Academic Resource Center (ARC)
• What we do:
• Tutors (meet for help with course content)
• Coaches (meet for help with course content and
general academic skills)
• Workshops
• How to make an appointment or learn more:
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•
•
•
Use Starfish
Email arc@ntc.edu
Call the ARC at 715.803.1403
Visit the center next to the library or on the second
floor of the CHS
• Appointments can be:
• Walk-in
• In-person
• Zoom appointments
Math: I Don’t Get It
Sharpening problem-solving and logic skills to better tackle math and
non-math-related problems
Have you ever read a math problem like this or
been asked to solve a math problem like this?
If so, then this workshop is for you!
First note . . .
the struggle is real for many people.
“I always struggled with arithmetic.”
– Paul Erdős, Hungarian mathematician who made many and varied contributions to
number theory and the development of the field of discrete mathematics
First note . . .
the struggle is real for many people.
“I always struggled with arithmetic.”
– Paul Erdős, Hungarian mathematician who made many and varied contributions to
number theory and the development of the field of discrete mathematics
What do you do?
Make a game plan:
build skills and use strategies
When you come across a math
problem you can’t understand or
solve, use these tools!
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Connect
Question
Diagram
Translate
Verify
Notes about these tools:
• No need to memorize!
• You’re putting tools in your
toolbox.
Someone who’s never used a
drill before . . . (Practice makes
better )
Format of Workshop
• Connect
• Question
• Diagram
• Translate
• Verify
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Disclaimer
Examples are:
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Full of “mathy” terms
Applicable
Not meant to be easy to understand at first glance
Meant to be gone through together
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Connect
• Make connections
• To yourself
• How might this apply to my job?
• Have I used this before or seen someone else use this before?
• Can I write or phrase this in a way that is applied to my life?
• To the world
• What does the logic remind me of?
• Where might this be applied?
• What kind of jobs or people use this?
• To other mathematical fields
• Have I seen something like this before?
• Are the terms used in another math class I’ve had?
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Connect: Example from trigonometry
Functions can model real-world events. A sine
function is periodical, meaning that it repeats after a
particular amount of time (a period).
What real-world events may be modeled?
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Question
• Yourself and the text
• What does this mean?
• Do I understand what is going on?
• What would happen if . . . ?
• Explain it to someone else
• Ask what about your explanation is unclear
• Have them question you
Even if you don’t know how to answer . . .
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Question: Example from analytical
geometry
A function is defined as giving at most one output for every input.
Which of the graphs below show functions?
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Diagram
• Visualize and diagram
• Represent problems
• Get physical representations
• Draw, make a table, act it
out, create series of pictures,
etc.
• Simplify and build from
there
When you’re
learning about
fractions in
math class and
talking about
pies and pizza
but there’s no
pie or pizza
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Diagram: Example from calculus
*Application to product design*
A Riemann sum estimates the area under a curve by calculating the
area of rectangles with the height given by y-coordinate of the curve
and an arbitrarily selected width. What happens as the width of the
rectangles becomes smaller?
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Translate
• Go from text to symbols to images and everything in between
• Terminology (if you don’t know it . . .)
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Figure it out from context
Write it down and come back to it later
Look it up
Find various definitions
• Variables
• To be efficient
• Standardized(ish)
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Translate: Example from algebra
At the campus store, customer demand
for snacks is dependent on the price of
the snacks. The demand for snacks
decreases by five whenever the price
rises by a dollar. When the snacks are
free, demand is for 112 snacks. What is
the relationship between the price of
snacks and the demand for snacks?
Likewise, the snack supply is also
dependent on the price of the snacks.
For every dollar increase in price, the
campus store wants to sell fifteen more
snacks. When the snacks are free, the
supply is zero.
Determine what is the amount of snacks
that satisfies both supply and demand.
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Verify
• Verify answers to given problems or statements
• Rewrite the given problems.
• Modify problems that are difficult
• To make them easier (and build up to the harder version)
• To practice
• What is the core/most important information in the
problem?
• Write your own problems
• What could you add to distract yourself?
• What makes questions more or less difficult?
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Verify: Example from arithmetic
For one number to be divisible by another number, the result of
division must be an integer, such as -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, and so on. If
the sum of a number’s digits is divisible by three, then that
number is divisible by three.
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The struggle is real…
…but you’ve got a plan.
Questions?
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