"Conceptual understanding refers to an integrated and functional grasp of mathematical ideas. Students with conceptual understanding know more than isolated facts and methods. They understand why a mathematical idea is important and the kinds of contexts in which it is useful. They have organized their knowledge into a coherent whole, which enables them to learn new ideas by connecting those ideas to what they already know. Conceptual understanding also supports retention. Because facts and methods learned with understanding are connected, they are easier to remember and use, and they can be reconstructed when forgotten." (pp. 118-119, Adding it Up) What is conceptual learning? Though the ab

“A voyage to Europe in the summer of 1921 gave me the first opportunity of observing the wonderful blue opalescence of the Mediterranean Sea.”- Prof. C V Raman, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1930 (the first non-white, Indian or Asian to receive a Nobel Prize in any branch of Science) This story begins with a voyage undertaken by C V Raman to the UK in the summer of 1921. Observing the Mediterranean while on board the ship, Raman wondered why the sea was so blue. The initial answer seemed to be that it was due to the scattering of light by water molecules, same as the explanation provided by Lord Rayleigh for why the sky is blue. To test this explanation, Raman started experiments with his scient