Dan Strelnick and John Nash

My name is Dan Strelnick.  I’m 29 years old and was born in Madison.  I was a math/physics double major at Beloit College.  My final year I got to study in the Budapest Semester in Mathematics program in Hungary.  I’ve loved math since I was little and am still in awe of how it combines of rigor and beauty. 

These things inspired me to go to Grad School, however, I ended up leaving.  I wanted to do something that directly helped people and doing theoretical mathematics started seeming like a game. The desire to help people led me to teaching. 

I taught full-time for one year until my emergency licensure wore out.  Since then I have worked as a paraprofessional for MPS.  I have gotten to work with some amazing teachers and I know that I’ve learned a lot just by watching them.  I think that is the fastest way to learn, to watch the best. You pick up the intangible things they do.  I like teaching very much, it is a lot like a performance.  I like showing students the beauty of math, I like making fun of students, and I like teaching students to think, which to me, is the essence of math.

My blog will be about game theory, how I can teach it to students, and it will be about famous Mathematician and Game Theorist named John Nash.  John is a Nobel Laureate and famous for his contributions to Game Theory.  His ideas have been used in economics, political science, the military, and any type of negotiations.  He has also had a movie made about him,  “A Beautiful Mind”.  I’m going to talk about his life, his contributions to mathematics, and the mental illness he eventually developed.

I chose game theory because it's a fascinating topic and I chose Nash because he has a very interesting story.  Game theory also lends itself to lots of hands on activities and games so I am excited about teaching it to students. I am also interested in looking at the mental illness aspect of his life, as this seems to be a theme among some of the most brilliant people.