Mathematical Modeling of Finances – Dr. Leah Shilling-Stouffer
My most memorable day of this class was the first day of class in which Dr. Shilling-Stouffer (or Dr. S^2 as she would refer to herself as) wore a dress that almost resembled a graph, which she told us was on purpose to get us super excited for graphing and math.
I wasn’t sure what to expect of this class, as I didn’t realize this class had any Algebra in it. It wasn’t bad, it was just a surprise to me because I wasn’t exactly sure what “financial math” entailed besides taxes or something like that.
Dr. Shilling-Stouffer has such a passion and excitement for math, and her attitude almost reminded me of an elementary school teacher. It’s definitely not a bad thing, it shows she has an enthusiasm for the topic, which I can only hope to have as much excitement and enthusiasm for whatever I teach like she does for math. Her passion made the class more enjoyable and helped me understand it more because it made her so excited that she wanted to share it with us all.
The algebra part was easy for me to understand and work with, although I struggled with the financial application of it. Word problems can trip me up sometimes, but I was able to understand almost everything she threw at our class!
The work for the class composed of weekly homework assignments, quizzes every now and then, and two written projects in which we had to analyze depreciation and value of a car, as well as amortization. Amortization was one topic I definitely didn’t understand, and I had to have my mother, who is a professional accountant, help me with the math for the problems. Although I normally went to her for anything in this class because I got confused with a few things, but she was able to keep me on track with the things I didn’t understand.
I enjoyed the first written project we had, as it related to something I’m going to need to know for the future. My parents owned a mechanic shop, and they were careful buying cars for my older brother and I because they understood the fuel costs and quick depreciation values of cars due to heavy mileage and wear and tear. I had my parents help me with some calculations, but I was able to understand all the calculations and best price and times to buy a car for a good value and condition.