RSS

robertogreco + mathematics   87

Kill Math
"The power to understand and predict the quantities of the world should not be restricted to those with a freakish knack for manipulating abstract symbols.

When most people speak of Math, what they have in mind is more its mechanism than its essence. This "Math" consists of assigning meaning to a set of symbols, blindly shuffling around these symbols according to arcane rules, and then interpreting a meaning from the shuffled result. The process is not unlike casting lots."

This mechanism of math evolved for a reason: it was the most efficient means of modeling quantitative systems given the constraints of pencil and paper. Unfortunately, most people are not comfortable with bundling up meaning into abstract symbols and making them dance. Thus, the power of math beyond arithmetic is generally reserved for a clergy of scientists and engineers (many of whom struggle with symbolic abstractions more than they'll actually admit).

We are no longer constrained by pencil and paper…"
paullockhart  teaching  killmath  via:derrickschultz  bretvictor  design  programming  learning  education  mathematics  math  visualization  philosophy  physics  from delicious
february 2012 by robertogreco
How to Fix Our Math Education - NYTimes.com
"Imagine replacing the sequence of algebra, geometry and calculus with a sequence of finance, data and basic engineering. In the finance course, students would learn the exponential function, use formulas in spreadsheets and study the budgets of people, companies and governments. In the data course, students would gather their own data sets and learn how, in fields as diverse as sports and medicine, larger samples give better estimates of averages. In the basic engineering course, students would learn the workings of engines, sound waves, TV signals and computers. Science and math were originally discovered together, and they are best learned together now."
education  math  mathematics  curriculum  solgarfunkel  davidmumford  2011  learning  problemsolving  realworldproblems  statistics  finance  science  engineering  from delicious
august 2011 by robertogreco
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, condemns British education system | Technology | The Guardian
""Over the past century, the UK has stopped nurturing its polymaths. You need to bring art and science back together."…<br />
<br />
"It was a time when the same people wrote poetry and built bridges," he said. "Lewis Carroll didn't just write one of the classic fairytales of all time. He was also a mathematics tutor at Oxford. James Clerk Maxwell was described by Einstein as among the best physicists since Newton – but was also a published poet."<br />
<br />
Schmidt's comments echoed sentiments expressed by Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, who revealed this week that he was stepping down. "The Macintosh turned out so well because the people working on it were musicians, artists, poets and historians – who also happened to be excellent computer scientists," Jobs once told the New York Times."
ericschmidt  stevejobs  technology  science  polymaths  generalists  well-rounded  education  art  uk  2011  math  mathematics  teaching  learning  creativity  innovation  lewiscarroll  jamesclerkmaxwell  alberteinstein  isaacnewton  apple  poets  historians  newliberalarts  liberalarts  digitalhumanities  computers  computerscience  compsci  from delicious
august 2011 by robertogreco
Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world | Video on TED.com
"Kevin Slavin argues that we're living in a world designed for -- and increasingly controlled by -- algorithms. In this riveting talk from TEDGlobal, he shows how these complex computer programs determine: espionage tactics, stock prices, movie scripts, and architecture. And he warns that we are writing code we can't understand, with implications we can't control."
kevinslavin  algorithms  complexity  coding  ted  data  finance  art  architecture  math  mathematics  control  2011  netflix  markets  bots  from delicious
july 2011 by robertogreco
Social contagions debunked: Reports of infectious obesity and divorce were grossly overstated. - By Dave Johns - Slate Magazine [Previously: http://www.slate.com/id/2250102/pagenum/all/ ]
"But just because contagion is important in one context doesn't mean something like obesity spreads like a virus—much less one that can infect someone as remote from you as your son's best friend's mother. (For the record, I & my best friend's mother will eat our hats if it turns out to be true, as Christakis & Fowler claim, that loneliness is infectious, too.) Yes, we influence each other all the time, in how we talk & how we dress & what kinds of screwball videos we watch on the Internet. But careful studies of our social networks reveal what may be a more powerful & pervasive effect: We tend to form ties w/ the people who are most like us to begin with. The mother who blames her son's boozebag friends for his wild behavior must face up to the fact that he prefers the fast crowd in the first place. We are all connected, yes, but the way those links get made could be the most important part of the story." [via: http://mindhacks.com/2011/07/05/doubts-about-social-contagion/ ]
contagion  socialcontagion  jamesfowler  nicholaschristakis  rosemcdermott  statistics  mathematics  research  publishing  socialscience  socialnetworking  socialnetworks  evidence  sciencejournalism  journalism  politics  policy  science  peerreview  media  2011  obesity  behavior  divorce  davejohns  from delicious
july 2011 by robertogreco
Real-World Math - storify.com
"Hey, kids! Ever wonder how math is done in the real world? This is the way math is done in the real world."<br />
<br />
Storify that I put together to document a conversation on Twitter about a specific math problems that Diana Kimball asked for help with.
math  mathematics  realworld  cv  storytelling  storify  collaboration  twitter  2011  timcarmody  robinsloan  dianakimball  games  boardgames  problemsolving  statistics  probability  conversation  from delicious
july 2011 by robertogreco
Buckminster Fuller - Wikipedia
"He attended Froebelian Kindergarten. Spending much of his youth on Bear Island, in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine, he had trouble with geometry, being unable to understand the abstraction necessary to imagine that a chalk dot on the blackboard represented a mathematical point, or that an imperfectly drawn line with an arrow on the end was meant to stretch off to infinity. He often made items from materials he brought home from the woods, and sometimes made his own tools. He experimented with designing a new apparatus for human propulsion of small boats.<br />
<br />
Years later, he decided that this sort of experience had provided him with not only an interest in design, but also a habit of being familiar with and knowledgeable about the materials that his later projects would require. Fuller earned a machinist's certification, and knew how to use the press brake, stretch press, and other tools and equipment used in the sheet metal trade."
design  technology  art  architecture  future  buckminsterfuller  childhood  froebel  kindergarten  learning  materials  systemsthinking  biography  maine  bearisland  penobscotbay  geometry  math  mathematics  toolmaking  designthinking  from delicious
june 2011 by robertogreco
Maths and Science blog- matthen
"I post original stuff about maths, space, computational linguistics and other things that I like. This blog is meant to be accessible and interesting to people of all backgrounds. My undergrad was maths in Cambridge, and I'm now starting research in Speech and Language technology."
matthen  blogs  tumblr  math  science  mathematics  space  computationallinguistics  computing  from delicious
june 2011 by robertogreco
How I Failed, Failed, and Finally Succeeded at Learning How to Code - Technology - The Atlantic
"Kids are naturally curious. They love blank slates: a sandbox, a bag of LEGOs. Once you show them a little of what the machine can do they'll clamor for more. They'll want to know how to make that circle a little smaller or how to make that song go a little faster. They'll imagine a game in their head and then relentlessly fight to build it.
Along the way, of course, they'll start to pick up all the concepts you wanted to teach them in the first place. And those concepts will stick because they learned them not in a vacuum, but in the service of a problem they were itching to solve.

Project Euler, named for the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, is popular (more than 150,000 users have submitted 2,630,835 solutions) precisely because Colin Hughes…crafted problems that lots of people get the itch to solve. And it's an effective teacher because those problems are arranged like the programs in the ORIC-1's manual, in what Hughes calls an "inductive chain":"
education  learning  teaching  history  howto  coding  programming  curiosity  sandboxes  lego  blankslates  projecteuler  problemsolving  math  mathematics  themathematician'slament  paullockhart  curriculum  collegeboard  testing  rote  rotelearning  criticalthinking  jamessomers  colinhughes  basic  games  gaming  play  tcsnmy  unschooling  deschooling  pedagogy 
june 2011 by robertogreco
Why Cities Keep Growing, Corporations And People Always Die, And Life Gets Faster | Conversation | Edge
"The question is, as a scientist, can we take these ideas and do what we did in biology, at least based on networks and other ideas, and put this into a quantitative, mathematizable, predictive theory, so that we can understand the birth and death of companies, how that stimulates the economy?"
culture  science  economics  psychology  cities  growth  corporations  2011  mathematics  predictablity  from delicious
may 2011 by robertogreco
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Cradles of Eminence?
"If you really learn more about the childhoods of men and women who would late  become eminent, the common factors were more that they were allowed to do what they wanted to do and immerse themselves in whatever interesting subject or idea struck them at the time. It looks very different from this scheduled routine of Junior Kumon, karate classes, and after preschool tutoring all before the age of 7. "
learning  motivation  eminence  flowtheory  neurolearning  deirdrelovecky  education  unschooling  deschooling  tcsnmy  lcproject  freedom  independence  freetime  self-directedlearning  interestdriven  kumon  testing  testprep  math  mathematics  rote  rotelearning  non-traditional  alternative  experience  parenting  generalists  2011  from delicious
may 2011 by robertogreco
JUMP Math
"JUMP Math is a numeracy program started in 1998 by mathematician, author and award-winning playwright John Mighton. We are a federally registered charitable organization based in Toronto, Canada. <br />
JUMP Math believes that all children can be led to think mathematically, and that with even a modest amount of attention every child will flourish. By demonstrating that even children who are failing math or who are labeled as slow learners can excel at math, we hope to dispel the myths that currently prevail. We offer educators and parents complete and balanced materials as well as training to help them reach all students."
math  education  teaching  resources  curriculum  jump  jumpmath  johnmighton  schools  mathematics  from delicious
april 2011 by robertogreco
Khan Academy and the mythical math cure « Generation YES Blog
"There is no doubt that Khan Academy fills a perceived need that something needs to be fixed about math instruction. But at some point, when you talk about learning math, you have to define your terms. If you are a strict instructionist – you are going to love Khan Academy. If you are a constructivist, you are going to find fault with a solution that is all about instruction. So any discussion of Khan Academy in the classroom has to start with the question, how do YOU believe people learn?<br />
<br />
I have more to say about Khan Academy and math education in the US — this post turned into 4 parts!<br />
<br />
Part 1 – Khan Academy and the mythical math cure (this post)<br />
Part 2 – Khan Academy – algorithms and autonomy<br />
Part 3 – Don’t we need balance? and other questions<br />
Part 4 – Monday… Someday"
math  learning  khanacademy  education  constructivism  instruction  memorization  algorithms  schools  teaching  sylviamartinez  2011  instructionism  mathematics  tcsnmy  from delicious
april 2011 by robertogreco
Journal, Day Five — The Square Root of Negative One : Richard Siken : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
"Can you do that? Can you just plug in some made up thing and end up with solutions? Can you simply draw some imaginary lines and end up with a better map? You don’t expect to be acclaimed as a great scientist until you discover something, something big and useful, but shouldn’t this something have to be real? Let’s jump ahead 125 years. It’s 1922 and Ludwig Wittgenstein has just published his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus which insists, among other things, that the limits of my language mean the limits of my world. Or, put another way: how you say it is how you think it. And, more dramatically: if you can’t say it, you can’t think it. And, if you can’t think it, how can you solve it?" [via: http://jslr.tumblr.com/post/4061339301/can-you-do-that-can-you-just-plug-in-some-made-up ]
richardsiken  math  mathematics  wittgenstein  thinking  philosophy  language  expression  communication  tractatuslogico-philosophicus  imagination  literature  poetry  from delicious
march 2011 by robertogreco
The Way You Learned Math Is So Old School : NPR
"there's a reason elementary schools are teaching arithmetic in a new way.<br />
<br />
"…largely to reflect the different needs of society. No one ever in their real life anymore needs to — & in most cases never does — do the calculations themselves."<br />
<br />
Computers do arithmetic for us…but making computers do the things we want them to do requires algebraic thinking. For instance, take a computer spreadsheet. The computer does all the calculations for you automatically. But you have to write the macros that tell it what calculations to do —& that is algebraic thinking.<br />
<br />
"You cannot become good at algebra w/out a mastery of arithmetic, but arithmetic itself is no longer the ultimate goal." Thus the emphasis in teaching mathematics today is on getting people to be sophisticated, algebraic thinkers.<br />
<br />
That doesn't mean that kids can skip learning their multiplications tables. "But the way it's taught now is you get to multiplication tables by understanding number system & what numbers mean"
education  math  teaching  learning  algebra  algebraicthinking  criticalthinking  mathematics  change  algorithms  parenting  tcsnmy  deschooling  from delicious
march 2011 by robertogreco
The Top 10 iPod Touch Apps for Math Teachers: Free iPod Touch Apps and Games
"Finding free iPod Touch apps and games to use in Math classes can be a frustrating and time consuming venture. Many have limited functionality or are littered with ads for the paid versions. However, not all apps are like that. The following are my pick for the top 10 iPod Touch apps. All of them are free, and all have legitimate uses for Math teachers and their students."<br />
<br />
[via: http://twitter.com/steelemaley/status/40072340255543296 ]
math  ipodtouch  applications  ios  education  mathematics  learning  free  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
Education Week: An Open Message to President Barack Obama
"in years of Cold War, public schools were blamed for contributing to alleged missile gap & prospect of losing space race. Federal initiatives resulted in curricular priorities…math & science, to be led by university scholar-specialists…students learned from these initiatives that they did not like math & science…university enrollments in those disciplines plummeted…Earlier, Harvard President James B. Conant had called for a moratorium on national testing…situation is far worse today…<br />
<br />
In mid-20th century, a committee of American Academy of Arts & Sciences pointed out…purely academic program advocated for high school by many university liberal arts professors…whole national life would be in danger of collapse. Unfortunately, we backed away from commitment to meaningful preparation of young people for life after HS.<br />
<br />
…your metrics…Race to the Top…relegating studies & activities that children love—civic education, arts, career education—to bottom rung of academic ladder."
education  rttt  barackobama  arneduncan  2011  learning  science  math  mathematics  schools  curriculum  arts  vocational  colleges  universities  collegeprep  history  coldwar  testing  standards  standardizedtesting  standardization  tcsnmy  meaning  publicschools  civiceducation  careers  danieltanner  jamesconant  johndewey  highereducation  children  politics  policy  inequality  engagement  teaching  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
jeweled platypus · text · Observational math
"I like learning geometry and topology terms that make you notice and describe patterns out in the wild:"
math  mathematics  noticing  brittagustafson  observation  photography  nature  patterns  patternrecognition  reaction-diffusion  rabbitfish  rabbitfishscales  scales  angleofrepose  piles  caustics  giovannianselmo  cantenarycurves  cantenary  caustic  geometry  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
12 Dozen Places To Educate Yourself Online For Free
"All education is self-education.  Period.  It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a college classroom or a coffee shop.  We don’t learn anything we don’t want to learn.<br />
<br />
Those people who take the time and initiative to pursue knowledge on their own are the only ones who earn a real education in this world.  Take a look at any widely acclaimed scholar, entrepreneur or historical figure you can think of.  Formal education or not, you’ll find that he or she is a product of continuous self-education.<br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning something new, this article is for you.  Broken down by subject and/or category, here are several top-notch self-education resources I have bookmarked online over the past few years.<br />
<br />
Note that some of the sources overlap between various subjects of education.  Therefore, each has been placed under a specific subject based on the majority focus of the source’s content."
education  learning  online  free  reference  homeschool  unschooling  deschooling  via:caterina  glvo  edg  srg  references  opencourseware  opencontent  law  humanities  history  classideas  science  health  lcproject  business  money  compsci  engineering  math  mathematics  english  communication  books  autodidacts  self-education  self-directedlearning  internet  web  openeducation  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
Mice Problem -- from Wolfram MathWorld
"In the mice problem, also called the beetle problem, mice start at the corners of a regular -gon of unit side length, each heading towards its closest neighboring mouse in a counterclockwise direction at constant speed. The mice each trace out a logarithmic spiral, meet in the center of the polygon, and travel a distance…"
math  programming  animation  geometry  via:brita  miceproblem  mathematics  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
The Joy of Stats
"Documentary which takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to explore the remarkable power thay have to change our understanding of the world, presented by superstar boffin Professor Hans Rosling, whose eye-opening, mind-expanding and funny online lectures have made him an international internet legend."
statistics  documentary  film  classideas  math  mathematics  hansrosling  history  influence  power  understanding  patternrecognition  from delicious
january 2011 by robertogreco
Why the other lines always seem to move faster than yours
"Erlang found out how many telephone lines the company needed, given the average number of calls per hour. Similarly, you can figure out how many checkout lines you need, given the average number of customers. It turns out the best arrangement is to have a single line, and the next customer goes to the next available register. There's less chance of blockage from a single delay.<br />
But people don't like doing that apparently, and so assuming random selection, ending up in the slow line comes down to simple probability.<br />
<br />
Another way to think about this problem is in terms of time. You wait when you're in a slow line. You move when you're in a fast line. So the longer amounts of time spent waiting feel more significant (even though it might be a single pick) than when you made the fast picks."
psychology  shopping  theory  mathematics  queues  queingtheory  perception  math  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
What Math?
"Mathematics is not about answers, it's about processes. Let me give a series of parables to try to get to the root of the misconceptions and to try to illuminate what mathematics IS all about. None of these analogies is perfect, but all provide insight."
math  education  mathematics  science  learning  understanding  cargocult  teaching  tcsnmy  unschooling  deschooling  training  pedagogy  via:rushtheiceberg  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
Steven Strogatz on the Elements of Math - Series - The New York Times
education  math  mathematics  teaching  stevenstrogatz  edg  srg 
december 2010 by robertogreco
DustMapper.com
"Our mission at DustMapper.com is to troubleshoot, debug, and map out the full spectrum of perspectives in human conflict.<br />
<br />
You might experience conflict in your organization, project, or dealings with outside agencies. This could take the form of misunderstandings, miscommunication, unclear expectations, degraded dialog, threats, abusive language, violation of boundaries, or marginalization of perspectives.<br />
<br />
Unmitigated conflict can lead to psychological trauma, organizational dysfunction, social tension, diplomatic breakdown and violence.<br />
However, much good can come when conflict is properly acknowledged. Positive results can include expanded knowledge, role differentiation, appreciation for diversity, and new depth within relationships.<br />
<br />
Through the mapping out of perspectives, both the negative and positive effects of conflict become visible, and thus addressable."
conflict  maps  mapping  dustmapper  human  organizations  mathematics  communication  diplomacy  spirituality  technology  evolution  neuroscience  psychology  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
Simpson's paradox - Wikipedia
"In probability and statistics, Simpson's paradox (or the Yule-Simpson effect) is an apparent paradox in which a correlation (trend) present in different groups is reversed when the groups are combined. This result is often encountered in social-science and medical-science statistics,[1] and it occurs when frequency data are hastily given causal interpretations.[2] Simpson's Paradox disappears when causal relations are brought into consideration (see Implications to Decision Making)."
statistics  math  paradox  mathematics  simpson'sparadox 
december 2010 by robertogreco
Simpson's paradox - Wikipedia
"In probability and statistics, Simpson's paradox (or the Yule-Simpson effect) is an apparent paradox in which a correlation (trend) present in different groups is reversed when the groups are combined. This result is often encountered in social-science and medical-science statistics,[1] and it occurs when frequency data are hastily given causal interpretations.[2] Simpson's Paradox disappears when causal relations are brought into consideration (see Implications to Decision Making)."
statistics  math  paradox  mathematics  simpson'sparadox  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
Borderland › Rothstein on Accountability in Schools
"Approximately 30 well-spent minutes with Richard Rothstein, who patiently spells out what is happening as a consequence of using narrow measures of accountability for schools vs. what really needs to happen."
richardrothstein  policy  accountability  measurement  teaching  learning  schools  us  2010  obesity  children  afterschoolprograms  fitness  poverty  standardizedtesting  extendeddayprograms  health  achievementgap  dougnoon  math  mathematics  reading  crisis  achievement  media  politics  fear  education  ideology  medicaid  parenting  earlychildhood  teacherquality  economics  unemployment  race  wealth  language  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
A Physicist Turns the City Into an Equation - NYTimes.com ["According to data, when a city doubles in size, every measure of economic activity increases by approximately 15% per capita.]
One quote“A human being at rest runs on 90 watts,” he says. “That’s how much power you need just to lie down. And if you’re a hunter-gatherer and you live in the Amazon, you’ll need about 250 watts. That’s how much energy it takes to run about and find food. So how much energy does our lifestyle [in America] require? Well, when you add up all our calories and then you add up the energy needed to run the computer and the air-conditioner, you get an incredibly large number, somewhere around 11,000 watts. Now you can ask yourself: What kind of animal requires 11,000 watts to live? And what you find is that we have created a lifestyle where we need more watts than a blue whale. We require more energy than the biggest animal that has ever existed. That is why our lifestyle is unsustainable. We can’t have seven billion blue whales on this planet. It’s not even clear that we can afford to have 300 million blue whales.” 
urban  urbanism  geoffreywest  cities  corporations  growth  physics  modeling  models  energy  density  efficience  freedom  remkoolhaas  planning  policy  economics  self-control  short-termmemory  memory  architecture  design  urbantheory  urbanscience  theory  science  data  census  walking  transportation  patternrecognition  patterns  math  mathematics  infrastructure  jonahlehrer  organic  organisms  consumption  metabolism  sustainability  interaction  janejacobs  collaboration  crosspollination  robertmoses  efficiency  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
Rule 30 - Wikipedia
"Rule 30 is a one-dimensional binary cellular automaton rule introduced by Stephen Wolfram in 1983. Wolfram describes it as being his "all-time favourite rule" and details it in his book, A New Kind of Science. Using Wolfram's classification scheme, Rule 30 is a Class III rule, displaying aperiodic, chaotic behaviour.<br />
<br />
This rule is of particular interest because it produces complex, seemingly-random patterns from simple, well-defined rules. Because of this, Wolfram believes that rule 30, and cellular automata in general, are the key to understanding how simple rules produce complex structures and behaviour in nature."
math  science  wikipedia  chaostheory  stephenwolphram  mathematics  complexity  rule30  via:britta  patterns  rules  cellularautomata  behavior  nature  beauty  code  chaos  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
15-minute writing exercise closes the gender gap in university-level physics | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine
"This simple writing exercise may not seem like anything ground-breaking, but its effects speak for themselves. In a university physics class, Akira Miyake from the University of Colorado used it to close the gap between male and female performance. In the university’s physics course, men typically do better than women but Miyake’s study shows that this has nothing to do with innate ability. With nothing but his fifteen-minute exercise, performed twice at the beginning of the year, he virtually abolished the gender divide and allowed the female physicists to challenge their male peers."
gender  gendergap  science  mathematics  psychology  physics  women  inequality  education  experiments  assessment  confidence  highereducation  prejudice  values  stereotypes  from delicious
november 2010 by robertogreco
How Einstein Started Solving Its Math Problem - voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog
"The math scores at Einstein Academy didn't add up. Kids aced math in the younger grades at the South Park school, a respected charter with enviable test scores.<br />
<br />
Yet when they hit algebra, their scores plummeted. Three years ago, just 9 percent of eighth graders in its sister middle school were proficient in algebra on state tests — even kids who seemed to be math whizzes before.<br />
<br />
Instead of jumping on algebra and assuming that something was amiss in eighth grade, Einstein stepped back and examined its whole math curriculum from kindergarten up.<br />
<br />
What it found was surprising. The problem started much earlier than eighth grade, back when kids were acing math. Einstein's students were developing too many shortcuts and not enough understanding. While that had worked in the short term, it ultimately shortchanged kids."
math  mathematics  teaching  schools  rote  tcsnmy  sandiego  einsteinacademy  from delicious
november 2010 by robertogreco
Mathematics (song) - Wikipedia
""Mathematics" is a b-side single from Mos Def's solo debut album, Black on Both Sides. It contains lyrics about various social issues and asks the listener to add them up and come to conclusions about them. Many references to numbers are found in this song and at times, Mos Def rhymes statistics in numerical order. The song is produced by DJ Premier whose famous scratch samples make up the song's bridge. Premier has called it one of his favorite beats."
mosdef  math  mathematics  hiphop  music  rap  1999  songs  from delicious
november 2010 by robertogreco
Autism and HIV: when maths can be misleading - Telegraph
"Moreover, the number of people involved was small: 20 with autism, 20 without. With that small a group, it’s hard to tell whether any association that shows up is meaningful. You can train a computer using photos of the family cat, and it will calculate whichever combination of size, colour, and whisker length best detects autism in its owner. There are so many potential combinations that in all likelihood one of them will appear to perform pretty well. But try it on another bunch of people, and the odds are it will fail."
hiv  autism  statistics  math  mathematics  research  falsenegatives  accuracy  numbers  from delicious
october 2010 by robertogreco
NOVA | A Radical Mind [Interview with Benoit Mandelbrot via: http://preoccupations.tumblr.com/post/1334513534/benoit-mandelbrot-1924-2010-nova-a-radical]
"You’ve been interested in the revolution in thinking that took place during Renaissance. I love the term “natural philosophy”…<br />
<br />
It is lovely indeed. Too bad it hasn’t been used since 18th century.<br />
<br />
What does that term mean to you?<br />
<br />
Before Galileo, philosopher was somebody who studied great books. Many of those people were extraordinarily brilliant, but their absolute obedience to books was destructive. What Galileo did was to say natural philosophy is written in the Great Book of Nature & one must move from reading books in library to reading books around us—that is, use experimental method & believe in power of the eye. That was the big thing. Newton was called a natural philosopher. & in 18th century, professions of mathematics & physics were not deeply distinguished, but now they are.<br />
I’m certainly a philosopher entranced with unifying ideas. However, I don’t only study books; I study nature. Also art of the past, for purpose of finding artifacts that I could embrace."
benoitmandelbrot  math  philosophy  nature  thinking  renaissance  books  observation  scientificmethod  galileo  noticing  naturalphilosophy  interviews  mathematics  science  fractals  from delicious
october 2010 by robertogreco
Matt Webb – What comes after mobile « Mobile Monday Amsterdam
"Matt Webb talks about how slightly smart things have invaded our lives over the past years. People have been talking about artificial intelligence for years but the promise has never really come through. Matt shows how the AI promise has transformed and now seems to be coming to us in the form of simple toys instead of complex machines. But this talks is about much more then AI, Matt also introduces chatty interfaces & hard math for trivial things." [via: http://preoccupations.tumblr.com/post/1157711285/what-comes-after-mobile-matt-webb ]
mattwebb  berg  berglondon  future  mobile  technology  ai  design  productinvention  invention  spacebinding  timebinding  energybinding  spimes  internetofthings  anybot  ubicomp  glowcaps  geography  context  privacy  glanceableuse  cloud  embedded  chernofffaces  understanding  math  mathematics  augmentedreality  redlaser  neuralnetworks  mechanicalturk  shownar  toys  lanyrd  from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco
Without Geometry, Life is Pointless: Habits of Mind [via: http://twitter.com/ddmeyer/status/22986117389]
"This is still a work in progress (and feedback would be greatly appreciated), but I've decided to explicitly teach (and assess...more on that later) 4 "categories" of mathematics this year.<br />
<br />
1. Skills (I know how to...)<br />
2. Concepts (I understand and can explain why...)<br />
3. Connections (I see and can explain the relationship between...)<br />
4. Mathematical Habits of Mind (I can use and appreciate the process of...)"
math  mathematics  teaching  habitsofmind  assessment  from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco
Illuminations: Dynamic Paper
"Need a pentagonal pyramid that's six inches tall? Or a number line that goes from ‑18 to 32 by 5's? Or a set of pattern blocks where all shapes have one-inch sides? You can create all those things and more with the Dynamic Paper tool. Place the images you want, then export it as a PDF activity sheet for your students or as a JPEG image for use in other applications or on the web."
dynamicpaper  graphs  generator  geometry  mathematics  math  free  interactive  worksheets  graphing  from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco
TechSmith | Screencast.com, online video sharing, 2009-09-17_0950
"The Assessment Scheme to Rule Them All" — Kate Nowak on Concept Checklists
katenowak  grades  grading  assessment  education  math  screencast  mathematics  teaching  sbg  from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco
dy/dan » Algebra: The Supplement
danmeyer  math  mathematics  lessonplans  education  algebra  curriculum  powerpoint  slides  from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco
Fisch Algebra 2010-11: Skill List
"These are the skills that are important enough to assess individually. Some skills will include sub-skills that aren’t assessed individually. This is not necessarily the order the skills will be assessed in." [More at: http://fischalgebra1011.blogspot.com/p/course-expectations.html]
algebra  math  assessment  conceptchecklists  mathematics  teaching  from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco
YouTube - Metamorphosis of the Cube
"The Metamorphosis of the Cube is a video envisioned and created by Erik Demaine, Martin Demaine, Anna Lubiw, Joseph O'Rourke, and Irena Pashchenko. It appears in a refereed video collection, the 8th Annual Video Review of Computational Geometry, associated with the 15th Annual ACM Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG'99)"
geometry  math  mathematics  cubes  transformation  folding  from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco
Punk Mathematics by Tom Henderson — Kickstarter
"Punk Mathematics will be a series of mathematical stories. It is written for readers who are interested in having their minds expanded by the strange metaphors and implications of mathematics, even if they're not always on friendly terms with equations. Better living through probability; the fractal dimension of cities and cancers; using orders of magnitude to detect bullshit; free will and quantum economics; and the mathematics of cooperation in a networked world on the brink of a No Future collapse."
math  mathematics  philosophy  learning  funding  kickstarter  books  tomhenderson  punk  from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco
SpeEdChange: Reading is NOT the goal
""Reading is defined as getting information from a recorded source into your head, Writing is defined as getting information from your head into a form which others can access." And to which I might have added, "Arithmetic is defined as having a common system for sharing quantifiable data.""

"reason US standardized test results collapse after 4th grade...tests simply ask kids to regurgitate processes we've been banging into them for first 4 years of school. They do that well enough. But the processes really don't connect to most on functional level, so when they take later content-driven evaluation tests, they fail, because they are not accessing content...only know how to "read" to "read." I see this all the time, quick, "fluent" readers who have no idea what they've just read, or why. Kids who form letters perfectly but who can't express themselves. Kids w/ memorized math facts but no ability to leap into algebra or beyond...
irasocol  learning  education  alternative  math  mathematics  memorization  understanding  schools  schooling  unschooling  deschooling  text  ebooks  audiobooks  literacy  reading  writing 
august 2010 by robertogreco
dy/dan » Blog Archive » Great Application Problems — A Rubric
process  math  mathematics  danmeyer  teaching  learning  wcydwt  rubrics  storytelling  inquiry  socraticmethod 
august 2010 by robertogreco
Happy Ending problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [via: http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/850661958/]
"The Happy Ending problem (so named by Paul Erdős because it led to the marriage of George Szekeres and Esther Klein) is the following statement:
math  mathematics  polygons  paulerdos  geometry 
july 2010 by robertogreco
How US Public School almost killed an Entreprenuer | The Do Village ["10 things that were constantly reinforced during my 12 years of public school in America that had to be unlearned as an adult desiring to be an entrepreneur."]
"10 things that were constantly reinforced during my 12 years of public school in America that had to be unlearned as an adult desiring to be an entrepreneur.

1. Fit in instead of be original

2. Follow the rules instead of questioning why they exist

3. Helping others is cheating despite the fact that everything you do as a successful adult is a team effort

4. Have good handwriting instead of teaching me to type

5. Do it because the teacher said so, instead of teaching me to understand why doing it is important

6. Don’t challenge authority instead of teaching me that I deserve respect too

7. Get good grades in all my classes, even though I will never do trigonometry ever in life. (Sine these nuts. lol)

8. Don’t fail instead of teaching me to value trial and error

9. Debating and arguing with friends is a bad thing, instead of encouraging independent thought and self confidence

10. Be a generalist and learn things I hate, instead of developing my genius at things that i like.

More Dumbshit that I still dont understand.

*Getting to school late will be punished by making you stay home for 3 days…WTF

*Memorize stuff that now can be looked up on Google.

*Learn to do calculus by hand, despite being required to purchase a $200 calculator.

*Appearing smart is more important than being effective…. REALLY?

These are all that I can think of now. Feel free to add dumbshit you learned in the comments section.:
education  tcsnmy  rules  handwriting  typing  cheating  collaboration  helping  respect  authority  schools  schooliness  backwards  confidence  self-confidence  arguing  debate  generalists  specialists  doing  making  do  via:cervus  lcproject  unschooling  deschooling  teaching  learning  entrepreneurship  unlearning  rote  math  mathematics  trialanderror  failure  risk  risktaking  toshare  topost  manifesto 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Abolish Pencil-and-Paper Arithmetic
This article proposes that paper-and-pencil arithmetic no longer be taught in elementary school and that it be replaced by a curriculum which emphasizes mental arithmetic much more than at present and in which calculators are used for instructional purposes in all grades including kindergarten. The article analyzes and refutes the arguments made by "back-to-basics" proponents against the use of calculators and for traditional instruction in the algorithms of pencil-and-paper arithmetic. The value of mental arithmetic in achieving all the aims - and more - of the traditional curriculum is argued. Also considered is the outline of an elementary school mathematics curriculum without pencil-and-paper arithmetic. As well, the impact of such a curriculum on secondary school and college mathematics is discussed. Finally, the barriers to achieving what the article advocates are assessed.
via:alfiekohn  mathematics  education  bureaucracy  teaching  politics  tcsnmy  schools  curriculum 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Redesigning Education: Building Schools for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math | Co.
"Now is the time to reflect on the reasons for students' disengagement from science and technology subjects. We need to treat STEM as a pedagogical approach and design an environment to support this new way of teaching. Brian Greene, a best-selling author and theoretical physicist best known for his work in string theory, talks passionately about how we have educated the curiosity out of the math and sciences. Greene says that we have paralyzed our children with the fear of being wrong. Risk-taking and making mistakes are critical to the scientific process. This fear of being wrong has resulted in disengagement from science and mathematics: learning science and math is a drag! He makes a convincing assessment of the problems with our current science education system and stops just short of demanding a new pedagogy to bring excitement and relevance back to the learning of science and math."

[from a series: http://www.fastcodesign.com/users/tle ]
trungle  stem  science  education  math  mathematics  learning  schools  teaching  exploration  experientiallearning  handsonlearning  inquiry  tcsnmy  thirdteacher  inquiry-basedlearning  briangreene  reggioemilia 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Why Math is Hard - Implications of Developmental fMRI Changes in Arithmetic
"many of these cognitive systems don't come on online until later in childhood, & sometimes not fully into early 20's. Some implications for educational programming are obvious—are some educational expectations developmentally appropriate? Are teachers sensitive to individual differences in neurodevelopment & can they modify educational expectations appropriately? ...developmental truth seems to be that brain processes important for math problem solving take time to develop:...
dyslexia  tcsnmy  development  learning  gradelevels  timing  rote  traditionalschools  math  mathematics  cgimath  developmentallyappropriate  patience  differentiation 
july 2010 by robertogreco
The calculus of friendship: what a teacher and a student learned about life while corresponding about math ... - Google Books
"The Calculus of Friendship is the story of an extraordinary connection between a teacher and a student, as chronicled through more than thirty years of letters between them. What makes their relationship unique is that it is based almost entirely on a shared love of calculus. For them, calculus is more than a branch of mathematics; it is a game they love playing together, a constant when all else is in flux. The teacher goes from the prime of his career to retirement, competes in whitewater kayaking at the international level, and loses a son. The student matures from high school math whiz to Ivy League professor, suffers the sudden death of a parent, and blunders into a marriage destined to fail. Yet through it all they take refuge in the haven of calculus--until a day comes when calculus is no longer enough. Like calculus itself, The Calculus of Friendship is an exploration of change..." [via: not sure]
books  teaching  math  friendship  mathematics  calculus 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Chris Heathcote: anti-mega: griotism
"So employing an internal data griot makes a lot of sense: someone who can spend the time looking for both large trends and individual needs and uses that illuminate and portend. It’s a hard job, needing a mix of skills rarely found – a smidgen of hard maths and statistics, a pinch of programming, and dessert spoons of various liberal arts. The Economist (sub required) posits them as data scientists (a position Flickr are currently looking for), but this misses the ability to ask interesting questions, and having hunches – being so immersed in the data that relevancy screams out."
chrisheathcote  last.fm  data  griot  processing  python  stories  visualization  web  storytelling  interdisciplinary  hunches  questioning  math  mathematics  relevance  patternrecognition  patterns  newliberalarts  programming  statistics  trends  griotism  datagriots 
july 2010 by robertogreco
What's Special About This Number?
"primes graphs digits sums of powers bases combinatorics powers/polygonal Fibonacci
mathematics  math  numbers  reference  numberfacts 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Self-organizing map - Wikipedia
"A self-organizing map (SOM) or self-organizing feature map (SOFM) is a type of artificial neural network that is trained using unsupervised learning to produce a low-dimensional (typically two-dimensional), discretized representation of the input space of the training samples, called a map. Self-organizing maps are different from other artificial neural networks in the sense that they use a neighborhood function to preserve the topological properties of the input space."
maps  mathematics  networks  optimization  datamining  database  clustering  classification  algorithms  ai  learning  programming  research  statistics  visualization  neuralnetworks  mapping  som  self-organizingmaps 
june 2010 by robertogreco
carsten nicolai: 'anti reflex'
"'anti' is a regular geometric form which represents systematic thinking and the interrelationship between mathematics, optics, art and philosophy. in appearance, it is a distorted cube, truncated at the top and bottom to obtain rhombic and triangular faces. the object reacts to the magnetic fields of bodies, enabling interaction with the visitor, while all of its mechanisms are hidden within. derived from artist albrecht dürers engraving 'melancholia i' (1514), 'anti's' black, light-absorbent surface and monolith-like crystalline shape confronts the viewer, trying both to mask its form and to disguise its function, thereby absorbing information."
art  sculpture  science  philosophy  interactive  matter  function  albrechtdürer  geometry  math  mathematics  optics 
may 2010 by robertogreco
Clive Thompson on Why We Should Learn the Language of Data | Magazine
"There are oodles of other examples of how our inability to grasp statistics — & mother of it all, probability — makes us believe stupid things. Gamblers think their number is more likely to come up this time because it didn’t last time. Political polls are touted by media even when their samples are laughably skewed. (This issue breaks left & right...Intellectually serious skeptics of anthropogenic climate change argue that the statistical case is weak — that Al Gore & fellow travelers employ dubious techniques to sample & crunch global temperatures.)
clivethompson  statistics  literacy  politics  policy  analytics  visualization  mathematics  education  economics  data  environment  information  climate  reason  probability 
may 2010 by robertogreco
The Back Page
"We are in the midst of paradox in math education. As more states strive to improve math curricula and raise standardized test scores, more students show up to college unprepared for college-level math. The failure of pre-college math education has profound implications for the future of physics programs in the United States. A recent article in my local paper, the Baltimore Sun: “A Failing Grade for Maryland Math,” highlighted this problem that I believe is not unique to Maryland. It prompted me to reflect on the causes."
math  education  tcsnmy  comprehension  mathematics  academia  learning  highschool  teaching  testing  standardizedtesting  rigor  politics  physics  curriculum 
april 2010 by robertogreco
Deborah Loewenberg Ball
Some of the presentations: * (2010, April). Learning to do mathematics as a teacher. (PDF)
mathematics  math  deborahloewnbergball  teaching  tcsnmy  education  pedagogy  toready  via:ddmeyer  toread 
april 2010 by robertogreco
Kids Learn Math Easily When They Control Their Own Learning | Psychology Today
"The best evidence I know that math is not hard comes from the experiences of people involved in the unschooling movement and the Sudbury "nonschool" school movement. I have written about these movements in previous posts. Unschoolers are homeschooling families that do not provide a curriculum for their kids or evaluate their learning in any formal way. Sudbury schools are those that are modeled after the Sudbury Valley School, where kids of all ages are free all day to interact with whomever they choose and pursue their own interests. Unschoolers and Sudbury schoolers defy our cultural beliefs about what kids must do to succeed in our society. All available evidence shows that the kids in these settings grow up to become happy, productive, ethical members of the larger society, who continue to take charge of their own lives and learning throughout adulthood (for references to research on Sudbury Valley graduates, see my post of Aug. 13, 2008)."
math  mathematics  learning  children  schools  education  unschooling  sudburyschools  noschool  research  homeschool  glvo  tcsnmy  lcproject 
april 2010 by robertogreco
Capicúa - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
"La palabra capicúa (en matemáticas, número palíndromo) se refiere a cualquier número que se lee igual de izquierda a derecha y de derecha a izquierda (Ejemplos: 212, 7.540.550.457). El término se origina en la expresión catalana cap i cua (cabeza y cola)."
palindromes  numbers  math  mathematics  español  definitions  words  spanish 
april 2010 by robertogreco
Discovering Trigonometry
tcsnmy  trigonometry  math  learning  java  interactive  tutorials  highschool  education  free  curriculum  mathematics 
april 2010 by robertogreco
Take It to the Limit - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com
"What’s so charming about this calculation is the way infinity comes to the rescue. At every finite stage, the scalloped shape looks weird and unpromising. But when you take it to the limit — when you finally “get to the wall” — it becomes simple and beautiful, and everything becomes clear. That’s how calculus works at its best."
math  infinity  archimedes  pi  circles  circumference  area  calculus  mathematics  via:migurski  proof  visualization  geometry  limits  education  history 
april 2010 by robertogreco
The Amazonian tribe that can only count up to five | Science | The Guardian
"Does a group of indigenous South Americans hold the key to our relationship with maths? Here, an extract from an enlightening new book explains why it just might"
amazon  mathematics  psychology  intelligence  language  math  teaching  science  anthropology  brain  cognition  counting  culture  education  ethnography  numbers  neuroscience  mind 
april 2010 by robertogreco
Long Time Coming § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM - "The story of one of history's most infamous math problems illustrates the difficulties facing congress in the wake of healthcare reform."
"To steal a phrase from Joe Biden, it was “a big fucking deal” in 2002 when a Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman finally offered a valid proof of the Poincaré conjecture. But controversy in the math world erupted when a group of Chinese mathematicians began vying for credit. Perelman told the New Yorker in 2006 that he wasn’t sure exactly what the mathematicians were claiming to have done (it now seems to be the general consensus that Perelman deserved the credit), but he wanted none of academia’s politics. He declined the Fields Medal (often called the Nobel Prize of mathematics) and withdrew from academic life. Explaining his distaste for the profession, he said, “there are many mathematicians who are more or less honest. But almost all of them are conformists. They are more or less honest, but they tolerate those who are not honest.” In solving one of math’s greatest problems, Perelman had come to understand the destructive power of personal interest."
personalinterest  math  mathematics  academia  honesty  credit  grigoriperelman  poincaréconjecture  healthcarereform  2010 
march 2010 by robertogreco
When Less is More: The Case for Teaching Less Math in Schools | Psychology Today
"Think of it. Today whenever we hear that children aren't learning much of what is taught in school the hue and cry from the educational establishment is that we must therefore teach more of it! If two hundred hours of instruction on subject X does no good, well, let's try four hundred hours. If children aren't learning what is taught to them in first grade, then let's start teaching it in kindergarten. And if they aren't learning it in kindergarten, that could only mean that we need to start them in pre-kindergarten! But Benezet had the opposite opinion. If kids aren't learning much math in the early grades despite considerable time and effort devoted to it, then why waste time and effort on it?" [More on the L. P. Benezet experiment]
mathematics  math  teaching  psychology  philosophy  parenting  unschooling  academia  children  development  education  homeschool  learning  petergray  deschooling  us  research  lcproject  tcsnmy 
march 2010 by robertogreco
YouTube - Nature by Numbers
"A movie inspired on numbers, geometry and nature, by Cristóbal Vila. Go to www.etereaestudios.com for more info: theory behind, stills, screenshots, tutorials..."
math  mathematics  video  science  geometry  fractals  patterns  fibonacci  numbers  nature 
march 2010 by robertogreco
Political Rhetoric, In Graph Form - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
"One can think of these two charts as data displays that reveal different aspects of data, but also as graphical political rhetoric. The different aspects of data are the sharp reduction in the rate of job loss shown so well in the OfA chart and the terrible cumulative loss to employment in the country that has not yet started to rebound that is shown in my chart. Both of those are "true facts" about the jobs data. They use exactly the same data, so differences are entirely matters of perspective and perception rather than "apples to oranges" comparisons. But while both are true stories, their substantive interpretations are quite different-- one is a story of an administration's success is stemming the tide of recession, the other is the high water mark of that tide, which has yet to begin receding."
truth  statistics  politics  recession  2010  mathematics  math  rhetoric  visualization  charts  socialstudies  economics  policy 
february 2010 by robertogreco
Perlin Noise
"Many people have used random number generators in their programs to create unpredictability, make the motion and behavior of objects appear more natural, or generate textures. Random number generators certainly have their uses, but at times their output can be too harsh to appear natural. This article will present a function which has a very wide range of uses, more than I can think of, but basically anywhere where you need something to look natural in origin. What's more it's output can easily be tailored to suit your needs."
animation  mathematics  processing  algorithms  math  graphics  perlinnoise  random  howto  programming  visualization  software  design  gamedev  texture  noise  tutorial  via:robinsloan 
february 2010 by robertogreco
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Why MIT Students Can't Write and Harvard Students Can't Count
"Like the old MIT-Harvard rivalry, there's often a cortical battle for resources between spatial and verbal / visual "picture" thinking. In studies of spatial experts, high levels of spatial expertise were correlated with lower levels of verbal fluency, auditory verbal memory, and visual memory"
math  neuroscience  mathematics  mit  verbal  writing  reading  harvard 
december 2009 by robertogreco
Paul Erdős - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"In 1938, he accepted his first American position as a scholarship holder at Princeton University. At this time, he began to develop the habit of traveling from campus to campus. He would not stay long in one place and traveled back and forth among mathematical institutions until his death.
paulerdos  neo-nomads  nomads  science  history  academia  mathematics  math  annabelscheme  eccentricity  glvo  biography 
december 2009 by robertogreco
Book Review - 'Logicomix' - A Comic Book About Logic, Math and Madness - Review - NYTimes.com
"Well, this is unexpected — a comic book about the quest for logical certainty in mathematics. The story spans the decades from the late 19th century to World War II, a period when the nature of mathematical truth was being furiously debated. The stellar cast, headed up by Bertrand Russell, includes the greatest philosophers, logicians and mathematicians of the era, along with sundry wives and mistresses, plus a couple of homicidal maniacs, an apocryphal barber and Adolf Hitler. Improbable material for comic-book treatment? Not really. The principals in this intellectual drama are superheroes of a sort. They go up against a powerful nemesis, who might be called Dark Antinomy. Each is haunted by an inner demon, the Specter of Madness. Their quest has a tragic arc, not unlike that of Superman or Donald Duck."
books  toread  comics  bertrandrussell  mathematics  infinity  logic  philosophy 
october 2009 by robertogreco
Khan Academy [via: http://smartpei.typepad.com/robert_patersons_weblog/2009/09/khan-academy---your-next-high-school---free-on-your-terms.html]
"The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.
education  learning  free  homeschool  economics  teaching  science  math  algebra  mathematics  geometry  trigonometry  physics  tutorials  youtube  calculus  online  finance  lectures  khanacademy  tcsnmy  arithmetic 
september 2009 by robertogreco
Erasing Dark Energy § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
"But perhaps the largest objection voiced is that this model would require Earth to be at the center of the universe. In other words, it would violate the Copernican principle, which states that the Earth does not have a special, favored place and that the universe is essentially homogeneous."
mathematics  cosmology  gravity  copernicus  darkenergy  universe  physics 
september 2009 by robertogreco
Arthur Benjamin's formula for changing math education | Video on TED.com
"Someone always asks the math teacher, "Am I going to use calculus in real life?" And for most of us, says Arthur Benjamin, the answer is no. He offers a bold proposal on how to make math education relevant in the digital age."
math  education  learning  teaching  schools  statistics  economics  mathematics  probability  tcsnmy  calculus  change  reform  curriculum  ted  analytics 
june 2009 by robertogreco
MIT Hopes to Exorcise ‘Phantom’ Traffic Jams | Autopia | Wired.com
"Phantom jams are born of a lot of cars using the road. No surprise there. But when traffic gets too heavy, it takes the smallest disturbance in the flow - a driver laying on the brakes, someone tailgating too closely or some moron picking pickles off his burger - to ripple through traffic and create a self-sustaining traffic jam.
traffic  math  patterns  transportation  mit  mathematics  research  congestions  flow 
june 2009 by robertogreco
The Socratic Method
"The following is a transcript of a teaching experiment, using the Socratic method, with a regular third grade class in a suburban elementary school. I present my perspective and views on the session, and on the Socratic method as a teaching tool, following the transcript. The class was conducted on a Friday afternoon beginning at 1:30, late in May, with about two weeks left in the school year. This time was purposely chosen as one of the most difficult times to entice and hold these children's concentration about a somewhat complex intellectual matter. The point was to demonstrate the power of the Socratic method for both teaching and also for getting students involved and excited about the material being taught. ... The experiment was to see whether I could teach these students binary arithmetic (arithmetic using only two numbers, 0 and 1) only by asking them questions. None of them had been introduced to binary arithmetic before."
math  binary  socraticmethod  education  learning  teaching  children  tcsnmy  pedagogy  mathematics  method  philosophy  psychology  howto 
june 2009 by robertogreco
Inside-out Multiplication Table
"Here's a new(?) way to look at the multiplication table.
math  visualization  mathematics  education 
june 2009 by robertogreco
dy/dan » Blog Archive » But How Do I Remediate THAT? [see the comment thread too]
"What I'm saying is that, when I play, for example, this fantastic loop of time lapse photography, my Algebra 1 students sit a few millimeters closer to the edges of their seats and lean a few degrees closer to the screen than do my Remedial Algebra students. They call out observations and deconstruct the movie in ways the remedial classes do not anticipate. In general, they seem eager to engage the unknown whereas my Remedial Algebra students seem to prefer that the unknown stay unknown, that life's unturned rocks stay unturned."
danmeyer  engagement  tracking  mathematics  learning  math  students  risk  education  teaching  schools 
june 2009 by robertogreco
A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockart [.pdf]
math  schools  schooling  unschooling  deschooling  education  learning  mathematics  pedagogy  psychology  philosophy  creativity  writing  teaching  children  culture  society  music  art  academia  homeschool  filetype:pdf  media:document 
may 2009 by robertogreco
BLDGBLOG: Mathscape
"But how incredible would it be to realize that, say, your entire city had actually been organized by urban planners two hundred years ago as a kind of inhabitable lesson in mathematics or logical reasoning, like something from the early theories of Friedrich Froebel? ... it would be amazingly cool if the spatial environments of modern life were organized more along educational lines. ... Your every commute to work becomes part of a spatial curriculum, carving out education through space.
engineering  africa  architecture  teaching  mathematics  math  play  planning  learning  design  urban  friedrichfroebel  inventingkindergarten  pedagogy  playgrounds 
february 2009 by robertogreco
« earlier      

related tags

absurdity ⊕  academia ⊕  accountability ⊕  accounting ⊕  accuracy ⊕  achievement ⊕  achievementgap ⊕  africa ⊕  afterschoolprograms ⊕  ai ⊕  alberteinstein ⊕  albrechtdürer ⊕  alfrednorthwhitehead ⊕  algebra ⊕  algebraicthinking ⊕  algorithms ⊕  alternative ⊕  amazon ⊕  analytics ⊕  angleofrepose ⊕  animation ⊕  annabelscheme ⊕  anthropology ⊕  anybot ⊕  apple ⊕  applications ⊕  archimedes ⊕  architects ⊕  architecture ⊕  area ⊕  arguing ⊕  arithmetic ⊕  arneduncan ⊕  art ⊕  arts ⊕  assessment ⊕  audiobooks ⊕  augmentedreality ⊕  authority ⊕  autism ⊕  autodidactism ⊕  autodidacts ⊕  backwards ⊕  banking ⊕  barackobama ⊕  basic ⊕  bearisland ⊕  beauty ⊕  behavior ⊕  benoitmandelbrot ⊕  berg ⊕  berglondon ⊕  bertrandrussell ⊕  binary ⊕  biography ⊕  biology ⊕  blankslates ⊕  blogs ⊕  boardgames ⊕  books ⊕  borges ⊕  bots ⊕  brain ⊕  bretvictor ⊕  briangreene ⊕  brittagustafson ⊕  buckminsterfuller ⊕  bureaucracy ⊕  business ⊕  calculus ⊕  cantenary ⊕  cantenarycurves ⊕  careers ⊕  cargocult ⊕  caustic ⊕  caustics ⊕  cellularautomata ⊕  census ⊕  cgimath ⊕  change ⊕  chaos ⊕  chaostheory ⊕  charts ⊕  cheating ⊕  chernofffaces ⊕  childhood ⊕  children ⊕  chrisheathcote ⊕  circles ⊕  circumference ⊕  cities ⊕  civiceducation ⊕  classideas ⊕  classification ⊕  climate ⊕  clivethompson ⊕  cloud ⊕  clustering ⊕  code ⊕  coding ⊕  cognition ⊕  coldwar ⊕  colinhughes ⊕  collaboration ⊕  collegeboard ⊕  collegeprep ⊕  colleges ⊕  comics ⊕  communication ⊕  complexity ⊕  comprehension ⊕  compsci ⊕  computationallinguistics ⊕  computers ⊕  computerscience ⊕  computing ⊕  conceptchecklists ⊕  confidence ⊕  conflict ⊕  congestions ⊕  constructivism ⊕  consumption ⊕  contagion ⊕  context ⊕  control ⊕  conversation ⊕  copernicus ⊕  corporations ⊕  corruption ⊕  cosmology ⊕  counting ⊕  creativity ⊕  credit ⊕  crisis ⊕  criticalthinking ⊕  crosspollination ⊕  cubes ⊕  culture ⊕  curiosity ⊕  curriculum ⊕  cv ⊕  danieltanner ⊕  danmeyer ⊕  darkenergy ⊕  data ⊕  database ⊕  datagriots ⊕  datamining ⊕  davejohns ⊕  davidmumford ⊕  debate ⊕  deborahloewnbergball ⊕  definitions ⊕  deirdrelovecky ⊕  density ⊕  deschooling ⊕  design ⊕  designthinking ⊕  development ⊕  developmentallyappropriate ⊕  dianakimball ⊕  differentiation ⊕  digitalhumanities ⊕  diplomacy ⊕  divorce ⊕  do ⊕  documentary ⊕  doing ⊕  dougnoon ⊕  dustmapper ⊕  dynamicpaper ⊕  dyslexia ⊕  earlychildhood ⊕  ebooks ⊕  eccentricity ⊕  economics ⊕  edg ⊕  education ⊕  efficience ⊕  efficiency ⊕  einsteinacademy ⊕  embedded ⊕  eminence ⊕  energy ⊕  energybinding ⊕  engagement ⊕  engineering ⊕  english ⊕  entrepreneurship ⊕  environment ⊕  ericschmidt ⊕  español ⊕  ethnography ⊕  evidence ⊕  evolution ⊕  experience ⊕  experientiallearning ⊕  experiments ⊕  exploration ⊕  expression ⊕  extendeddayprograms ⊕  fabrication ⊕  failure ⊕  falsenegatives ⊕  fear ⊕  fibonacci ⊕  fiction ⊕  filetype:pdf ⊕  film ⊕  finance ⊕  fitness ⊕  flow ⊕  flowtheory ⊕  folding ⊕  fractals ⊕  free ⊕  freedom ⊕  freetime ⊕  friedrichfroebel ⊕  friendship ⊕  froebel ⊕  function ⊕  funding ⊕  future ⊕  galileo ⊕  gamedev ⊕  games ⊕  gaming ⊕  gender ⊕  gendergap ⊕  generalists ⊕  generator ⊕  geoffreywest ⊕  geography ⊕  geometry ⊕  georgedyson ⊕  giovannianselmo ⊕  glanceableuse ⊕  glowcaps ⊕  glvo ⊕  gradelevels ⊕  grades ⊕  grading ⊕  graphics ⊕  graphing ⊕  graphs ⊕  gravity ⊕  grigoriperelman ⊕  griot ⊕  griotism ⊕  growth ⊕  habitsofmind ⊕  handsonlearning ⊕  handwriting ⊕  hansrosling ⊕  harvard ⊕  health ⊕  healthcarereform ⊕  helping ⊕  highereducation ⊕  highschool ⊕  hiphop ⊕  historians ⊕  history ⊕  hiv ⊕  homeschool ⊕  honesty ⊕  howto ⊕  human ⊕  humanities ⊕  humor ⊕  hunches ⊕  hypnosis ⊕  ideology ⊕  imagination ⊕  independence ⊕  inequality ⊕  infinity ⊕  influence ⊕  information ⊕  infrastructure ⊕  innovation ⊕  inquiry ⊕  inquiry-basedlearning ⊕  instruction ⊕  instructionism ⊕  intelligence ⊕  interaction ⊕  interactive ⊕  interdisciplinary ⊕  interestdriven ⊕  internet ⊕  internetofthings ⊕  interviews ⊕  inventingkindergarten ⊕  invention ⊕  ios ⊕  ipodtouch ⊕  irasocol ⊕  isaacnewton ⊕  iwamotoscott ⊕  jamesclerkmaxwell ⊕  jamesconant ⊕  jamesfowler ⊕  jamessomers ⊕  janejacobs ⊕  java ⊕  johndewey ⊕  johnmighton ⊕  jonahlehrer ⊕  journalism ⊕  jump ⊕  jumpmath ⊕  katenowak ⊕  kevinslavin ⊕  khanacademy ⊕  kickstarter ⊕  killmath ⊕  kindergarten ⊕  kumon ⊕  labibliotecadebabel ⊕  language ⊕  lanyrd ⊕  last.fm ⊕  law ⊕  lcproject ⊕  learning ⊕  lectures ⊕  lego ⊕  lessonplans ⊕  lewiscarroll ⊕  liberalarts ⊕  libraryofbabel ⊕  limits ⊕  literacy ⊕  literature ⊕  locomotion ⊕  logic ⊕  maine ⊕  making ⊕  manifesto ⊕  mapping ⊕  maps ⊕  markets ⊕  materials ⊕  math ⊕  mathematics ⊖  matter ⊕  matthen ⊕  mattwebb ⊕  meaning ⊕  measurement ⊕  mechanicalturk ⊕  media ⊕  media:document ⊕  medicaid ⊕  meltdown ⊕  memorization ⊕  memory ⊕  metabolism ⊕  method ⊕  miceproblem ⊕  mind ⊕  mit ⊕  mobile ⊕  modeling ⊕  models ⊕  money ⊕  mosdef ⊕  motivation ⊕  music ⊕  naturalphilosophy ⊕  nature ⊕  neo-nomads ⊕  netflix ⊕  networks ⊕  neuralnetworks ⊕  neurolearning ⊕  neuroscience ⊕  newliberalarts ⊕  nicholaschristakis ⊕  noise ⊕  nomads ⊕  non-traditional ⊕  noschool ⊕  noticing ⊕  numberfacts ⊕  numbers ⊕  obesity ⊕  observation ⊕  online ⊕  opencontent ⊕  opencourseware ⊕  openeducation ⊕  optics ⊕  optimization ⊕  organic ⊕  organisms ⊕  organizations ⊕  palindromes ⊕  paradox ⊕  parenting ⊕  patience ⊕  patternrecognition ⊕  patterns ⊕  paulerdos ⊕  paullockhart ⊕  pedagogy ⊕  peerreview ⊕  penobscotbay ⊕  perception ⊕  perlinnoise ⊕  perpetualabsurdity ⊕  personalinterest ⊕  petergray ⊕  philosophy ⊕  photography ⊕  physics ⊕  pi ⊕  piles ⊕  planning ⊕  play ⊕  playgrounds ⊕  poetry ⊕  poets ⊕  poincaréconjecture ⊕  policy ⊕  politics ⊕  polygons ⊕  polymaths ⊕  poverty ⊕  power ⊕  powerpoint ⊕  predictablity ⊕  prejudice ⊕  privacy ⊕  probability ⊕  problemsolving ⊕  process ⊕  processing ⊕  productinvention ⊕  programming ⊕  projecteuler ⊕  proof ⊕  psychology ⊕  publicschools ⊕  publishing ⊕  punk ⊕  python ⊕  queingtheory ⊕  questioning ⊕  queues ⊕  rabbitfish ⊕  rabbitfishscales ⊕  race ⊕  random ⊕  rap ⊕  reaction-diffusion ⊕  reading ⊕  realworld ⊕  realworldproblems ⊕  reason ⊕  recession ⊕  redlaser ⊕  reference ⊕  references ⊕  reform ⊕  reggioemilia ⊕  relevance ⊕  religion ⊕  remkoolhaas ⊕  renaissance ⊕  research ⊕  resources ⊕  respect ⊕  rhetoric ⊕  richardfeynman ⊕  richardrothstein ⊕  richardsiken ⊕  rigor ⊕  risk ⊕  risktaking ⊕  robertmoses ⊕  robinsloan ⊕  rosemcdermott ⊕  rote ⊕  rotelearning ⊕  rttt ⊕  rubrics ⊕  rule30 ⊕  rules ⊕  sandboxes ⊕  sandiego ⊕  sanfrancisco ⊕  sbg ⊕  scales ⊕  schooliness ⊕  schooling ⊕  schools ⊕  science ⊕  sciencejournalism ⊕  scientificmethod ⊕  screencast ⊕  sculpture ⊕  self-confidence ⊕  self-control ⊕  self-directedlearning ⊕  self-education ⊕  self-organizingmaps ⊕  shopping ⊕  short-termmemory ⊕  shownar ⊕  simpson'sparadox ⊕  slides ⊕  socialcontagion ⊕  socialnetworking ⊕  socialnetworks ⊕  socialscience ⊕  socialstudies ⊕  society ⊕  sociology ⊕  socraticmethod ⊕  software ⊕  solgarfunkel ⊕  som ⊕  songs ⊕  space ⊕  spacebinding ⊕  spanish ⊕  specialists ⊕  spimes ⊕  spirituality ⊕  srg ⊕  standardization ⊕  standardizedtesting ⊕  standards ⊕  statistics ⊕  stem ⊕  stephenwolphram ⊕  stereotypes ⊕  stevejobs ⊕  stevenstrogatz ⊕  stories ⊕  storify ⊕  storytelling ⊕  students ⊕  sudburyschools ⊕  sustainability ⊕  sylviamartinez ⊕  synesthesia ⊕  systemsthinking ⊕  tcsnmy ⊕  teacherquality ⊕  teaching ⊕  technology ⊕  ted ⊕  testing ⊕  testprep ⊕  text ⊕  textbooks ⊕  texture ⊕  themathematician'slament ⊕  theology ⊕  theory ⊕  thinking ⊕  thirdteacher ⊕  timcarmody ⊕  timebinding ⊕  timing ⊕  tomhenderson ⊕  toolmaking ⊕  topost ⊕  toread ⊕  toready ⊕  toshare ⊕  toys ⊕  tracking ⊕  tractatuslogico-philosophicus ⊕  traditionalschools ⊕  traffic ⊕  training ⊕  transformation ⊕  transportation ⊕  trends ⊕  trialanderror ⊕  trigonometry ⊕  trungle ⊕  truth ⊕  tumblr ⊕  tutorial ⊕  tutorials ⊕  twitter ⊕  typing ⊕  ubicomp ⊕  uk ⊕  understanding ⊕  unemployment ⊕  universe ⊕  universities ⊕  unlearning ⊕  unschooling ⊕  urban ⊕  urbanism ⊕  urbanscience ⊕  urbantheory ⊕  us ⊕  values ⊕  verbal ⊕  via:alfiekohn ⊕  via:blackbeltjones ⊕  via:brita ⊕  via:britta ⊕  via:caterina ⊕  via:cervus ⊕  via:ddmeyer ⊕  via:derrickschultz ⊕  via:kottke ⊕  via:migurski ⊕  via:robinsloan ⊕  via:rushtheiceberg ⊕  video ⊕  visualization ⊕  vocational ⊕  walking ⊕  wcydwt ⊕  wealth ⊕  web ⊕  well-rounded ⊕  wikipedia ⊕  wittgenstein ⊕  women ⊕  words ⊕  worksheets ⊕  writing ⊕  youtube ⊕ 

Copy this bookmark:



description:


tags: