Math Teachers at Play #2

[Photo by Sister72.]

Welcome to the second Math Teachers At Play blog carnival! Some articles were submitted by their authors, other were drawn from the back-log in my blog reader, and I’ve spiced it all up with a few of my favorite quotations.

Let the mathematical fun begin…

ELEMENTARY CONCEPTS

[Photo by twitchcraft.]

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.

— Rachel Carson

• Christina at Early Childhood Teacher presents 100th Day of School Activities. Looks like fun! If you missed your 100th day of school, April 10th will be the 100th day of this year.

• Have you thought about using Miquon Math but never quite understood how it all fits together? Mama Squirrel at Dewey’s Treehouse shares her family’s long Journey Through Miquon Math.

• Memorizing the times tables is often a difficult rite of passage in elementary school. If your students are struggling, check out Misty’s review of a potentially helpful resource in Learn the Multiplication Times Tables Fast and Easy!, posted at Homeschool Bytes.

• Brian at The Math Mojo Chronicles shares How To Practice Multiplying by Two with Playing Cards. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed this video and immediately ran to find a deck of cards so she could practice her times-4 facts.

ARITHMETIC

[Photo by oskay.]

It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by means of ten symbols, each symbol receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value; a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity and the great ease which it has lent to computations put our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions; and we shall appreciate the grandeur of the achievement the more when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity.

— Pierre-Simon de Laplace
quoted in H. Eves Return to Mathematical Circles

• Maria Miller of Homeschool Math Blog explains a very helpful arrow notation in Equivalent fractions — a visual model of splitting the pieces further and offers a fractions worksheet for practice.

• Mathmom shares her students’ adventure in factoring: Numbers with exactly four factors, posted at Ramblings of a Math Mom.

• Mark C. Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math shares a fun video and a few insights about Rounding and Bias.

• Jonathan follows up his [Rectangle] Day activity with the more difficult challenge of Pythagorean Day, both posted at JD2718.

• Kate at f(t) presents How to Bounce a Ball Part 1 — The Problem (and The Solution.)

BASIC ALGEBRA & GEOMETRY

…the science of calculation also is indispensable as far as the extraction of the square and cube roots: Algebra as far as the quadratic equation and the use of logarithms are often of value in ordinary cases: but all beyond these is but a luxury; a delicious luxury indeed; but not be in indulged in by one who is to have a profession to follow for his subsistence.

— Thomas Jefferson
quoted by J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Mathematical Quotations Server

• Bill Lombard at Mr. L’s Math offers a couple more of his Friday Afternoon Lifesavers: Twins and Triples, Exploring Congruence and Transformations.

• Nick Hershman has been playing around with Wrapper Problems, posted at Divide by Zero. Perhaps your students would like to try them, too.

• Rudbeckia Hirta at Learning Curves blog has been Shooting Fish in a Barrel. I wonder how my students would do on that problem?

ADVANCED MATH

[Photo by tylerkaraszewski.]

In the fall of 1972 President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection.

— Hugo Rossi
Mathematics Is an Edifice, Not a Toolbox

• Michael Croucher at Walking Randomly explains how to get a Graphic Calculator on the Nintendo DS.

• Jon Ingram presents a thoughtful journey through a mathematical puzzle, posted at Lessons taught; Lessons learnt.

• Zac of SquareCircleZ reviews the Manga Guides to Statistics and Databases. Sounds like something my kids would love. (Or at least would complain about much less than with regular textbooks!)

• John D. Cook looks at Rolling dice for normal samples. And be sure to check out the 50th Carnival of Mathematics, hosted at John’s blog The Endeavor.

MATHEMATICAL PUZZLES

[Photo by fdecomite.]

Standard mathematics has recently been rendered obsolete by the discovery that for years we have been writing the numeral five backward. This has led to reevaluation of counting as a method of getting from one to ten. Students are taught advanced concepts of Boolean algebra, and formerly unsolvable equations are dealt with by threats of reprisals.

— Woody Allen
quoted in H. Eves Return to Mathematical Circles

• Number Warrior Jason Dyer posts An Ancient Typo. Can you spot the mistake?

• Jeff Trevaskis offers the calendar puzzle Friday 13th, posted at Webmaths.

• The admin at 10-Minute Math poses Cutting the dog food.

• Blabbermouth at Dynamath passes on a puzzle about the World’s Dumbest Miner.

• Logic puzzles don’t have to involve mathematics, of course. Xi at 360 blog shares some wonderful challenges in Language Puzzles, Part II.

• You still have time to submit your answer to Monday Math Madness puzzle #27, posted at Wild About Math. How well can you add up a great slew of fractions?

ABOUT TEACHING MATH

[Photo by herval.]

The traditional mathematics professor of the popular legend is absentminded. He usually appears in public with a lost umbrella in each hand. He prefers to face the blackboard and to turn his back to the class. He writes a, he says b, he means c; but it should be d. Some of his sayings are handed down from generation to generation.

• “In order to solve this differential equation you look at it till a solution occurs to you.”
• “This principle is so perfectly general that no particular application of it is possible.”
• “Geometry is the science of correct reasoning on incorrect figures.”
• “My method to overcome a difficulty is to go round it.”
• “What is the difference between method and device? A method is a device which you used twice.”

— George Pólya
How To Solve It

• My entry this week is a quick puzzle that works with almost any grade level: Math Warm-Up: Today is February 4 x 3 x 2 x 1. I asked for other teachers to share warm-up ideas, too, but so far I’ve had no takers.

• Pat B. asks pre-calculus teachers Why Bother with Vectors? and gives an excellent answer, posted at Pat’s Blog.

• Samjshah of Continuous Everywhere but Differentiable Nowhere asks calculus teachers, How do you introduce integrals?

• In case you missed it in the Carnival of Mathematics, I’m re-linking to Michael Croucher’s Full versions of historical mathematical texts (for free!), posted at Walking Randomly.

• And it’s not really about teaching, but Leena of Conceptis addict has found several wall clocks that would thrill any math teacher: Time and Mathematics.

And that rounds up our second Math Teachers at Play carnival. I hope you enjoyed the ride.

The next edition of the carnival will open on March 20 at f(t). If you would like to contribute, please use this handy submission form. Posts must be relevant to students or teachers of preK-12 mathematics. Old posts are welcome, as long as they haven’t been published in past editions of this carnival.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. If you’d like to take a turn hosting the Math Teachers at Play blog carnival, speak up!