2013 Number 1  | < Back to Contents 

Jake Scott aka Mr 2 Pi: Rapping math into the hearts
and minds of students

By Josephine Reed

Jake Scott. Photo by Astrid Riecken

Jake Scott working with a group of students in his 4th period Algebra class at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland. Photo by Astrid Riecken

Jake Scott working with a group of students in his 4th period Algebra class at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland. Photo by Astrid Riecken

Jake Scott working with a group of students in his 4th period Algebra class at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland. Photo by Astrid Riecken

Jake Scott working with a group of students in his 4th period Algebra class at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland. Photo by Astrid Riecken

Jake Scott working with a group of students in his 4th period Algebra class at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland. Photo by Astrid Riecken

Jake Scott working with a group of students in his 4th period Algebra class at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland. Photo by Astrid Riecken

    [7:17]  [Transcript]
 
:: Jake Scott loves mathematics. He sees the subject as a "beautiful sport." So, as a math teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, he was discouraged by his students' aversion to math. He couldn't get them to see the elegance of equations and formulas...until he began to rap them. He created the persona "Mr. 2 Pi" who would rap the formulas for quadratic equations, undefined expressions, graphing trig functions, and other math principles. While the raps piqued his students' interest in math, Scott realized they also needed visual clues to truly understand the materials. So he began to make rap videos, and soon involved his students in their creation and performance. The result? Students loved the approach so much, they volunteered for summer

math classes. Scott left teaching this past spring to devote more time to his educational rap videos, which he hopes will reach students far beyond his own classroom. 

Excerpts from the videos Quadratic Formulatic, Graphing Trig Functions, and Undefined Expressions, courtesy of Jake Scott.