When I was young I viewed math as a collection of cute tricks. Often I did not pay attention to why I was able to implement these cute tricks. I just enjoyed playing with cute math tricks. While attending university I learned about the deep theoretical concepts that explained why I was allowed to implement the math tricks of my youth. The proofs of these theoretical concepts contained many wonderful, deep, and ingenious tricks that I added to my “bag of cute math tricks”. After university I worked in industry as a programmer and wrote software for radar systems and hardware simulations. My math background came in handy because the real-world applications that I wrote software programs for required a deep understanding of math (calculus, linear algebra, statistics, and Boolean logic). For the last 10 years I have used my experiences with cute math tricks, theoretical math, and real-world industrial applications to make math more meaningful and enjoyable for Palm Beach State College students.
