Insiders
Melendy Lovett Shares Her Thoughts on the "We All Use Math Every Day" Program
Melendy Lovett is president of Texas Instruments Education and Productivity Solutions. She was recently awarded the Council of Scientific Society Presidents Citation for Leadership and Achievement in recognition for her contributions to improving mathematics education though the "We All Use Math Every Day" initiative. Melendy recently sat down with us to share her experience and plans for the new season:
Why did Texas Instruments create the "We All Use Math Every Day(tm)" program?
When it comes to learning math, many students have asked their teacher the question, "When are we ever going to use this?" Texas Instruments wanted to help answer that question while increasing student interest in mathematics.
"NUMB3RS" actually began airing in January 2005, and the theme of the show was "We All Use Math Every Day". At Texas Instruments, that aligns extremely well with our goal of helping students achieve in math. We spend a lot of time talking with math students, teenagers and math teachers, and the feedback we have continued to receive is to help make math more exciting and help teens understand how they can use this math outside the classroom.
Educators were also looking to us to help give them the capability to make math more engaging and exciting, so that students will see how they can use it. And so, the "We All Use Math Every Day(tm)" program was born, and we're excited to be entering our second year of providing free classroom activities that inspire students in math by showing how the subject impacts their daily lives.
What has been the most rewarding experience?
We are excited by the tremendous amount of positive feedback from educators, students, parents and industry leaders. I believe that this program has encouraged teachers to rethink the ways they teach math in the classroom, incorporating real-world scenarios to make the subject more relevant for teens. For example, I had the opportunity to meet a teacher in Nashville who brings in professionals from her community every year to talk about all the different ways they use math and technology in their everyday lives and careers. Whether they interview a firefighter, nurse, business executive, architect or an entrepreneur, the students become more engaged in the classroom, and their genuine excitement for math is inspiring to see.
What are you hoping the program will accomplish this year?
Texas Instruments hopes to continue to reach out to educators and students to get them actively involved in the program. We currently have more than 35,000 educators who have signed up for the Teacher Kit and thousands are downloading the activities on a weekly basis, impacting nearly 4 million students!
But as great as these results are, we still have even more to do. No student should leave high school thinking they are not good at math. We also hope to reach out to additional educators and students this year by adding additional features to the program. For instance, this year we plan to have classroom activities available in Spanish and we are adding Season One activities to continue to broaden the scope of activities available.
As a mother, what are some ways that you are helping your teenage daughter maintain her interest in math?
I try to help her see the connections between the math she's learning in the classroom and the career opportunities that open up to her once she's taken the math. She's starting to think about college majors, and that gives me one more chance to talk about how many majors require a strong math background.
I've found it to have a big impact when I can help her get to know talented computer programmers, engineers, and scientists – role models – she can begin to see herself someday in this kind of career. I'd encourage other parents to find ways to help their children find that “dream job” that ties their math work to a longer-term goal.
Most important, I want to encourage parents and educators to motivate students to take math, and take math every year. It's going to be so important for our future. The children who are in elementary school, and middle school and high school today, they are the innovators of tomorrow. And students with a solid math background are going to have more options as they choose what they want to do for a living. So parents, recognize that math at every level can be challenging.
