San Diego Unified Parent- Life At School

Had a great time today volunteering in the kid’s classroom about my least favorite subject: Math.  I continue to struggle with even some of the basics, and when he brought home long division homework, I nearly got sick.

Hate the stuff.

But I was pottering in the garage the other day with one of my most favorite pastimes- motorcycles.  I needed to compute a final drive ratio.   This is not a difficult problem, but I began thinking- suppose I had learned math on a motorcycle?  How would that have changed my relationship with math?

We are fortunate to have John Snyder teaching Jesse this year, and like many teachers, Mr Snyder welcomes input and creative approaches.  And thus MotoMath (and MotoScience) was born.

My buddy Paul Kamanski  (a HUGE talent- see Comanche Moon) helped unload and roll in the bike and it’s lift to the classroom while the students were at PE.  I used the bike for conversations about fuel/air ratios, mileage computation, final drive ratios. How many teeth on the sprocket and the countersprocket and how many times would the countersprocket revolve with a single revolution of the rear wheel?

We discussed safety gear, ATTGATT or “All The Gear All The Time”, coefficient of friction, traction, hydroplaning, speed vs power.

We talked about alloys, strength and weight of the elements that make up the materials from which a motorcycle is made.

And it worked.  The kids were stretching their understanding of math, seeing applications for their lessons and applying their brains to something they saw was both unusual and interesting.

And I hate math just a little less.