Tuesday 6 May 2025 12:45 - 13:30
Abstract
In the motivation letter that nominees have to send to win our University's Teacher of the Year Award, one of the criteria is how well the teacher "updates students on the state of the art of the relevant research fields" with regards to applications. However, many mathematicians feel that in basic math courses, this criterium is mostly irrelevant.
Fortunately, I was selected as one of the three finalists despite this criterium.
To address this difference of opinion, I will argue the usefulness of 'silly applications' in mathematics education in my presentation for the award. To this end, I will use the silliest example from my PhD-thesis: Giving dating advice to explain sequential games.
