TECHNOLOGY, TEACHING & LEARNING
in what occurred at the 7-8 June event at Cave Hill. From the very start, the Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College in the United States, who is also inaugural holder of the Smallwood Family Chair , had students captivated and held their attention for the duration of his performance. Students eagerly volunteered to be on stage, raised their hands to ask questions and used calculators to verify the mathemagician’s mental calculations. Professor Benjamin said, “I think it’s important that students see the fun and magical side of mathematics; that’s what I present to them. Also, they get to see math presented in a more creative way. They learn different ways to solve problems, [and] I think it’s valuable to learn early in your math career that there is more than one way to solve a problem. “Math is often taught as a subject that’s very rigid and not so creative. But the fact is it really is a beautiful, creative subject that allows for many different problem- solving approaches. Maybe some of these kids have already been turned off by mathematics. If so, I wanted to turn the light switch back on. The point of my show is not for them to see how smart I am, but how smart they can be.”
Professor Arthur Benjamin Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, USA
interesting, and is credited as being the only living American with a biography in The Great Mental Calculators: The Psychology, Methods, and Lives of Calculating Prodigies, Past and Present. Surprisingly, in his 40-year career, he had never performed in the Caribbean, which made Cave Hill a first: “ I’ve travelled to other countries like Puerto Rico, but this is my first trip performing in the Caribbean.” Professor Benjamin said the approach taken in the Mathemagics shows is simple. The first 20 minutes follow a standard format, and the remaining time is dedicated to answering questions from the audience. He noted the feedback received over the years had been positive, with indications that his shows may be achieving the intended purpose. “I’ve heard from people who were turned off by mathematics because they thought it was too hard but said my methods made it easy. There were also some people who thought it was too easy and boring and didn’t see the creative, fun side to the subject.” The mathemagician said he was deeply appreciative of the opportunity to perform at Cave Hill and thanked The University of the West Indies for hosting him. u
subject which many see as daunting—and magic: “I’ve always enjoyed entertaining and showing off, and I’ve also always enjoyed math. When I was in high school, I would perform at magic shows for children’s birthday parties. It had nothing to do with math; it was just to make the kids laugh and have fun. Then as I started doing shows for older audiences, my father said I should include some math. He thought that was more impressive than some of the magic tricks I was doing. I said, ‘Okay, let’s see if they like it’, and to my surprise, people really liked it. And so then, I developed a whole show around mathematics and magic, which I call mathemagics.” Professor Benjamin has appeared several times on TED Talks , has authored books on making mathematics easy and
The mathemagician explained his decision to combine Mathematics—a
Students were captivated by Professor Benjamin’s lecture.
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