Recent Posts - page 72

  • PhDeath: The Puzzler Murders

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    How could I resist? Word puzzles, a murder at NYU, some math, a dash of ancient Greek, political intrigue, faculty politics, philosophy, social commentary, and even Will Shortz… obviously irresistible. So I didn’t resist it. The result of all these… Read More ›

  • Peer tutoring

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    Who likes peer tutoring? Google “peer tutoring” and you’ll see dozens of upbeat images like this one. The Math Curmudgeon, who usually hits the nail on the head, certainly hits the nail on the head in the opening to his… Read More ›

  • Mansplaining

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    I have to share this cartoon (by Arnold Zwicky), but I’m not going to explain it:

  • 3D pens?

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    Who’d a thunk it? Is there really such a thing as a 3D pen? Can you really write in the air? It all sounds very science-fictional. But 40 years ago 3D printers seemed science-fictional, and yet they were invented soon… Read More ›

  • Whence significant figures?

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    Significant digits can arise out of less significant data, right? For instance, you probably learned in ninth-grade science that a number rounded to one significant figure can be magically turned into one with three significant figures simply by changing measurement… Read More ›

  • Chinatown or Mission Hill?

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    Every year, the rising high-school sophomores at the Crimson Summer Academy take a field trip to a Boston neighborhood as part of their Quantitative Reasoning class. “What,” you may ask, “does a field trip to a neighborhood have to do… Read More ›

  • Kids today

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    “What’s the matter with kids today? Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way?” OK, that’s satire. But I’ve heard plenty of teachers say, in all seriousness, “Why don’t students read instructions anymore?” Or, in a tone… Read More ›

  • East Side Story

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    An oxymoron? East Side Story is a fascinating 1997 documentary about musical comedy from the Soviet bloc from the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s! OK, it does sound like an oxymoron. But it turns out that it isn’t. This German documentary starts… Read More ›

  • The wrong way to order steak

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    “Properly” is the answer my friend Meredith always gives when a server asks “How would you like your steak cooked?” Or your pork. Or your salmon. Steak is supposed to be rare. Pork and salmon are supposed to be medium-rare…. Read More ›

  • 4 3 2 1

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    As soon as I first heard about it, I knew that I had to read Paul Auster’s apparently semi-autobiographical novel 4 3 2 1: not only did the author grow up as a secular Jew from suburban Essex County, New Jersey,… Read More ›

  • June Academy: Create Your Own Country

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    For the second week of June Academy, my colleague Mary Fierabend and I co-taught a course called Create Your Own Country. Mostly working in pairs, students imagined and created their own countries, emphasizing one or more themes: maps political structure/government… Read More ›

  • June Academy: Egyptian Hieroglyphics

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    For the first week of June Academy, I taught a 15-hour course on Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Many students produced spectacular results, as you can gather from this poster showing their name cards (explanation to follow): The student work is visually beautiful, much of… Read More ›

  • June Academy

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    Usually a school year ends with final exams — at Weston and elsewhere. As we know, final exams are designed to reduce stress and pressure by providing a relaxing time when classroom temperatures are over 90°. Right? No? You say… Read More ›

  • Cinquecento

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    You were probably thinking of 16th-Century Italy when you heard the word Cinquecento, right? That was my first thought too. Italy, yes, but in this context it’s an Italian restaurant in the South End of Boston, appropriately labeled an “authentic… Read More ›

  • William makes it clear.

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    William makes it clear whose iPad this is.

  • The long hiatus is over.

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    Resuming my blog after a hiatus of too many months — eight, in fact! — so, stay tuned!

  • Dare Me and Exit, Pursued by a Bear

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    “Exit, Pursued by a Bear.” Hmmm… where have I heard that before? It sounded like a Shakespearean stage direction, and it seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it… so of course I looked it up. I’ll save you the trouble: it’s… Read More ›

  • Bullying Three Ways

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    I originally started drafting this post well before last night’s presidential debate and the follow-up by Van Jones, but these events have slightly rearranged what I need to say. This thread actually started on September 27 with four talks (to different… Read More ›

  • Too Like the Lightning

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    It’s definitely necessary to avoid spoilers on this one. Ada Palmer’s dark novel, Too Like the Lightning, is partly fantasy, mostly science fiction, and completely fascinating. Oh, did I mention philosophy? It’s clearly a work of philosophy as well. And sociology/anthropology. And a… Read More ›

  • For the win!

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    What a great start for the Weston High School Math Team! In our first Massachusetts Math League meet of the year, our goal was a simple one: to beat Canton. Simple, but definitely not easy, as it almost never happens. And beat Canton… Read More ›