Bridging: facts to curiosity

One of the students asked about the historical value of matrices. Knowing that it would have completely derailed the current conversation, I asked him if I could come back to his question. It is important to embrace and answer those intellectual sidebar questions. The class had previously done research centered on the history of math. I encourage them to not think of the concepts existing in a vacuum but having connections to other events and people throughout time. The example may have not been the best one but it showed a connection to the subunit studied, linear systems.