OpenLab #1 – Introduce Yourself

Your first OpenLab assignment is to introduce yourself to your classmates.  This assignment is due Thursday, February 6th, at the start of class. Late submissions will receive partial credit.

Assignment. Write a comment in reply to this post (scroll to the bottom to find the “Leave a Reply” box).  Your comment should be at least 2 paragraphs in length.  In the first paragraph, introduce yourself in whatever way you wish (what do you want your classmates to know about you?).  In the second paragraph, choose ONE of the following two topics and write a response. Don’t forget to tell us which topic you chose.

Topics (choose ONE).

  1. Was math ever your favorite subject? If so, when was it? What about math made it your favorite? If math has never been your favorite subject, what about it do you not like?
  2. Sometimes people can recognize a time when their opinion of math dramatically changed either for the better or the worse. Tell us about it.

Extra Credit. For extra credit, write a response to one of your classmates’ comments. Do you feel the same? Did you learn anything? Do you have any advice? Be kind.

Print this page

42 thoughts on “OpenLab #1 – Introduce Yourself”

  1. Yes, math was my preferred subject when I was in middle school because it was straightforward to do, and I enjoy doing algebraic problems. In school, I participated in math competitions in my school, so it made it even more exciting to do the tasks at hand. I also had the highest math grade in the class, and I was well rounded with the questions. Additionally, there was a time when my teacher would ask if I can help tutor some of my classmates.

    My opinion on math has changed because at first, it wasn’t as bad, but as soon as I got older and learning more sophisticated ways of doing math, I start to grow to hate it than to enjoy it because it became so hard for me to handle some math problems and solve them. Now everything seems hard for me to do because it’s a lot more work and memorization to do than before.

    1. Hi Jenee – thanks for being first-to-post, and welcome to the course! Your comment about math being a lot more memorization rings true to me – I’m terrible at memorizing, and do much better when I can learn the underlying idea. This class has a bit of both…

    2. I agree with you Jenee, math was so much easier in elementary or middle school but once we got to high school then college it becomes more difficult to understand and have to memorize a lot more. Once you keep applying yourself you will become great at math again just like you used to.

  2. I can recognize a time when my opinion of math changed dramatically, for the worse. Up to last semester (Fall 2019), I had enjoyed doing math for the most part, and did not exactly dread the work at all. And then I took MAT1275. It wasn’t exactly the work, at first, that altered my opinion on math, just the professor, who will remain unnamed. Eventually, my grades depleted, but not completely. I started to get bored with math and felt of it as a chore, but I continued and my grades improved. This shift in my opinion of math still led me to get through with it, so I wouldn’t eventually have to go through with it again in later semesters.

    1. I’m sorry to hear about your experience in MAT1275 – it’s striking to me just how much impact a professor can have on the experience of a taking subject. Hope this semester goes better for you – guess we’ll see 🙂

    2. I definitely forgot to write a first paragraph ;\, sorry. But I’m Nathan. I’m a junior in high school that just so happens to be getting an Associate’s in Applied Science. I’m 6’5” and I like to code, eat and watch Netflix and my major is CST. I’m a pretty chill person but I’m very humorous once I get comfortable. Hi

  3. 1. Hi my name is Brandon Sosa and I’m 20 years old. You’ll probably catch me around campus being lazy with my feet up scrolling on Instagram. I’m a chill and laid back person that how I am. My interest are technology, fashion, and sneakers. Outside of school I’m either being slaved at work or I’m at a restaurant eating good or at home in be sleeping or being lazy.

    2. Math hasn’t always been my favorite subject. Back in high school I used to hate math and I honestly didn’t understand the concept of it on why we needed it, but when I started college I kinda saw math in a new a light and then I understood it more and then I kinda began to like it. MAT1275 was my favorite math class because the professor was funny and made understanding math more easier which was great for me!

    1. The right professor can make a huge difference (and vice versa – compare with the previous comment by Nathan) – for me, this comes back to the idea we talked about in class yesterday, of the importance of the social aspects of the class, and the community that forms there!

  4. My name is shengheng and I go by Mark. I walk around the campus when I finished my

    lunch in Namn. I live in New York since 2016 and I went to high school in Queens. I am

    now majoring in mechanical engineering. I do swimming during summer and taking

    kickboxing class for fun during the weekend. I believe hard can get me huge pay one

    day in the future.

    Topic #1

    Yes math is one of my favorite subjects. Back in the days in high school. That’s

    because it was easy for me to understand the theme. But there is also something I don’t

    like about it, when you finally solved the question your teacher would like you to find

    another explanation.

    1. Hi Mark! I sympathize with your frustration – once you’ve found the answer, it seems pointless to come up with alternative explanations. I can’t promise not to do this – I will probably do it! – and all I can offer is the idea that sometimes we care more about the explanations than about the answers themselves… Not sure if it helps to think about it this way, or not. *shrug*

  5. 1. Hey, My name is Ami Asraf. I am 20 years old and I love writing softwares. I am a CST major student, who thinks he knows everything. I love to learn things on my own, and I’ve taught myself couple of programming languages and a lot of useless things. I have my own app on the iOS AppStore and it gets around 35k active users a day, which is super exciting. Even though I don’t have many friends in this school, I still love talking to people and meeting new people. I wish to get a job at Apple or Google and work there for around 5 years and then hoping to start my own Software Firm, so that I can be independent and creative.

    2. I’ve honestly never liked Math, so can’t say that it’s my favorite subject. I took Algebra 1 honors in high school and even though, I did good in that class, I felt frustrated and had to watch a lot of math videos to understand it better. The other math class I took in high school was geometry and I felt like it was the hardest subject in the world, didn’t understand most of the things the teacher was talking about, so had to constantly raise my hand and ask him to explain.

  6. Hi, My name is DeAndre and I am 17 years old. My major at the moment is B.T in Computer Systems but later I plan on transferring and studying child psychology/early childhood development because I am currently employed as a 3rd grade after-school counselor. I mainly like to watch television shows and my favorite right now is Criminal Minds. Finally, some accomplishments about me are that I skipped a grade, I am the youngest in my high-school graduating class, I attended and graduated from two high-schools at the same time, and also Class of 2019 SAL.

    (Topic 1:) Math was never at all my favorite subject and still is not. During my elementary school years my strongest subjects were always Science and English but I mainly struggled in math. In 7th grade, I had the opportunity to take the geometry regents and 5 others exams but I passed them all except for geometry. I later took it over in 10th grade and managed to pass and move to trigonometry where I passed it on my first try. I was always told math is about following formulas and plugging in but to me math requires more technical thinking. However, I do believe if I keep practicing and do as much practice problems as possible, I should do just fine.

    1. I like your comment: “I was always told math is about following formulas and plugging in but to me math requires more technical thinking” — although following formulas can be challenging, for me the hard parts tend to be around the edges of the problems, figuring out what formulas to use, which procedure to follow, what to do with the results. I think of this as “procedural” (following the steps) versus “conceptual” (figuring out what’s going on) parts of mathematics, and many courses focus on the procedural parts (even though students often have trouble with the conceptual parts).

  7. Hello!!!
    I am very glad that everyone has the opportunity to express their own experience and their feelings about math. Actually this is my second semester at City tech and so far everything has been going good. I don’t think that math 1275 was that hard because most of it is actually algebra. Sometimes I would get stuck in different topics but most of the times YouTube videos have help me a lot.

    #1 Math wasn’t one of my favorite subjects in high school. I have had difficulties but one of my friends used to help me a lot. After a while I started liking it more and I guess you feel better when you actually know how to solve different problems.
    Thank you!

    1. Sounds like you had a good friend – I’m always impressed at the impact that “the right person” can have on your mathematical experience. I hope you make some good connections in this class!

  8. Heyy, My name is Petagaye and I am 19 years old. I am a CST major, I don’t really like this major so i’m going to switch to early childcare education because I already work with kids 4-5 Grade and they are amazing sometimes and it’s nice that I get to teach them new things everyday. My favorite Netflix show is Blacklist I would recommend everyone watch it because the show is just that great lol. Also my favorite foods are pizza, chipotle,macaroni pie, oxtail, and rice and peas I’m really cool once you get to know me.

    Math has never been my favorite subject for the reason being that it can get so difficult so fast. I don’t like math because it’s one of those subjects where you would always get frustrated from doing the work speaking on experience, We use numbers in our daily lives so regardless if we like it or not we always have to encounter it someway somehow, But I’ve changed my attitude towards math it’s more positive now and I’m hoping I will get better at doing math soon I just have to keep applying myself to get better at it.

    1. I agree that to be better in math, you have to keep applying yourself. I believe that practicing and trying will help improve what you find difficult in math or other subjects.

  9. Hi I’m Eva. I am 19 years old. I am majoring in Bioinformatics. I love biology and learning different programming languages. I can speak three different dialects of Chinese and I can write and read in Chinese. I wish to become a bioinformatics scientist in the future.

    Math was one of my favorite subjects in middle school because it was easy, but in high school it all changed because I was struggling in geometry. My teacher for geometry in high school didn’t care if people understood math or not, he never took the time to explain. Since starting college, and taking math 1275, I have started to enjoy it again even though I don’t understand EVERY topic, but I can always keep trying to understand it and give it more practice.

    1. He I’m raoul and Ik wut u mean by the teachers didn’t care I pretty much had to take and pass algebra 2 by myself bc my teacher was just chilling without a care in the world.

  10. Math, for me was ok until I arrived in the us and struggled with the wording most of the time I have difficulty understanding the English version bc I’m bilangual. However I do like the parts of math were we just have to apply a concept by just looking at the problem, were we don’t really have to understand the problem to solve it rather just to see it.

    1. I love when I look at a problem and “just see it” – this is the best! Keep working through the tough stuff, and you’ll find that this happens more and more often.

    2. I’m raoul Mohan this is like an edit towards my first post . 1) I’m 18 in computer info major i work as a lifeguard part time in the summer i like swimming, fishing and playing games sometimes or just hanging out with the boys. Furthermore with math I stand on the borders because I liked it at first but then when i went into statistics i kinda didn’t however up until I am enjoying my learning experience in this class so may I will like math again

  11. Hi i’m Nakiyah , most people call me Kiyah. I’m from Trinidad. I have social anxiety, which leads me to be very shy and quiet around people. My major is undeclared nursing but I do plan on switching it to child psychology because I work with autistic kids. Lastly, my intrest are makeup and fashion.

    During high school I began to realize the difficulty of math. But as time went on my teachers began to realize how well I would excel in class. Ultimately with this realization math simply became my favorite subject.

    1. My major is also undeclared right now but I hope I get into radiology, if not then I might switch to dental lab tech. Like you, I’m also very shy and quiet. During high school, my opinion on math was neutral but as time went by and as I took geometry during my junior year, I started to realize math isn’t for me because I struggled a lot with it and during my senior year I was failing statistics which made math my least favorite subject.

  12. This is Suim Kim and this is the second semester at city tech. I transferred city tech from a university in my hometown, Korea. In the future, I pursue to be an occupational therapist. So, I currently LAS major but I would like to major in Bio soon! Let’s see how my journey goes!
    Speaking of the first topic, I would say Math was the least favorite subject until high school. Studying Math was always stressful. Because I did not understand how to study math, and I understood a single topic without connecting it with others. It was getting harder and harder to study math as the school year goes on, and in the end, I cannot understand anything. Thus, the vicious circle was repeated, the relationship between me and math was awful.
    However, I took 1275 CO class last fall semester for mandatory. Its content was relatively easy so I could feel relaxed. Moreover, the professor from class always mentioned the fundamental concept to make us understand new ideas every week. And I steadily put effort a lot. I finally could see what I was studying. Studying Math and seeing that I earned nice scores never bored me at all. That was a decisive factor that I got to love mat. Now, math is my favorite subject, which even gives me confidence.

  13. Hi, my name is Faiza and I’m 19 years old. This is my fourth semester and I took math 1275 during my first semester, therefore I forgot most of the things that I learned in class. My major is currently undeclared but I’m interested in radiology.
    Math has never been my favorite topic because I’ve always struggled with it. I struggle the most with geometry and statistics. Algebra is ok for me, if it’s broken down into steps.

    1. Feeling ok about algebra is a great help – you will definitely be doing more algebra in this class! I’m a fast talker and I get excited sometimes – if you find I’m moving too fast or not giving enough step-by-step detail, just let me know 🙂

  14. Yes, Math is my favorite subject ever since I was in high school. What made math my favorite subject was that fact that I am able to find a way solution to any problem or being able to break down the problem and find the answer. I never liked word problems in Math because I thought it took the uniqueness away from Math where usually Math is involved with numbers and symbol but when I had to read I found that boring.

  15. Math is my favorite subject because its therapeutic. I wasn’t the greatest at math but i always enjoyed it. Through middle school, math was fairly easy to me and i didn’t put too much thought into it. Going into high school, i realized how hard math could be. But although my grades were average, i enjoyed trying to solve the problem. Math is like a puzzle where the answer is definite. Its absolute, and when i find the answer, the feeling of completing and solving a definite problem feels really good. When i get the answer wrong, i look back to what i did wrong. When i cant find what i did wrong, i redo the problem and end up with the right answer. I’m not the best at math, but trying to solve math problems is calming and therapeutic to me.

  16. For me, math was one of my subjects ever since the 4th grade. What made math my favorite subject was the fact that we are able to come together as a team and solve the problem.

  17. My name is Tim and I’m 19. My major is Computer Information Systems. I like collecting things, most notably Star Wars action figures, which I have on my dresser at home. I’m a generally very active person, I like to walk to most places I go to, so long as it’s within feasible walking range.

    Math was never my favorite subject, and I honestly don’t think it ever will be. My relation with math is rocky at best, and infuriating at worst. The one thing about math I don’t like is that sometimes it requires many complicated steps.

    1. I agree math can be extremely infuriating and frustrating, especially when you can’t see where you went wrong. I’ve had similar issues and the best thing I can say is skip what your doing and go to the next problem. You might realize where you went wrong as you do the other problems.

  18. My name is Marcos and I’m 19. My major is computer science. I like sports and video games, I mainly like swimming and have recently been getting into Tumbling. I’m a huge movie nerd, Avengers Endgame is the best movie. Also I’m a lifeguard so I know basic first aid.

    1. Math has always been my favorite subject and still is. I’m a huge math and science person. Math has always been something that came easy to me, so it made me proud of it and excite to get even better at the subject. What I don’t like about it, its how easy it is to mess up in. Once you made the smallest mistake the entire problem can be mess up and it becomes extremely hard to retrace your steps and find out where you went wrong.

    1. I think we are relate on this point that one little mistake can cause you big time. And it’s also hard to find out what was the mistake and then start the problem from the beginning. Some times it takes you most of the time and you get annoyed, but if you don’t get this right you may don’t get the concept.

  19. Yes, I would say math is my favorite subject. I believe it all started back in 3rd grade when my teacher brought in another teacher and she just made the whole concept of math (multiplication and division at the time) fun. The way she taught to my class made it so interesting and engaging. To sum it all up, I feel like math became my favorite due to how I was taught and who taught me.

  20. My name is Jefry and I’m 19. My major is computer information system, I want to become a game designer, I enjoy playing video games with my friends, I love the piano and listening to music.

    I don’t know if I like math D:, I feel like its interesting and there is so much to learn about but most of the time I feel like it’s boring, So I do enjoy math a lot sometimes but also gets boring.

    For me it’s easier to learn math by putting the steps in words not in numbers, when I see a lot of numbers I get confuse and might forget what I was studying but with words its easier to understand and memorize.

  21. Hello My name is Momna Asif. I am 20 years old. I am from Pakistan. I am shy person, it takes time for me to get involve. If I talk to you in a lower voice , it’s because I can not get in very fast. My major is Computer system. I passed the high school in Pakistan but when I come here the education department asked me to repeat high school here. So I am little behind(May be).
    Math has been my favorite subject since the beginning of the school(grade 1). I like to solve problems on paper when it’s goes on and on but you know how to do it. Math is like , when you understand it you can do rest of it by yourself. One thing I don’t like is , when one little thing can creat a trouble for you, and you have to do it again.
    I hope we will do this together.

    1. Hi Momma, this is Suim!
      Just like you, I finished high school in my home country, South Korea. So I understand how it feels when you have to follow roles that are sometimes detouring. It sounds like it was a bit tough. However, just like you said, we can do this together!! Then we will be just fine. Thank you for sharing your story.

  22. My name is Luis and I’m 18. This is my 2nd semester in city tech. But it’s going to be my last as well since I’m going to transfer to a different school. However my major is Electrical Engineer. One of my hobbies is playing video games with my friends.
    Math has been my favorite class, since probably elementary/middle school. It was the easiest and fastest to understand. I have never liked English, science and math have always been my strong point. Besides I have to like math since engineering is based on heavy math.

Leave a Reply to raoul Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *