The Easy Way to Calculate: The Art and Craft of Problem Solving

In this unit, students will explore strategies to solve mathematical problems from different aspects of real-world life. Solving problems in any branch of mathematics is an art. From the Stone Age through Einstein’s age, mathematical ideas have played a dominant role to simplify calculations. Mathematics, being the spinal chord of physical sciences, develops different strategies to solve problems. For example, at one time architects and engineers required hours and hours to do calculations using slide rules and logarithm tables, but now the same calculations are done just at the click of a few keys on computers and calculators. Indeed, modern software often performs the calculations automatically, without any guidance from the user whatsoever.

This unit will enable the students to use different strategies such as Venn- diagrams, graphs, tables, and conceptual maps used at 9-12 levels. Emphasis is also given to the problems solving skills through mathematical modeling. Using these skills students taking standardized tests like SAT’s Praxis 1 & 2, GMAT etc. can save lot of time and use it to review the tests.