Barbara and I spent a few hours yesterday evening in Jamaica Plain. First we walked to the Axiom Gallery, which is hosting an intriguing Math and Art exhibit through April 27 right next to the Green Street T station (confusingly… Read More ›
Math
N is a Number
I mentioned two days ago that I was going to watch N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős, a documentary that had been enthusiastically recommended to me by my former student, Kelly Mathislife. She writes that N is… Read More ›
Heroes
As I was reading Paul Graham’s essay, “Some Heroes,” it struck me that I’ve never liked being asked who my heroes are. In his second and fourth paragraphs, Graham reflects on the question itself: I’m not claiming this is a… Read More ›
21
Two and a half years ago I wrote a brief negative review of Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, by Ben Mezrich. I suggested that the account seemed to be… Read More ›
Math is hard, let’s go shopping, says Barbie (and others)
Remember the big kerfuffle in 1992 when Mattel released a Teen Talk Barbie that said “Math is hard, let’s go shopping”? (Actually, if you look it up, you’ll find some references that quote it that way, and others that quote… Read More ›
What's the matter with math today?
What’s the matter with math education today? No, it’s not that kids don’t know the basics, despite what some people say. And it’s not that teachers are teaching “fuzzy math,” despite what some people say. Paul Lockhart has the correct… Read More ›
Countless
I guess Kalmbach didn’t have 100 fingers:
Fractions
That’s fractions, not fractals. (There is, actually, a significant and non-coincidental connection between the words, but that would be something of a digression.) I’m noticing two recent and diametrically opposed views on fractions — views that I want to discuss… Read More ›
Happy Pi Day!
Pi Day at Weston was uneventful, except that one of my students brought in a virtual pie. Actually it was a chocolate cake, but at least it was round. And she had intended to write some of the digits of… Read More ›
Preparing for Pi Day
To get ready for Pi Day, which of course comes the day after tomorrow, you should get yourself a Pi Plate, watch the music video of the first half of Mathematical Pi, and listen to the audio version of the… Read More ›
Maple
Yesterday afternoon we had a half-day workshop on Maple, a computer algebra system. At least that’s how we think of it, but here’s the description on their website: Maple is the leading all purpose mathematics software tool. Maple provides an… Read More ›
The Sixth Annual Fractal Fair
You’re familiar with the fact that high-school students often display their creativity in the fields of art, music, and theatre, and everyone has heard of science fairs, but similar opportunities in mathematics are all too rare. Today we held the… Read More ›
Curriculum B
Every curriculum can be viewed at several different levels of granularity. Let’s look at what’s important when we’re teaching math. At one level the curriculum is obvious: Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, etc. But of course that’s much too broad,… Read More ›
Sex vs. math
The anonymous Minnesota math teacher who blogs under the name “3σ→Left” sarcastically calls it “surprising news,” but how will this news item affect teens who are considering majoring in math? Now we know why so many of those teenagers who… Read More ›
Girls can't do math.
Got your attention, didn’t I? I figured that such an outrageous claim would have that effect, even though there are people who actually believe it, as portrayed satirically in yesterday’s XKCD cartoon: The clueless guy on the left is a… Read More ›
A calculator that promotes understanding
I try not to plug specific products. I especially try not to plug products that I haven’t even seen yet. But… the new calculator from Texax Instruments is clearly not just another calculator. From its specs, the TI-Nspire looks like… Read More ›
Is Prisoner's Dilemma still teachable?
For over three decades I’ve been teaching the Prisoner’s Dilemma. This is a classic problem — perhaps the classic problem — of game theory, the misleadingly named field that lies at the intersection of mathematics and economics (with a dash… Read More ›
When am I ever going to use this stuff?
I know, I’ve written about this topic before, but it bears further consideration. Too often I hear the question, “When will I ever use this stuff?” This is a common question in Weston, and surely elsewhere as well. Sometimes the… Read More ›
The Witch of Agnesi
What math teacher could resist a mystery titled The Witch of Agnesi. Of course if you’re neither a math teacher nor a mathematician, you’re probably scratching your head right now, wondering, “What is he talking about?” Well, the Witch of… Read More ›
Adults and math: Who needs a formula?
OK, this is just one example. It’s purely anecdotal evidence, and therefore it doesn’t prove anything. But it’s still indicative of a problem with adult attitudes toward math. A bit of background first: if you don’t have the good fortune… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 