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Bringing Science and Math Into Writing?
I am an eighth grade English teacher. As much as I love my subject and believe in the value of skillful writing, I also believe that there is a terrible lack of interest in the sciences and maths among students in general. In some sense, I believe English to be a support subject for the others classes at this grade level. At my school, the average science classroom has time for labs and note taking, but reading and writing on the subject (beside textbooks) is usually limited. Math is in a similar situation: they have time to learn a concept and practice, but not to linger on possibilities. Therefore, I have two questions for the readers of Slashdot: which books / shows / movies caused a curiosity towards these subjects when you were young, and what suggestions do you have for incorporating these subjects into writing?
It's a noble quest you are on, but it is doomed to failure. Books/movies/shows won't do it. As any psychologist can tell you, by far the strongest formative influences on a child are other people. First among these are the parents. If they discuss Paris Hilton's latest cunt flash at the dinner table, the kids are not going to learn that science and math are important. They can be exposed to good books/movies/shows, but they just won't care. If they discuss mathematical proofs - as happened at our dinner table - the child will develop an interest in math and science. Then you won't need to find books/shows etc for him - he'll hunt them down himself.
The one good bit of news is that the next most influential person in a child's life is often a teacher. Your own enthusiasm for the subject will do more than you know. Just be your nerdy self; you will change their lives.
We are geeks!!! we are predisposed to Math and Science.
at any rate, the best thing you can do is to talk with the math teachers in your school to find out what the students are working on and then collaboratively design some extensions that you can apply in your classroom. a writing assignment that gets the kids to crack a book and report on a famous mathematician... make it a 20th century mathematician to make the kids see math is a living subject.
perhaps get them to write some modern applications in the realm of medicine, construction, urban planning, etc. TO make such an assignment interesting to the student, make sure they pick a career field they are interested in and have them investigate math's applications in those fields
I would not mix math and science in the same unit... Science is a little "softer" than math and will be more popular fore the students if given a choice. Also, make sure to have the kids pick the career field they want to write about before they are told what angle they will be looking at it from. knowing the angle will likely affect the career field they choose and thus fail to make them see math/sciences real contributions to areas other than engineering/science. Make sure they stick with that same field when you have them investigate the science involved.
As you may have gleaned, I am a trained, but non-practicing, math teacher. I found that I could not stand the classroom. All that work on lesson plans and then even when you make up games, they still do not want to learn the material. I found the business world to be much more enjoyable. At least there your hard work gives you benefits.
Rather than attempting a direct approach like including science or maths related material in your reading list, I would suggest adding in a healthy amount of philosophy and debate to the curriculum.
Both demand understanding the subject matter (whatever it may actually be) and promote critical thinking. They also encourage the development of a larger vocabulary and command of more complex grammatical constructs, as expressing complex ideas necessitates a mastery of whatever medium is being used to convey them. These skills will be invaluable to your students in every aspect of their academic careers, and are fundamental requirements for sciences and maths.
The best part is that the subject matter can be something that they're actually interested in. In fact, the deeper their personal interest, the more likely it is that they'll actually put forth the effort required to develop coherent arguments and care enough to force themselves to learn how to express their personal positions more clearly and effectively.
As for TV, one used to say Star Trek, but recent versions have less and less to do with science, and in any case aren't in production now. I enjoy the new Doctor Who, but that has a great deal of fantasy these days.
But for reading please avoid at all costs any novelisations of TV or movies. Hack writers can't bring anything worthwhile to plots whose shortcomings are only too apparent without special effects and explosions to distract.
Short story anthologies might be a good bet. Many excellent ones, perhaps the annual Hugo Award Winners.
And see Mathematical Fiction for a listo f books and stories about maths. I like Greg Egan and Rudy Rucker, but they might be beyond most kids.
One of the ways to encourage love and respect for maths and science is to teach the children where it all came from to begin with. Mathematics and science came out of philosophy, so that is what you must teach your children! Teach them good philosophy and maths/science will reveal themselves and you can go from there. I think that teaching children what they can do with maths/science is good and necessary, but to many it will remain a pile of magical symbols and rituals instead of a beautiful language and investigation of reality. You need to give them the why, before the what. As for how to do that with an English curriculum well I'll leave that determination to others.
I didn't like to read until I got into D&D. It's kind of hard to avoid reading when you have a Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Monster Guide, the adventure itself, etc. So, find out what the kids are interested in and get them to write about that.
For science and math, focus on technical writing. English was viewed as "creative" writing when I was in school. There is not much to be creative about when it comes to writing about science and math. Unless things have changed, technical writing isn't covered until college, and that's only if you take a technical writing class. So if you want to help those interested in math and science with writing, try focusing on technical writing (even though that may seem dry for someone who teaches english).
Go not unto/. for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (but have nothing to do with the question)
For me, fiction wasn't particularly inspirational. I was mostly intrigued by the automation power of computers. Since computers automate that which, at the lowest level, is mathematics, I was naturally inclined to attempt to learn mathematical techniques for tackling problems because I could then devise a machine that would tackle those problems for me with great speed and proficiency. So essentially, it was the computers themselves and their capabilities that inspired my interest in maths. Science was also fundamentally attractive to me because it presented a way to discover truth with little foreknowledge. And since it involved a methodology, it could also be automated to a substantial degree. Of course, the "wow" factor of things like fighter planes, nuclear warheads, solar cells: ("look! it does work for free!"), and postage stamp sized ICs with bajillions of internal components also contributed to my interest in science. I eventually got a BS in physics and I am currently working on the core BS requirements for a CS degree in pursuance of CS graduate school, so one could say that my interest in these subjecs is significant.
To answer your question more specifically, even though I can't stand to watch it now, Star Trek:TNG offered a look at a possible future society that was attractive to me. I suppose the general benevolence of the characters and the "mission" combined with the reverence the characters showed toward those who were knowledgable and proficient made me think that a future that transcends the usual social, economic, and political BS that our society is riddled with might be possible. I think I had a more indulgent imagination back then.
"Science can be useful." Well, that's certainly a horrible lesson to learn - Heaven forbid the kids might think that this stuff could actually be useful to them. Then they might learn it for practical reasons, rather than for love of abstract knowledge, and we just can't have such things tainting our pure and clean ivory tower, now can we ?
Sarcasm aside, science is a kind of magic, used to solve problems. Or just what do you think your medieval forefathers would think of the computer, the television, or even the light bulb ? Or heck, what would they think of refrigerators: "You have a closet which stays cold by itself ? Inconceivable !" And don't even get me started on electric heaters and microwave ovens.
Just a while ago there was an article on Slashdot, describing how stem cells have been used to fix damaged spines in rats. Making the paralyzed walk again is a miracle straight from the Bible; if that isn't good enough for you to qualify science as "magic", then just what does it take ? Huh ?
Actually, it is.
Science is about making hypotheses on how things work and then testing them, a process known as the scientific method. Now, if you are trying to switch on a machine, how will you go about it ? You first look at the buttons, seeing if there's any hints on which one is the on button. If there are such hints, you try that button first, if not, then you pick a button at random. Then you observe the results: did the machine turn on ? If not, then your hypothesis was incorrect and you try another button; if yes, then it is likely that this was the correct button (but not certain, since it could be a combination of buttons or something which started the machine).
Learning to operate a machine without instructions is an endeavour where the scientific method will become very handy. Sure, the machine itself might be technology; but your hopefully systematic attempts to learn about it are science, or at least they better be if you want to have success.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Here in the States, Smart = Uncool.
Been that way for a long time. There's the occasional aknowledgment of scholarship, but look at the schools. Great athletes are paraded about like gods. Great scholars get a Printshop certificate. It's a tired old complaint, but nothing ever gets done about it. Our pro sports teams have become high paid clubs for thugs, and still no one cares.
I mean, like, dog fights? A guy makes it huge and becomes a millionaire and is staging asswiping dog fights? He doesn't need to be put in jail, he need to be put to sleep and have his brain srudied by science so we figure out the fuck happened in there.
I still remember the time I was at a gym and overheard a guy complaining how his ex-wife was raising hid son. "Fuck, she probably has him coming home with straight-A's some stupid shit!", he said. I've seen this stuff over and over. Even the parents thing smart = bad because it's how THEY were raised. It's a generation that thinks it's perfectly OK for a 50 year old to be a bagger at the supermarket.
So you see, this is why I laugh when laws get passed that fuck over the population.
Whatever. We'll all be wiped out soon by nuclear holy war or an asteroid or giant bees, so what matter?
One of the greatest movies on mathematics ever. A Disney masterpiece that transcends all grades to show how very complex math concepts appear everywhere around us.
Everyone should check Donald in Mathmagic Land out. It's one of the best movies I ever saw in grade school and I still remember it to this day.
San Le www.slffea.com
I think you significantly misinterpret the poster's intention.
There is a great push to integrate cross-curricular activities to strengthen the connections between the various academic subjects.
The purpose is to strengthen the teaching of each of the subjects, not to weaken the teaching of one in favor of another.
You also seem to be confusing the teaching of literature with the teaching of composition. Composition cannot stand alone--students must write about SOMETHING. If, in choosing the topics about which the students write, a teacher chooses topics to promote academic interest in another core area, where is the harm?
You know, if you don't get the literary reference that the GP is alluding to then maybe you should look it up instead of posting a sniping response. Given the way it was modded I think you are in the minority. Here's a hint: look up quotes by Arthur C. Clarke.
Magic, as the term is commonly used (especially by hackers) is anything that you don't understand. It doesn't imply a supernatural explanation in this context. The empirical approach that the GP described is exactly how we turn magic into science.
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I agree, books etc. won't do it. What I would love to see in English classes is a notion that mathematically-inclined people almost take for granted: that contradictions highlight a weakness in the argument, somewhere.
In the quest for producing essays that are "balanced", the students are encouraged to think that holding simultaneously mutually exclusive points of view is desirable. This, of course, is not true. If you can, try to get the students to see the different assumptions that lead to the different perspectives. This type of analysis will be invaluable in all subjects.
In most times, most places, by most people, liars are considered contemptible. - Ursula Le Guin
As a child, I had the hardest time learning anything based around abstract theory. I kept asking "what's it for?" and without an answer other than "to pass a test" I became quickly bored. Damn near failed.
I really don't understand the idea that if knowledge has a practical application it's somehow unclean.
Perhaps it's a vestigal prejudice left over from the days when only the rich could afford higher education, and performing some sort of labor was a sign of membership in a lower class.
A Human Right
While there is a lot of hype about increasing the level of Sci & Math education, I do have reservations. A lot of this hype is just propaganda resulting from corporate lobbying. If there is a shortage, it is because of economics and not education. I see way to many PhD's running community colleges making practically nothing. Its absurd to expect people to rally to a profession that is more demanding and less rewarding than almost any other. How many tenure positions are open vs qualified applicants? I would guess the ratio is at least 50 to 1. Scientist are not only required to get a PhD, but also have to have significant post Doc at almost no pay to be even considered. Scientist do not get to study the fundamentals of the universe, but have to fight tooth and nail for limited funding for earmarked corporate research. Corporations artificially up qualifications for scientist and engineers, although there are plenty available because they need to ensure enough H-1B visa's are allowed to ensure low cost research. As technology streamlines and consolidates, there is less demand per capita of needed high skill workers. We are pushing all these kids to go into an economy where they are just going to be frustrated. I absolutely love science and math, but we are taking it to far. The government and cooperations do not emphasize social studies because the more the general populace knows about history, economics, and science combined, the harder they are to manipulate. Science and math alone are just great money makers. Its a great idea to incorporate other subjects into English classes, but over emphasizing any one subject is unbalanced and harmful.