William McCallum : Excavating High School Mathematics

Posted by , part of the Departmental Colloquium.

At

April 10, 2009, 3 p.m.

In

SEO 636

Abstract

There has been much debate about how to teach high school mathematics in recent years, and some discussion of changing the mix of topics in the high school curriculum. However, there areas of the curriculum where the topics themselves seem to be archeological relics, encrusted with years of neglect. Are they trash or treasure? Perhaps a systematic program of excavation will help us reconstruct a coherent architecture of high school mathematics. In this talk I will look at a few examples of areas of the curriculum that could bear deeper examination.