April 13, 2004

What Would da Vinci Do?

Ah, I absolutely love HNRS 1023, Creativity: The Death of All Original Thought. So, in an attempt to liven up the class, I decided to bring in one of my favorite things: math. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I made my presentation on Sir Isaac Newton today. Batts hated it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My audience knew I enjoyed it. I don't know why he hated it... *looks innocent*. Oh, wait. That's right. The calculus. Sit back while I relate the story to you.

Well, as luck would have it, I was the first one in the room today, except for Batts, and thus, I was volunteered to go first, not that I cared a whole lot. So I get my presentation ready, everyone else gets their presentations ready, and I get up there and start talking. I introduce Newton and a brief overview of what he did, then I get into the fun stuff. Before I actually explain what the importance of Newton's discoveries, I clearly have to explain Newton's discoveries. So I explain what a "fluxion" is (a derivative), and what a "fluent" is (an integral), and proceed to give examples of each *evil grin*. So I gave them the formula for the First Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, the constant acceleration equations, and drew an example of Newton's method of approximating roots of a function. It was all kinds of fun for me.

But, I finally had to bring myself back to the English classroom and continue with my presentation. So I did. It was certainly not the best presentation I've ever given, but was also not my worst. I was very relaxed (speaking to an audience of five is nice), and really didn't care about the grade. I enjoyed myself.

So, I wrap things up, and Batts decides to give me immediate feedback. He didn't like my intro (it wasn't mysterious enough... or something), I said "and stuff" and trailed off at the end of some sentences, which he wasn't entirely pleased about. And then he said (and this makes the whole thing worth it), "Well, not being a math major, I got a little lost on the math sections." Well, Batts, that was the whole point. He also didn't like that I turned around and used the board, but there's really not much I could have done about that. Then, after Batts makes his critique, Sarah asks to say something. "I loved the math." It was great. Sarah pretty much defended my style for me, so that I didn't have to sound annoyed at Batts, though I wouldn't have done that anyway, because no matter what Wheeler says, the grade isn't that important.

Well, that's all the fun I've had today kids. Until next time, keep your feet on the ground... unless you're jumping up and down. *boinggy boinggy boinggy boinggy*

Posted by Gallagher at April 13, 2004 04:06 PM