"Real World" Math

"Real World" math is a term that I noticed is used in several posts throughout Dan Meyer's blog. Because of all the snow and the freezing temperatures we have gotten over the past couple weeks, Meyer mentioned that the school district would let the buses idle over night in fear they would not start. One of the students then posed the question, "How much did that cost?" And this is where the term "Real World" math comes into play. A great question and a great conversation starter. "Real World" math would be considered math that you can relate to real life scenarios. Meyer points out that just because its real world math does not necessarily make it more interesting and effective for students. He posed the question and received this great response:


2014 Feb 02. Molly:

Ineffective: If gas costs 3.38 per gallon, and the bus burns 1.1 gallons per hour idling, what is the cost of the fuel burned by 32 buses over a period of 13 hours?

Effective: 1. What questions do we need to ask in order to answer this question?

I find things like this interesting as a future math teacher because you want to keep excitement in your classroom. You do not want to sit there and bore your students by lecturing and getting the dreaded question "But will I ever really need to know this?". Posing the question what do we need to know in order to answer the how much does it cost question is much more effective then just throwing numbers at students and letting the calculator do all the work.