February 2012
32 posts
Sketches from GeoGebraTube
Recommended by the beginners for beginners at today’s Intro to GeoGebra. But let me tell you, they have some good taste. Links go to teacher’s page. Click the student worksheet to open the sketch or download to really play.
Area of a Circle by orchiming
Point-Slope by dave.ritter
Mixture Problems by David Cox
Double Angle Sine Identity by mtamin1
Basketball Quadratic by...
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GeoGebra in Action
Michelle Bunton and I are hosting a beginner and intermediate session on GeoGebra at Math in Action tomorrow. The Quick Intro page is revised and there’s a new Intermediate page to help you along.
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Graph and Table
A basic GeoGebra sketch highlighting beginning spreadsheet use. Let’s you pick the function, an initial value, and the change in inputs.
Teacher page and student page at GeoGebraTube.
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Powers of 2
@yummymath was wondering about a #GeoGebra sketch to show powers of 2 from -5 to 5, so this is my try at that. The tricky part was setting the scale to change with the negative exponents.
At GeoGebraTube, of course. Teacher page and student page.
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Donor Problem
Great graph for problem posing. Maybe too unfocused for how @ddmeyer thinks of #anyqs, but #wcydwt?
From Talking Points Memo via the Daily Dish
I don’t think you can conclude what they are concluding.
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Perfection v Effort
Not bad!
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Snow Demonstration
I wanted to make this photo an #ANYQS, but wondered if students would be able to see much math in it.
So I thought I’d do it as a think aloud. Coming home early afternoon on Sunday I noticed the shadow of the house lining up with the snow in the yard. Usually we have too much snow to get an effect like this, but it’s been rare this winter. Then I noticed all the houses on our side...
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Count It Higher
Kids are babysitting a 2 year old, playing some Sesame Street counting classics. My favorite.
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DDM/SK
@ddmeyer riffing on Sal Khan, with phasers on maximum sarcasm… just felt like it had to be preserved.
Who I Am
A fill in the blank sheet with geometrically distinct blanks. @kristenelise7 had the idea to modify @ddmeyer’s Who I Am activity to math it up. So here’s my draft - made, of course, in GeoGebra.
Update: ideas for use include…
Intended use: information sheet for students. Directions tell which space to put info in by geometric information. Name in the rectangle, favorite book...
Happy Valentine's
Much of my favorite fun graphing these days comes from benice. Like this beauty…
(Note: I’d be ok with any gender rolling circles here.) Happy Valentine’s Day!
Even Geeks Must...
Found from Whedonesque. I feel like COEXIST is a good educational message.
Don't Give Answers
Loved this quote from Laura’s student teacher blog: “One of the most troubled students, who rarely comes to class told me that he likes that I don’t get him the answers but help him understand how the concepts to be able to do other problems on his own. He said that he does not like when people give him the answers because he does not know how to do any other problems without...
Egg Proportions
Finished off a pretty good dozen eggs yesterday. We buy from a local farmer and these were the last 3:
But wait! Turns out this was the fifth double yolk in this dozen. #ANYQS? I mean besides “what are they feeding those chickens?”
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Math Help
For them what needs it. Lovely.
From maths in the City, via cp’s mathem-o-blog. cp=@christianp
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Teacher Evaluation Cartoon
Inspired by today’s Diane Rehm show for a quick upcoming blog post. After the famous Sydney Harris cartoon.
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Homework Advice
or Why I Love Twitter, #27 in an Infinite Series
@alpickel had a question. I tweeted:
A TA is frustrated by 20 min HW time out of a 45 min lesson. Suggestions? CC @alpickell
Now sometimes this goes unseen, and sometimes you get bupkas, but sometimes you get gold.
Like this time:
Greg @sarcasmptote: @mathhombre @alpickell 20 minutes going over HW from previous night or 20 minutes of in-class...
Diamond Shreddies
In support of matthewmaddux’s posting of the video, reblogged below.
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Rules of Improv
From Bossypants by Tina Fey
Here so I can remember and refind them. Cribbed from this blog, which has lots of fancy schmancy Fey pics.
Yes. I say “freeze, I have a gun.” “That’s not a gun, it’s your finger” ends the scene.
Yes, and. “That’s the gun I gave you for Christmas, you bastard.” Scene is cooking.
Make statements. Not, “where...
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Battery Life
#ANYQS? I was using the computer fairly constantly, except for one few minute conversation.
…Drove to school…
The battery’s a few years old. I was using pretty constantly during the charging also.
Grades
I have this weird situation as an academic parent. My son is a very bright kid (I know, a parent who thinks their child is smart - shocking) who gets very mediocre grades. I know current grading practice is more about obedience than understanding; his teacher even put on the report that absences make it hard to get good grades. (He had a couple colds.) I have always told the kids that...
January 2012
29 posts
Good Novice Teacher Reading
Week 3
Some interesting reflective posts by Teaching Assistants this week.
Ups and downs and adaptive instruction - Becky Bartlett
First Lesson & Intellectual Engagement - Steve Suzio
Building Relationships & Principles breakdown - Jill Beauchamp
Yet Another Trig Pun
Too subtle?
First time anyone ever accused George Hamilton of being too subtle?
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Swing Shift
For what story problems could this serve as an image? What information would you want to find out?
claire_grossman on Flickr.
HT colossal Flickr Finds 13
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Bagel Math
6 teenage girls in the house, I’m sent to Panera. I need 18 bagels - at least - and 2 tubs of cream cheese. This is the menu:
What should I buy? I got the dozen and a half and bought 2 tubs. Is that a right decision? If not, I will defend myself by referring to 6 teenage girls and no coffee yet.
What is Panera’s pricing meant to encourage? There I’m really stumped. Is it good...
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Giant Jenga
Suitable for #anyqs or #wcydwt, I think, especially if you have the blocks.
Saw this pic in a youth ministry article about making a giant Jenga set.
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Quick Trig Visualization
For a substitute gig in a trig class.
Sketch on the tube: http://www.geogebratube.org/material/show/id/3619
David joyce’s brilliant trigonometry short course: http://www.clarku.edu/~djoyce/trig/
Up Up Up Up Up
“To live in this town, you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough…”
We (education) are solidly outstripping healthcare in price increase. Student loan debt just passed credit cards in amount owed. We should be worried.
Kevin Carey writes about the trend at New Republic. (Never thought I’d link to NR.)
Via the Daily Dish, chart from Moody’s.
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Carrots and Cheerios
Some good math question appetizers at a local grocery store. Made for interesting proportions, rates and comparisons, I thought. The ‘what’s the better deal?’ question is so inherent, I don’t know if they are ANYQS fodder.
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Crossnumber
Loved this puzzle from GeekDad this week. Here’s a 1-sheet, suitable for handing out in class. PDF at GoogleDocs. Solution on 2nd page.
It’s not, promise. From GeekDad Puzzle of the Week
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Probability String
Packing up the Christmas tree, we found one string of LED lights that was half out. It turns out LED light strings are two separate circuits, one fuse for each half, because they run on direct current instead of alternating current. Any one of the lightbulbs being bad would knock out a whole half.
It seemed like the only way to see if we could save the string was to take a new bulb (2 extra...
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Powerlines
The more I look at the online puzzle Powerlines, the more I like it.
Look, for example, at Level 3. There’s so much to notice. I want a value in the middle so that the remaining numbers can be equal. So it must be odd. (Why?) Well with 5…
… you can divide the others into two equal piles. Oh, but the total is supposed to be 12.
Hmmm, is there anyway to write the situation...
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Built of Stones
Like this quote from thinktosuccess by Henri Poincaré. Reminded me of a 3000 year old house of stones in Dingle Peninsula, Ireland.
“Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”- Henri Poincaré