We went back to the textbook and it said some garbage like,

"The grouping of the numbers to be added does not affect the sum. For example: (2 + 3) + 4 = 2 + (3 + 4). In general, this becomes (a ∗ b) ∗ c = a∗ (b ∗ c). This property is shared by most binary operations, but not subtraction or division or octonion multiplication"

Whoa, what in the world does that mean?

So we talked about it and came up with a definition that made sense to him.  He said if I had two bowls of fruit with four pieces of fruit in total.  It doesn't matter if I put an apple and orange, and a banana and pineapple in each bowl.  Or that I put an apple and pineapple, and an orange and banana in each bowl.  At the end of the day I still have one apple, one orange, one banana, and one pineapple.  I thought that was great.

Math isn't just about memorizing definitions and rules.  To understand something you must use the words, pictures, sounds, really anything that make sense to you.

You Should Never Get Inequalities Wrong

When doing graphs of inequalities, do you have trouble deciding whether to shade above or below the line?

Let me tell you something, you should never get the answer wrong.

These are so easy to check.  All you need to do is plug in the coordinates (0,0) into the equation for the x variable and the y variable.  This will help you with your shading.

If you plug in (0,0) into the equation and it works, then you know that (0,0) should be in the shaded portion.

If not, then it will be in the unshaded portion.

You will be right 100% of the time.

Units of What?

Units are so important in math because they are important in real life.  Does the answer to that problem equal 200 dollars or 200 cows?
Label your answers with units.

When Getting the Right Answer Isn't Right

It is always exciting to meet new students.  Oftentimes, the students are nervous about meeting me and to be honest, a lot of times I'm nervous about meeting them.  I always hope that our personalities click and we can get over any hurdles that seem too difficult to overcome.

The first lesson that I always start my sessions with involves form over substance.  I learned a while ago that getting the right answer is not always the right answer.

Showing your work is the key to unlocking the door of success in math.  Every time you do a problem you need to follow these steps:

1. Write down the problem.  Not part of the problem, but the whole problem.  This is always where you start.
2. Simplify the problem and each time you do write the simplified problem again.  This is where most people take short cuts in their heads.
3. Once you have the problem simplified as much as possible, circle, star, underline, or whatever you feel like doing to show this is your answer.
4. The final step is to check your work.  Do the problem again from the beginning and see if you get the same answer.  Test equations to see if they hold true.

Follow these steps and don't deviate, because sometimes the right answer isn't about being right, it's about how you get there.

You Struggle With Math Because of Your Approach

When you prepare for your algebra course, what is your approach?
With many of my students, questions that they have in algebra are not from lack of understanding of the concepts.
The frustrations that build are due to a lack of a good approach. The first change that I always have my students make is to write down every single step of a problem. Often we think that we can do parts of math problems in our heads.
While oftentimes we may be able to do problems in our head, many times we miss details that completely change the answer.
I hope this simple tip helps you in your course.

The Genius of Audacity

Seize this very minute; what you can do, or dream you can, begin it; Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
This week in one of my tutoring sessions, I asked my student how often he raises his hand and answers questions in his math class. He responded to me and said, "There is one boy in my class who knows everything about math and he answers all of the questions." I was a little bothered by this because this boy really knows his stuff and he is being shoved out by another obviously bright student.
I remember those days of being afraid to participate for fear of being ridiculed for being wrong. Even as an adult, those thoughts and fears still creep into my mind from time to time. But when it happens I remind myself how people with a low tolerance for risk, whose behavior is guided by fear, have a low propensity for success.
Raise your hand, ask questions, be wrong, shine bright and be bold.

Start Writing

We all have that one friend who says, "I had the idea for eBay. If only I had acted on it, I'd be a billionaire!" That logic is pathetic and delusional. Having the idea for eBay has nothing to do with actually creating eBay. What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan.
Stanley Kubrick gave this advice to aspiring filmmakers: "Get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all." Kubrick knew that when you're new at something, you need to start creating. The most important thing is to begin. So grab your pencil, put it to the paper, and start writing.