[Luc]

True, I wasn't clear I guess, but I was trying to say that not explaining WHY we had to learn something was a general feature of my university education, e.g. group theory in the case of math. They just put us physics students with the math students and we were expected to be motivated by the pure fun of learning math. If I had known how much group theory gets used in physics, I'd have put in more effort.

Same thing with the IEEE standard, it's not hard, but it was presented in a dull way, all theory.

[eru]

Yes, presentation (and motivating the design) is key here. Just learning the IEEE floating point standard in itself is dull. Learning about the standard's history and design trade-offs might enliven the lesson somewhat. Same with group theory.