Meeting India's Top Math Teacher

August 1, 2008, Ahmedabad, India (Professor R A. Rao), Today was a late start day as we had to pack for the overnight train to Jaipur. We will arrive in Jaipur at four in the morning. We went to the Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science center today. It was the nicest science center I have seen in India so far. They work with training teachers how to teach math and science as well as working with students. They even have started working with teachers in rural India. India’s leading mathematician, Professor R. A. Rao, developed the math lab at the center. He is over 90 and still shows up to work in the lab. He stopped by for a visit and talked to us for about 20minutes. We were able to get a group photo. India is taking the work from this math lab and trying to move the math lab ideas out into the rural schools. The lab is all about math manipulatives. They have a website to order math manipulatives and a fraction of the cost in America. I was fascinated with how easy they explain math using their manipulatives. Dr. Rao was an interesting person to talk to as he had much to say about the state of mathematics in India. Off to lunch in the hotel and then to the train.