Dr. Michael Starbird, University of Texas at Austin, University Distinguished Teaching Professor of Mathematics

Title: “Effective Thinking Through Mathematics and Science”

Abstract: A wondrously romantic belief is that brilliant thinkers magically produce brilliant ideas: an apple knocks out Newton and calculus appears in a fevered dream. We can enjoy fanciful fables of leaps of genius, but we should not be fooled into believing that those fables are fact. Brilliant innovators are brilliant because they practice habits of effective thinking that inevitably carry them step by step to works of genius. No magic and no leaps are involved. Techniques of effective thinking and creativity can be taught, learned, and mastered; and mathematics and science provide wonderful vehicles to convey life-changing habits of mind. 

View the seminar recording.

The STEM Education Seminar & Journal Club Series is sponsored by the Helmsley Charitable Trust.