Welcome! If you are new around here, I’m so glad you found me and I hope you read something today that makes you want to stick around. If you are a seasoned reader, I’m grateful you are back and I hope you are beginning to see there’s been a math person living inside you all along. Because that’s really the point of this website and the meat of my message.
You are a math person even if you’ve had experiences in the past that have led you to believe you are not.
{This is a modified transcript for Episode 42 of the I See Math People podcast. To listen instead, click here.}
I so excited to be starting the back half of the mathabet with you today. I’ve really had fun with these posts and I hope you are enjoying them. Today’s is brought to you by the letter N.
Numbers
N is for numbers, right? And numbers are everywhere. Can you go a waking hour without interacting with a number of some kind? I’m not sure I can. You check the time, you turn to your favorite tv channel or radio station, you see house numbers, exit numbers on your commute, and prices on the gas station signs. When you text or call someone, there are numbers on the keypad and even books and newspapers have page numbers. Games involve points and dice and moves…all numbers. Which reminds me I should probably do an episode on video games at some point. Maybe I can get my kids to help me with that topic.
My point is, you encounter numbers many, many times during your day. And the way you interact with them makes you a math person even if it’s so automatic you don’t realize you are doing it.
Number Lines
Let’s talk about a number line for a minute. Did you do number line work when you were in elementary school? Understanding that moving to the right gives you numbers that are bigger and bigger and moving to the left means the numbers are getting smaller and smaller allowed you to learn addition and subtraction and even things like absolute value, positive and negative numbers and counting. You probably used number lines on coordinate graphs in middle and high school, too.
In your daily life, you might think about number lines when you are adding or subtracting in your head and I’m sure you see them when you look at graphs. Not sure when you see graphs? Check out this post… to get a few ideas.
You could say an analog clock is a kind of number line, even though it’s usually wrapped around a circle. Do you still have one of those?
If you are noticing or thinking with number lines in any form or context, that makes you a math person.
Negatives
Know what else begins with N? The opposite of positive. That’s right.
Negative is a mathematical idea beginning with N. Understanding opposites is related to mathematical thinking and we use negative numbers all the time, often without realizing it. Did you know when you subtract, you are adding a negative number? Or that when you turn the thermostat down when the summer temperatures are soaring, you are moving the dial in the negative direction?
You think about the idea of negative, and its opposite, in all sorts of contexts. And I believe that makes you a math person.
Navigation
Story time. I have always loved maps. I have a few distinct memories of using them to navigate an unfamiliar place and I always thought it was fun to pull out the big atlas on a road trip to find a way around the interstate traffic we were suddenly in. Kids these days will never know, I guess. But that’s a discussion of an entirely different sort.
One memory I have where I did not have a map to help me out occurred more than two decades ago. I drove solo to a friend’s baby shower in a city I wasn’t really familiar with. Of course, I had my mapquest directions printed out so I could get there easily enough. The problem happened when I left. I thought I remembered how to go back the way I came so I didn’t look at my directions to backtrack. I just got in the car and drove. About the third time I found myself in the same place, I decided I needed a new strategy. My car at that time had a compass reading on the rearview mirror. When I finally decided to look at it, I realized I was going the opposite direction from where I needed to be. So, I turned around and very quickly found the right way home.
Navigation is one of those ideas you might not think of when I ask you to name some ways you interact with math. Even if you are using GPS instead of a printed map or your memory to navigate somewhere, you are still using plenty of skills related to math. You are following directions, using landmarks to orient yourself, and problem solving when things don’t go as planned. If you are using a printed map, you can tack on a few more skills that have connections to math, too. Like comparing routes, estimating travel time and distance, and using a map key and a grid system to find where you are and where you need to be.
You absolutely know what I’m going to say next, right? If you are navigating…using a map, GPS, or landmarks, like the location of the sun or a familiar mountain top…you must be a math person.
I am so glad you joined the conversation today! I’m on a mission to change the way the world sees math, and that begins with you. If you found value in this post, if something you heard made you pause, or if you suddenly realized the hidden math in something you do every day, now is the time to join this movement!
When you comment here and share this site, or when you subscribe to, rate, and share the I See Math People podcast, the algorithms will show it to more people and the more people who get the message, the more mindsets can begin to shift.
Thank you for being part of this discussion of a few of the mathematical concepts beginning with the letter N. I truly hope you heard something about numbers, number lines, negatives, and navigation that you can relate to and that it makes you stop and think about where math shows up for you on a daily basis. Noticing where you interact with math is the first step to beginning your mindset shift and seeing yourself as the math person you really are.
I’m Jennifer Mason Hardin and everywhere I look I see math people just like you.
