How many corners on a circle?

http://www.ted.com Today's math curriculum is teaching students to expect -- and excel at -- paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. At TEDxNYED, Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think.

We need more patient problem solvers. And that starts with the cornerstone of mathematical reasoning. 

We need humans with initiative, perseverance, retention and a willingness and curiosity to dig in and uncover the treasures all around and throughout us. 

Sitcoms are robbing us of the superpower, literally rewiring the neurons in our brains, and current educational practices are doing the same. 

Instead of teaching formulas, we need to encourage, engage and support students in formulating problems, determining what factors matter and explore sources of error in the real world beyond the theory. 

Math is a tool to help us make sense of the world, "it's the vocabulary for our intuition."

Dan Meyer's blog is a great resource in building this out, as are Conrad Wolfram and Arthur Benjamin's ideas about teaching math as it is actually used in the real world with biologists, geologists, statistics, probability etc—ensuring that we can move economies and societies forward based on the ability to *feel* mathematics. 

http://www.ted.com From rockets to stock markets, math powers many of humanity's most thrilling creations. So why do kids lose interest? Conrad Wolfram says the part of math we teach -- calculation by hand -- isn't just tedious, it's mostly irrelevant to real mathematics and the real world.

http://www.ted.com Someone always asks the math teacher, "Am I going to use calculus in real life?" And for most of us, says Arthur Benjamin, the answer is no. He offers a bold proposal on how to make math education relevant in the digital age.