“If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.” -Albert Einstein

          This reminds me of a hilarious story about NASA and Russia. When NASA started sending astronauts into space, they learned that pens don’t work at zero gravity. To solve the issue, they spent $12 million and 10 years of development until they’ve finally created a pen that works in outer space. Extravagant. Russians? They used a pencil.

          Many math teachers face a dilemma of students who view math as a difficult and less important subject. Most students are wondering when they could use sine, cosine, or tangent ever in practical life, or even πr^2 (pi r squared), the area of a circle. So, when I was still a math teacher, I tried to apply this formula to pizza, it is better to buy one 18-inch pizza (254 square inches) than two 12-inch pizzas (226 square inches) to share with friends. Likewise, one day, I had to teach the basics of probability to students who had never studied it before. I had great success starting out with dice and playing cards. They certainly were fascinated! They found out mathematically why a royal flush is much rarer than a straight in poker, and why four aces are harder to get than three aces. And finally, we calculated the exact probabilities of winning the lottery and why there are still people who win them. So they understood the concepts and the math well because of significant examples.

As a former math teacher and now math head teacher, I have always believed in the power of keeping matters short and simple. I want people to realize the importance and life application of mathematics not as complex academic subject but as a simple principle of what life is.

Learning theory is great, but a cavernous learning and understanding comes with using real-world examples. So think of pizza when you want to teach math!

By: Analiza U. Lacuata| Mathematics – Head Teacher I| New Cabalan National High School|Olongapo City