SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMNT OF MATHEMATICAL BENT OF MIND
SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMNT OF MATHEMATICAL BENT OF MIND
Friends, ‘Mathematics is a queen of sciences’
-It is a science amongst sciences, and art among arts. Ancient mathematicians studied Mathematics as a handmaid to astronomy and commerce. They developed Geometry to measure lands, construct buildings etc.
Ancient Greeks saw it as a science which needed logic for its development. They drew inspiration from the Analytic and Synthetic or Inductive and Deductive methods of reasoning. They derived pleasure in solving mathematical problems, and considered it as one of the necessary subjects to be studied in their curriculum. Admission into their academics was denied to those who had no knowledge of mathematics- and education was imperfect without the study of maths. Had there been no such study of mathematics, the progress of humanity would have been static and still we would have found man leading barbarian lives.
The discovery of astronomy, the science of planetary motions, had become impossible without the study of geometry; trigonometry and calculus. What is necessary for all this? Its man’s inquisitiveness and thrust for knowledge, and extension of principles already learnt, and application, of those to obtain new ones, and the attitude of a researcher to unveil hidden treasures. The searching questions ‘Why’, ‘What’ and ‘How’ and the goal to reach from the already processed knowledge-all these is essential to develop mathematical science of knowledge.
Mathematics is a subject; the very mention of its name itself makes the pupils shudder in their boots. But it is the teacher who should dispel the fears of the pupils and make them develop a taste or liking for the subject.
Here are some principles which may be of practical use for the students to develop this bent of mind, which should be cultivated from pre-primary classes itself.
1) The curriculum should be so shaped that the teaching of four fundamental operations, at the numeration and notation level itself should be made interesting. Colour pictures, flash cards, coloured beads, marbles, and appreciation of Audio-Visual cassettes with musical background should be made use of.
2) Lives of great mathematicians and researchers like Euclid, Pythagoras, Archimedes, and Newton, Bhaskara, Ramanujan and the like should inspire them. For this also one may supply books of their lives, or Video-Cassettes showing the most important episodes connected with the lives of the above may be shown to the pupils. They should depict how hey strived hard and how devoted they were to achieve their master pieces like ‘An Elements’ , ‘A Principia’, ‘A Leelavati’ and the like.
3) Pupils should be made to construct mathematical models themselves, with card-board. They should verify the allied principles connected with all the mathematical models made of clay or card-board or plaster if possible.
4) They should maintain good record books, wherein they make notes of what they had verified. Also they should try to solve problems they come across during their study. This should be beyond the scope of text books they usually consult at schools or colleges.
5) Group discussion among the students