Street math | Laura Overdeck | TEDxJerseyCity

Math isn’t just for the engineers and scientists out there. We all need number sense to make decisions in regular daily life. We’re bombarded with information, but we fail to put those numbers together usefully – and that leads us to make both small mistakes and big ones. See how simple street math shines light on the worst problems that we allow to continue in our society and in our own personal lives – and how being a little math savvy can turn them around.

Laura Bilodeau Overdeck is the founder of Bedtime Math, a nonprofit that helps kids love math. Over 50,000 kids and parents enjoy Overdeck’s wacky nightly math problems online and in her two books, with the third launching soon. Having garnered press in TIME Magazine, The New York Times and others, Bedtime Math has now launched Crazy 8s Club, a hands-on after-school math club for elementary-school-aged kids. Today there are more than 1,600 clubs serving over 25,000 kids, making it already the biggest after-school math club nationwide for grades K through 5.

In addition to being a social entrepreneur, Overdeck is Chair of the Overdeck Family Foundation, which supports math/science education reform. She is also Vice Chair of the Board of Liberty Science Center, and serves on the boards of Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and Governor’s School of New Jersey. She holds a BA in astrophysics from Princeton University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

[carlosduran]

Absolutely revealing, thanks a lot, Laura!

[Loveitmore]

Personally, I absolutely loved this talk and can't understand why there are so few likes.

[pierreluc]

Boy math is watching this 18 minutes video instead of working and making money.

[jimjohnston]

Why did I not have you as a teacher in 1966?! You are very in touch.

[dennisr.levesque]

Really good. But, beyond crunching the numbers, what was really good, was addressing the valuing it, and not just the quantifying it. Until you value the learning, you won't value the lesson. Well done.

[tinaeden]

Wow, talk about a bean counter...I thought this would be about stopping distances and practical things of that nature.

[Boognish]

Well, talking about traffic line indicators has had the opposite of “making math beautiful” or inspiring children. And real life and decision making? Teachers for decades have tried to avoid answering questions about “when will students ever use this?” Line segments? Trig functions? Logarithms? You’ll never make those “for pleasure” in the minds of children. But hey: ideas worth discussing and all that.

[ksmyth]

Having taken a look at some of the SAT maths material, I don't see learning to pass SAT tests teaches kids much real maths.

[ShoTime]

17 min drooling over this smart, gorgeous chick. Time well spent.

[therese_paula]

Something's wrong with me. I find listening to her voice very excruciating.

[janicemurphy]

If you're looking for answers and if you have the right formula you can come up with the answers depending on what you're trying to calculate so when we say math has its own language the first thing you have to do is talk about what part of Matthew were trying to teach the children if you're teaching them formulas the more you show them how this formula works for this and I can work again for another problem then they will learn that these formulas all have a system in their system can be used every time

[davidperets]

i am the only one who read laura overdick in the first look?

[awesomesaucewin]

...she couldn't figure out that she was using more electricity because she was having more kids? seriously?

[ivanbuljanvanboelken]

You just want to sheng hai people in useless diferentials. Please go home, and kindly cross cancel yourself.

[victoza]

Ugh...that glottal fry she has is annoying and distracting.

[guyxmas]

Wow Just talking that much about money sound like a waste of time to me.... What is money? Something some bank creates out of whatever regulation and laws that no one understands....