Math Anxiety and Mental Math: Advice From the Fastest Human Calculator

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Math anxiety and mental math are two topics math teachers talk about constantly. How do we engage students who are scared of math? And how important are math facts anyway?

Our guest, Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash, won the 2020 Mental Calculation World Championship doing math in his head. So what does a champion mental mathlete think about memorizing math facts? As he has worked to help kids get better at math, what has he learned about overcoming math anxiety? And what is wrong with the test scores we use every day that may be keeping kids out of future careers in math?

Let's talk about this and more with Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash, known as the world's fastest human calculator.

What you'll learn:

  • What the world's fastest human calculator really thinks about memorizing math facts
  • Why he walked away from competing to take on math phobia
  • The teacher he'd choose over an AI that's right every time
  • The placement test that got an eighth grader completely wrong
  • What music class would look like if we taught it like math
  • Why 10 comes after 9 (most kids have never been told)
  • A story with enemy ships that hooks students who hate trigonometry

Full show notes, transcript, and resources: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e1020


Check out this episode!

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