- Current section: Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- Why study mathematics?
- 1 What is mathematics?
- 1 Aims
- 1.1 Mathematics and you
- Learning through video clips
- Maths as others see it
- 1.2 Recognizing mathematics
- Examples 1 and 2
- Examples 3 and 4
- Recognizing mathematics, continued
- Investigating the investigation
- Packaging the pictures
- Puzzling out the Soma cube
- Does it make sense?
- When it doesn't make sense …
- Introducing algebra
- 1.3 What is a mathematician?
- Stressing and ignoring
- A mathematical muse
- 2 Tapping into your calculator
- 3 Studying mathematics
- Unit summary and outcomes
- Acknowledgements
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Maths everywhere
This unit explores reasons for studying mathematics, practical applications of mathematical ideas...
This unit explores reasons for studying mathematics, practical applications of mathematical ideas and aims to help you to recognise mathematics when you come across it. It introduces the you to the graphics calculator, and takes you through a series of exercises from the Calculator Book, Tapping into Mathematics With the TI-83 Graphics Calculator. The unit ends by asking you to reflect on the process of studying mathematics. In order to complete this unit you will need to have obtained a Texas Instruments TI-83 calculator and the book Tapping into Mathematics With the TI-83 Graphics Calculator (ISBN 0201175479).
After studying this unit, you should:
- be able to describe your view of what mathematics is;
- have begun to recognise different types of written mathematics and developed your skill at reading it;
- be able to tackle mathematical problems using a calculator and with understanding for basic arithmetic, percentages, square roots, reciprocals and powers;
- be able to express and interpret numbers in scientific notation, both in writing and on your calculator;
- be able to give some examples of common mathematical ‘doing–undoing’ pairs of operations;
- be more attuned to noticing mathematical questions arising from the world around you.
- Duration: 8 hours
- Published on: Friday 22nd July 2011
- Level: Introductory
- Posted under: Mathematics Education
Contents
Maths everywhere
Introduction

This unit explores reasons for studying mathematics, practical applications of mathematical ideas and aims to help you to recognize mathematics when you come across it. It introduces the you to the graphics calculator, and takes you through a series of exercises from the Calculator Book, Tapping into Mathematics With the TI-83 Graphics Calculator. The unit ends by asking you to reflect on the process of studying mathematics.
In order to complete this unit you will need to have obtained a Texas Instruments TI-83 calculator and the book Tapping into Mathematics With the TI-83 Graphics Calculator by Barrie Galpin and Alan Graham (eds), Addison Wesley, 1997 (ISBN 0201175479).
This unit is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Open mathematics (MU120) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us, you may wish to explore other courses we offer in this subject area [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
Archive content
This is an extract from an Open University course which is no longer available to new students. If you found this interesting you could explore more free Mathematics Education course units or view the range of currently available OU Mathematics Education courses.
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- Creative-Commons: The Open University is proud to release this free course under a Creative Commons licence. However, any third-party materials featured within it are used with permission and are not ours to give away. These materials are not subject to the Creative Commons licence. See terms and conditions. Full details can be found in the Acknowledgements section.
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