��������

Dr. Alexander Moore, Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Westfield State, wants people to know that mathematics is not just an arbitrary set of concepts, but a skillset necessary to navigate life’s challenges. With ten years of teaching experience, Moore has participated a wide variety of environments and is a relatively new fixture on campus after earning his doctorate at Virginia Tech.

This semester, he’s teaching Math 111, titled Math Applications, focusing on using math as a tool to approach real-world problems and finding solutions. “It’s a course for non-majors, so students can develop a mathematical interpretation of the world,” Moore said. “Anything that math is applied to… the course is varied in topics. We’ve interpreted statistics in popular media, applications in geometry, but we also study financial mathematics and how interest is calculated, or how to tell if something is a good deal in terms of finances. It’s very broad.”

Math Applications diverges from other courses in that it is not predicated on a thorough understanding of how algebra or geometry works in the abstract way. Instead, Moore emphasized the importance of embodying the ideals taught, as no one is truly separate from the information they learn and experience. 

“I believe that all knowledge comes from our experiences, so mathematics in textbooks is just the product of experiences from the last thousand years,” he said. “The funny thing about teaching mathematics is that we’re trying guide students through that same discovery process. It’s condensed, but with the right activities, you can guide students not only in reading what someone else has written, but through rediscovering the process of those mathematical concepts. There is no content to teach, only people.”

For those concerned about past experience with mathematics, Moore explained how Math Applications can teach students to better identify mathematics in their everyday life. Whether students realize it or not, he said, they are constantly engaging in mathematical patterns, concepts, and ideas. 

“The class is not only about the applications of mathematics, but about the actual things we do in our bodies and the experiences we live which produces mathematics,” he said. “I don’t think mathematics is ‘out there’. I think we already know about mathematics because we’ve had certain experiences as a human. That way it’s not a symbolic, foreign language students can’t understand