Greetings, fellow educators, researchers, engineers, students, and folx who love mathematics! 

I believe in the importance of mathematics as a structure to our society, as a gateway to better financial decision making, and as a crucial subject to teach problem solving. I also believe in the success of all students, through self-discovery and creativity, while working with others to create their own knowledge. Consequently, I’ve designed my examples in the Maple Learn gallery to suit these needs. Many of my documents are meant to be “stand-alone” investigations, summary pages, or real-world applications of mathematical concepts meant to captivate the interest of students in using mathematics beyond the basic textbook work most curricula entail. Thus, I believe in the reciprocal teaching and learning relationship, through the independence and creativity that technology has afforded us. The following is an example of roller coaster track creation using functions. Split into a five part investigation, students are tasked to design the next roller coaster in a theme park, while keeping in mind the elements of safety, feasibility, and of course fun!

Common elements we take for granted such as having a starting and ending platform that is the same height (since most coasters begin and end at the same location), boarding the coaster on a flat surface, and smooth connections between curves translate into modeling with functions. 

Aside from interning with Maplesoft, I am an educator, researcher, student, financial educator, and above all, someone who just loves mathematics and wishes to share that joy with the whole world. As a practicing secondary mathematics and science teacher in Ontario, Canada, I have the privilege of taking what I learned in my doctorate studies and applying it to my classrooms on a daily basis. I gave this assignment to my students and they really enjoyed creating their coasters as it finally gave them a reason to learn why transformations of quadratics, amongst other functions, were important to learn, and where a “real life” application of a piecewise function could be used. 

Having worked with the Ontario and International Baccalaureate mathematics curricula for over a decade, I have seen its evolution over time and in particular, what concepts students struggled to understand, and apply them to the “real world.” Concurrently, working with international mathematics curricula as part of my collaboration with Maplesoft, I have also seen trends and emergent patterns as many countries’ curricula have evolved to incorporate more mathematical literacy along with competencies and skills. In my future posts, you will see Maple Learn examples on financial literacy since working as a financial educator has allowed me to see just how ill prepared families are towards their retirement and how we can get lost amongst a plethora of options provided by mass media. Hence, I have 2 main goals I dedicate to a lifelong learning experience; financial literacy and greater comprehension of mathematics topics in the classroom.