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Pitfalls in Today’s Learning Environment

For too long, academics in the Math and Science disciplines has taken a distinct 3-step approach:

  1. Provide a succinct overview conceptually exposing the student to the variations and revolutions in the field of study.
  2. Acquaint the students with the tools they will need to successfully navigate the field-of-study.
  3. Teach the ‘successful’ student how to think… how to build new tools and intelligently apply these to the problems at hand.

For most, I believe it is difficult to appreciate what one doesn’t understand.  Thus, an overview of the field of study may be cold and meaningless unless the overview can be framed in such a way that the student is invited to be curious and incited to ask the right questions… to ponder the possibilities!

  • Whether it be driving a nail or screwing something together, no doubt the business at hand in the controlled environment of the classroom was presented in such a way that the order of the necessary actions to complete the task were obvious.
  • There was and would be only one path to the objective.

Shielded from Discovery

Unfortunately, there is not much to learn on this regimented ‘adventure’.  In fact, through this approach, have we not shielded ourselves from the greatest teacher, Pain.  As a result, instructors have stifled your personal growth developed through negotiations with failure.  This may seem a bit harsh, but one will discover the things worth doing don’t come easy!

The secret to Success is learning to cope with Failure.

We Must Expose Ourselves to the Challenges that Surround US

Training of the Mind?

In the academic environment, one often isn’t pushed into a situation where they have to think until they are in graduate school.  Possibly, if they are fortunate, they are given an undergraduate Senior Project which will require the student to take this leap.  The training of the student’s mind on how to:

  • Compartmentalize a problem;
  • Identify the assumptions that will serve as a sanity check for the more detailed calculations or enable a cost-effective solution with respect to an investment of one’s time;
  • Architect a path that admits to off-ramps that:
    • Provides routes to other related problems-of-interest.
    • Enables one to find a solution that is ‘good enough’… one that balances the investment against the anticipated dividends.  Few real-world problems require a perfect solution!

Can such training be successful overnight?  Should we not begin to promote this type of awareness at an earlier age?

We Must Expose Ourselves to the Challenges that Surround US

A World So Yesterday

If only Life was about solving problems we already knew the answers to!

In the world in which I now live, not all problems have answers.  Those problems that do admit to a solution… well it turns out that the solution is seldom singular.

Look around you and contrast today with how things were 50 years ago.  Have we reached the boundaries of discovery?  Will tomorrow simply bring more of the same of what is already in-hand today?  Is a knack for innovation disappearing in the rear-view mirror?

In this disposable world, Packaging is the new academic major taking Tech Institutes by storm.  Go figure!

The ‘Go Anywhere’ Solution… Can it cross boundaries of Time

Navigating Another Intersection

High School and College students alike need to be immersed in the waters where math and science are not distinct, isolated entities but where one empowers the other as much as our head requires a body.

Curiosity will be crushed if the senses cannot collect vital information that move us closer to a solution.

At the intersection up ahead, which way will we proceed?  What are the indicators available to us to base this decision on?  Often these answers can only be found if we probe the surroundings.

A Vehicle to Move You Around the Trouble

Similarly, Science can only mature through communication with a grander community… that beyond ourselves… for there are often consequences for wrong turns.

One has to learn when to stop and think in order to solve problems of a real-world nature.

The Right Question…

I will assist the student by providing a practical approach to Physics and Mathematics.

I will work with the student to cast questions and challenges in the right light so that answers and solutions are not so obscure.

By training the student to develop the right series of questions where answers are within reach, I am confident that I can aid in transforming the discouraged student who might be intimidated by all of the math into a passionate individual who is excited to discover what may be around the next corner.

And So Comes Tomorrow…

I will help the student decompose problems through the questions raised.

  • Methods of inquiry will enable one to understand if and how the information provided fits into the solution.
  • They will learn how to frame a problem so they can quickly decipher what information might be missing or may be in disguise.

The student will become an architect… designing a solution space that compartmentalizes the various problems encountered, whether academic or real-world.

I will help them understand how to test their mental framework via simplifications made through assumptions.

By means of computer-aided development, I can assist them in better organizing their thoughts via rapid trial-and-error techniques.