[onewhippedpuppy]

Sounds like an excellent teacher, kudos to them. Simply regurgitating formulas and solving equations are the easy way out. Really teaching the topic so that students UNDERSTAND the material is what it's all about. Without real-world application, most math and science is simply mental masturbation.

Working in aerospace, I see a staggering number of new college engineering grads that have no practical knowledge of airplanes, systems, or frankly anything they studied in college. They can do the math, but apply it to something real and everything breaks down. I had a huge advantage simply because of my past mechanic and DIY experience, many of these kids have never gotten their hands dirty. Frankly I see this as an outright failure of our colleges because they are not adequately preparing students for the real world, instead they are preparing them for more theoretical work in grad school. Unfortunately many professors have no real world experience, therefore they lack the practical experience to teach it.