When not making annoying non sequitur comments on the blog, Terry Mills works very hard to be a very good teacher. This includes hunting for and working hard to create mathematical resources for his students. One such is a list of problems compiled by Terry. Prompted by Sunday’s problem-solving post, Terry reminded me yesterday of his collection. As Terry put it,
A few years ago I taught a class of VCAL students; VCAL was the predecessor of Foundation Mathematics. I was told that these students are not interested in mathematics; they all want to go into a trade; so teach them something about building.
I met the students and indeed many did want to go into a trade: building, electrician, beauty therapy, or hospitality. Some were there because they had never been successful in mathematics. Some came to Australia as refugees and did not speak English very well.
What did they have in common? Nothing!
So I decided to give classes devoted to solving problems.
Attached is what grew out of my experience.
Many of Terry’s problems are not “problems” in the sense of Sunday’s post (although what constitutes a “problem” is very much in the eye of the beholder). But, whatever one calls them, it seems to me be a very nice collection, very suitable for the students it would suit.*
*) Terry i forgiven for Questions 31 and 32 (just).
