Hidden figures

                                      Maths at the movies

How do you make a math lesson interesting? How do you motivate students? How do you make maths relevant to see the value and application in real life? These questions are always on the mind of maths teachers when they prepare lessons.

Very easy.Take them to the movies.

Miss Munoz’s brilliant idea to take two classes to watch Hidden Figures turn out to answer the above questions in the best possible way. Many themes ran through the movie, from segregation to the cold war space race, but it started with mathematical calculations and maths became the main theme throughout the movie.

The trip was well organized at all levels and students were a showcase for the school.We walked to the train station where we departed to Sylvia parks cinemas.

As a student I always asked my maths teacher WHY we do these complicated calculations-She always gave me the same answer -To send people to the moon. This movie was the perfect answer. It clearly showed the important part the maths team played in achieving man’s greatest achievement.

Practical thinking and problem solving skills  were clearly illustrated. At one point the team couldn't solve a problem . The problem was solved by using old maths that was deemed obsolete.The answers were in the past. Mankind has been struggling with the same questions and problems for centuries.Wise people use prior knowledge to their advantage.

The other problem was to solve a calculation that they have no formula for. They have to invent one and look between and beyond the numbers. This took real out of  the box thinking skills. When the heat panel came off the space shuttle, they had to think quickly on their feet in a high pressure situation to find the coordinates for  the go/no go entry point..

The importance  of checking and rechecking answers was prominent. Machines [IBM computers and robots] replacing human labour and thinking was another small idea that came to the foreground,the main lesson  is that everyone can be good at maths--whether you are poor, female, brown, it doesn't matter. All it takes is the hunger to learn-even- like the movie showed, a challenge to the establishment through a court order to get the knowledge.

Thanks to Miss Munoz for the best maths lesson I had in my life. Now, for the first time I really  know WHY we need maths to go the moon.