Mathematics… My First Love!

Well, other than Pam Grier, that is!!! (For us Black men over a certain age… :v) )

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always loved math! I was very fortunate and blessed that math came very easy to me without much effort. It just made sense to me! But rather than get lazy and not try, and because I enjoyed math so much, I was propelled early on to learn as much as I could, often solving extra arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and pre-calculus homework problems on my own.

Having completed A.P. Math (Calculus) in 12th grade and receiving college credit, I recall feeling supremely confident that there wasn’t a single problem inside the infamous George B. Thomas, Jr., Calculus and Analytic Geometry textbook that I could not solve! And scoring 780 (out of 800) on the SAT Math section, as well as the inherent objectivity (vs. subjectivity) of course grading, certainly contributed to my ongoing love affair… :v)

As a young child, I liked to play with erector sets, tinkle with telephones (e.g., listen in on my big sisters’ telephone calls), take things apart (e.g., disassemble an upright piano!), make paper airplanes, obsess about Sears’ Craftsman tool sets, AND always got straight A’s in ‘Arithmetic’.

Unbeknownst to me, while building a small car with my erector set, using an electric motor rubber-banded to the rear wheels using a pulley, I stumbled upon the physics-based concepts of friction and normal force.  I became dumbfounded as to why the wheels turned freely while I held the car in my hand, yet the car wouldn’t move an inch once I placed it on the floor.  Hmmmm… that’s rather peculiar!!!

Also, while playing with a gyroscope, I found it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to tilt the axis while the wheel spun.  Perhaps, this was why slow-moving, low-altitude, heavy aircraft on final approach to an airport don’t just fall out of the sky…

And while making (“designing”) and tossing (“test flights”) paper airplanes, all the while performing trial & error with wing design and flaps, I stumbled upon the aerodynamic-based concepts of thrust, drag, lift, and gravity.

Additionally, while playing with my Aurora “H-O” racing car track (small tracks), I unknowingly became enamored with momentum, as well as centrifugal force as the speedy race cars negotiated banked/slanted curves, and centripetal force as the cars successfully completed the ‘loop-the-loop’ track.

And finally, as a kid, my interest in the physics-based concept of energy transfer, nonetheless, was piqued by seeing the hanging marbles demonstration (“Newtons’s Cradle”), where the middle marble stayed motionless while two marbles on each side swung back & forth.  Very interesting, indeed!

Throughout high school and college, not only did I enjoy memorizing math formulas, as required, but I was always interested in deriving these formulas from scratch, as well as mastering concepts backward & forward (e.g., quadratic formula, accrued interest, geometric proofs, trigonometric identities, related rates, rotating volumes, differentials, integrals, infinite series, probability & statistics, “word problems”, etc.), and developing algorithms for problem solving.

In fact, at my 1974 graduation from an all-boys college prep (aka ‘all white-boy’) high school, I garnered the “Mathematics Excellence Award” for highest achievement among 129 graduates.

Even while matriculating through undergraduate and graduate schools, I always took the opportunity to select challenging math-related and quantitative courses as electives.  To me, I considered most of these, as well as required engineering and finance courses, as nothing but “math” courses in disguise.

Other examples of my lifelong love of math, as well as wonderful teaching experiences, include:

  • After relocating to Baltimore for my first job out of college in January 1981, I initiated a G.E.D. program at my new home church, St. Veronica’s, that spring. One of the students, a very good friend of mine to this day, eventually attained her G.E.D.!  Her granddaughter is currently a second-year law school student.

  • After relocating to South Jersey in November 1987 to work at the FAA Technical Center, I taught at both Stockton State College and Atlantic County Community College as an Adjunct Faculty Member (1988-1992), teaching the following courses: College Algebra, Algebraic Problem Solving (Probability & Statistics), Quantitative Reasoning (Logic), Calculus I, Calculus II (scheduled), and Physics Labs. During that period, on a short commuter flight aboard a small noisy, rickety prop plane from Atlantic City to Newark, the pilot just happened to be a former student.  We both recognized each other and exchanged pleasantries as I boarded the aircraft.  I spent the entire flight with my fingers crossed, praying to the high heavens that I’d given him a passing grade. :v(

  • As a retiree, during the 2014-15 school year, I was a substitute math teacher at all 12 local county high schools, teaching the following courses: Algebra 1, Algebra 2, FOCA (Foundations of College Algebra), College Algebra, Geometry, Integrated Math, Statistics, Pre-Calculus, Calculus A/B, and Calculus B/C.  I logged in a total of 312 class sessions over 116 school days! As I entered the classrooms fully attired in a suit, tie, white shirt, and dress shoes, my students quickly learned that I was a rare “teaching sub”, aiming to make math interesting, challenging, and fun.  And on more than a few occasions, once the bell rang at the end of the period, students inquired, “Mr. Cobb, can you be our full-time math instructor?”

For me, tutoring and teaching came natural.  Perhaps because I come from a family of teachers and educators: mother, uncle (Tuskegee Airman), grandmother, and two sisters.  And another uncle who was an engineer and ‘rocket scientist’ years before his time! 

Even today, 49 years after tutoring upperclassmen at U-M as a freshman, I continue to try to spread the love (of math!!!) through free tutoring, and stand ready to teach high school or college Calculus II at a “Moment’s Notice” (Jazz reference)… :v)

Below, especially for fellow “math lovers”, I happily share a list of completed math and quantitative courses, as well as course descriptions: