Dave Cohen

I gained much of my maths experience (outside of schooling) in the fields of Engineering, Manufacturing, and mentoring kids. I taught maths (and other subjects) as a tool to solve problems. Not word problems, but real-world problems. One example would be using dimensional analysis to determine the motor size, speed and gear ratios required to get a robot to move at a certain speed. Another example would be using Ohm's Law to determine the proper resistor value to drive an LED.

Learning math is a process that is best taken in small steps. I like to explain the topic in terms kids can relate to. When discussing fractions for example, I make use of a pizza as an analogy, which might sound silly, but it is something that most anyone can relate to, and it's a good analogy. It works well when doing math on fractions, such as addition, subtraction, etc. If you happen to be eating pizza, you can make a maths lesson out of it!

Math is a tool like a hammer or a saw, but it is much more powerful. Like any tool, you need to learn the rules of operating it. Because math is so powerful, there are a lot more rules involved. So you learn a few rules at a time, and they build on each other. If you are new at maths as a young person, maybe you have enough skill to figure out the change you should get when buying something at the market. That's useful. Keep going, and you can gain enough skill to build a radio telescope or your own robot. That's when it gets really cool!