EP25: Monica Geist Ph.D. - Math with a Laugh

May 22, 2020

Mathematical law governs just about everything in your daily life, whether you realize it or not. Alex’s guest today is Dr. Monica Geist. Dr. Geist has a Bachelor’s in Applied Mathematics from CSU, a Masters in Applied Mathematics from CU-Denver, and a Ph.D. in Applied Statistics and Research Methods from UNC. To make a long story short, she is made of math. Dr. Geist and Alex have known each other for some years, as her husband took on the difficult task of tutoring Alex in mathematics during his time at ASU and now serves as his IT consultant. Unless you are Will Hunting, this one might blow your mind!

 

In this episode, Alex and Monica talk about…

• Monica’s backstory growing up in Boulder
• How much of life is predicated on written mathematical proofs
• COVID-19 has changed the experience for students and teachers
• Zoom has changed the game for interactive teaching online
• The immediate future of teaching during the pandemic
• People are unique and everyone learns in different ways
• We will never go back to how we did things before
• Monica’s proclivity toward teaching has impacted Alex’s life
• Sometimes Alex uses words that he doesn’t understand
• Alex and Monica throw around some old stories
• Just keep breathing when you face math problems in life

 

Links to resources:

Spiderman Homecoming

Zoom

 

Difficult Story Problems:

Q: Why was the mathematician late to work?

A: He took the rhombus.

 

Q: What did the mathematician say when she lost her protractor?

A: Where’s my protractor?

 

Q: Why was the fraction apprehensive about marrying the decimal?

A: Because he would have to convert.

 

Q: Why do plants hate math?

A: It gives them square roots.

 

Q: Why was the math book depressed?

A: It had a lot of problems.

Monica Geist Ph.D.: [e-mail]

 

Asynchronous Definition:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/asynchronous

 

Pythagorean Theorem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem

 

Law of Cosines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_cosines 

 

Quadratic Equation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratic_equation

 

www.TheBuildersJourney.com

 

Bobby’s email: [e-mail]

Alex’s email: [e-mail]

 

The Builders Journey Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebuildersjourney/

 

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