math Are We Underestimating the Math Powers of Our Youngest Students? New research questions if US math scores would improve if students were exposed to more complicated math early in their school lives. Continue Reading Could Calculus Be A Better Way to Introduce Kids to Math Than Arithmetic? Some educators are beginning to question the assumption that math is best taught in a linear sequence, focusing on patterns and structures instead of computations with elementary students. Continue Reading Math and Inquiry: The Importance of Letting Students Stumble For subjects like math and foreign language, which are traditionally taught in a linear and highly structured context, using more open-ended inquiry-based models can be challenging. Continue Reading Inquiry Learning Ideas for Math and Science With iPads Giving children ample opportunities to develop sound investigative skills at an early age is essential to nurturing their ability to think critically and scientifically as they get older.
Coping With Math Anxiety -- Platonic Realms MiniText What Is Math Anxiety? A famous stage actress was once asked if she had ever suffered from stage-fright, and if so how she had gotten over it. She laughed at the interviewer’s naive assumption that, since she was an accomplished actress now, she must not feel that kind of anxiety. She assured him that she had always had stage fright, and that she had never gotten over it. Instead, she had learned to walk on stage and perform—in spite of it. Like stage fright, math anxiety can be a disabling condition, causing humiliation, resentment, and even panic. When I look at a math problem, my mind goes completely blank. What all of these students are expressing is math anxiety, a feeling of intense frustration or helplessness about one’s ability to do math. In this essay we will take a constructive look at math anxiety, its causes, its effects, and at how you as a student can learn to manage this anxiety so that it no longer hinders your study of mathematics. Contributors Citation Info
healthateverysizeblog | Keith Devlin by Jon Robison, PhD, MS The BMI is a measure of height and weight – specifically weight divided by height squared. It is the predominate measure by which health professionals and governments determine what is and is not a “healthy weight” for a particular individual, thereby informing them if they are “at risk” for morbidity and premature mortality. In reality, however, BMI is not only not a good measure of health, it is actually not a measure of health at all. The formula itself was created around 1850 by the brilliant Belgian mathematician, astronomer and statistician Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet – and appropriately named The Quetelet Index. The Quetelet Index remained as such until 1972 when Dr. So the formula is being used for something for which it was never intended and in a manner that is mathematically indefensible. Statistician Dr. But wait, there is more! So, there we have it. Come on health professionals – Now it’s our turn! Like this: Like Loading...
No homework in Finland. See this hat? Tis' my cat. SCORE 135 the creation of the internet SCORE 148 I'm not even mad... "exotic" SCORE 200 A reader lives a thousand lives... Hey dude can you pass me a beer? I hope she said "yes"... Love at first fight. 2769: Math Wars Today, math wars. The University of Houston’s College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. The right way to teach math has been contentious for over one-hundred years. From the anti-math movement of the early twentieth century to the overly abstract new math of the sixties and seventies, educators haven’t been shy about speaking up. Of course, the report didn’t bring the debate to a grinding halt.
Understanding Mathematics Peter Alfeld, --- Department of Mathematics, --- College of Science --- University of Utah a study guide by Peter Alfeld. I wrote this page for students at the University of Utah. You may find it useful whoever you are, and you are welcome to use it, but I'm going to assume that you are such a student (probably an undergraduate), and I'll sometimes pretend I'm talking to you while you are taking a class from me. Let's start by me asking you some questions. Do you feel That being lost in mathematics is the natural state of things? If your answer to all of these questions is a resounding "No!" The purpose of this page is to help you learn how to approach mathematics in a more effective way. Understanding Mathematics You understand a piece of mathematics if you can do all of the following: Explain mathematical concepts and facts in terms of simpler concepts and facts. By contrast, understanding mathematics does not mean to memorize Recipes, Formulas, Definitions, or Theorems.
If students designed their own school… it would look like this Student Peter Boyce(By Charles Tsai) “It’s crazy that in a system that is meant to teach and help the youth there is no voice from the youth at all.” That’s the opening line in a video called “If students designed their own schools,” about The Independent Project, a high school semester designed and implemented entirely by students. What did it look like? The Independent Project started in 2011 at Monument Mountain Regional High School, a public school in Massachusetts, after a student named Sam Levin advanced an idea about students creating their own learning environment in order to find the engagement and mastery he felt were lacking in many teacher-designed classes. In this model, teachers serve as mentors and coaches, not as direct instructors, while students pose questions and find ways to answer them. After the first semester, an evaluation was undertaken and changes were made to the model. Here’s Tsai’s video:
Real World Math (Dan Meyer and stuff) | Lost In Recursion I spent a really invigorating and exciting day at EdcampNYC on Saturday, surrounded by passionate, motivated, active educators. I just want to thank everyone who came, especially the attendees at my session, Student Choice in the Classroom. The sessions were posted by people who could facilitate, but not necessarily in response to attendee interest, and some were left underwhelmed by the offerings. If I were designing EdcampBK, for instance, I would include a way for session requests – probably a quick and dirty version of class planning at PSCS. I just wanted to grab these underwhelmed adults and say, “see how boring stuff is when it isn’t what you want? That’s how our students feel everyday!” At the end of our student choice session, I had a conversation with a teacher about her daughter, who was very interested in becoming a math teacher. Math is so COOL! First of all, if she just wants the money, I get it. They’ve got that right! Here’s a better vision of real world math. Like this:
Business Calculus spring 2009 course descriptionspring 2009 syllabusinstructions for the TI-83/84course reviewstudy tips Calculus is usually a major change for math students. This is appropriate, because calculus is the study of change: slope, velocity, growth rate, and other ways that we describe how one quantity changes with respect to another. Calculus is also perceived as difficult, and historically for the scientific community it was. Many people contributed to the development of calculus, including (in chronological order), Archimedes (287? There are two main branches: the differential calculus and the integral calculus. Calculus is united by a concept as well as a theorem. The function concept is also central to calculus: functions relate the various quantities that change. Descriptively, a function is defined by words: Analytically, a function is a rule that relates the variables: D = (½)(32)t2 Numerically, a function is a collection of paired numbers.
How Math Got Its Groove Back 49913Dance by NumbersCarrie Lewis, a STEM specialist in Lynchburg, Virginia, explains the lesson plan that she and fellow teacher Kelly Steele devised to teach their fifth grade students number patterns. 2013-01-16 13:35:00disabledssmB_MtgJ_kfalse This is an edited version of a video produced by Jill Granger. To view the original video, click here. Carrie Lewis and Kelly Steele’s fifth grade students slide and spin across the classroom floor, doing the hustle, the robot and the running man. While it may look at first glance like goofing off, these students are actually dancing for a higher cause…math. Lewis, a STEM specialist for Virginia’s Lynchburg city schools, and Steele, who teaches gifted education in Bedford county, Virginia, are both math enthusiasts eager to instill in their students a love of the subject. “Dances are patterns,” Lewis said. Identifying a Pattern: The first step was to turn a dance routine into a number pattern. Making Their Own Moves: Analyzing the Dance:
What changed my teaching by David Wees Adam Holman asks a really important question: What have you found to be the catalyst that helped either change your mindset/practice or helped change a ‘traditional’ teacher into one that cultivates relationships and student choice? When I first started teaching, I talked too much. I really did. I spent too much time trying to clarify every permutation that could possibly come up, and not enough time letting students think about those permutations themselves. However, over time, I experimented with different approaches. During the time I have been a teacher, I have noticed these (and other) things: The less I talk, the more time students have to grapple with mathematical ideas. However, I would not have noticed these things if I did not take the time to reflect on my practice and look for evidence of what worked for my students, and what did not. My advice therefore to Adam is that he try and have teachers start on a road of reflection and inquiry into their own practices.