Link: data tells stories if you present it right For those who doubt the power of graphs to tell a story, I just received this graph from Obama’s group, Organizing for America. This is a very nice example of how to highlight the [...]
This weekend I gave a middle school version of a keynote lecture at the local Mathcounts tournament, as a group of 5th to 8th graders finished slices of pizza and waited for the contest results to be posted. The talk actually went quite [...]
Link: Steve Strogatz explains math for the Times I seem to be falling further behind, as my opinion that the public at large is ready for actual mathematics in their lives is adopted by more and more capable people. The latest is Steve [...]
Link: How math is written Abstruse Goose, the mathy-est comic there is (even beating out xkcd.com) has this great look at how math proofs are written. I, meanwhile am in the middle of writing my thesis, and I just discovered a much [...]
How to Play Prime Climb The Beautiful Mathematical Colorful Game Prime Climb is a game of strategy and luck for 2-4 players. Time: Roughly 10 minutes per player. Recommended for ages 10 and up. In the Box Prime Climb board 24 Prime [...]
I have begun teaching two, not one, but two sections of differential equations this quarter, and immediately, the classes are different from each other. In one, the students contribute, respond, emote; in the other, I feel like I’m [...]
Link: Massive Multiplayer Mathematics
Link: My response to the question: What could be done to make math seem less uncool? Here are a few suggestions: 1. Take student questions seriously. In my experience, students aren’t born disliking math, and probably everyone is [...]
Link: Gelfand Passes The mathematician Israel Gelfand died today. His obituary contrasts the direction of his work—fundamental and tool developing—with his advisor’s, which was more ambitious and difficult to follow. More and more, [...]
One of the remarkable things about learning math is that steps forward in understanding require a kind of forgetting. Everything always looks simple in retrospect; it’s letting go of your biases that prevent you from learning that is [...]
I had a little progress on my thesis work, recently. Essentially, I was able to prove what form a composition of transformations would take in the most general case. I had a hunch (and a hope) that it would be the simplest thing I could [...]
I’ve been terribly delinquent about posting here recently. I’ve just finished my second week of my summer course, Turtles All the Way Down, which I’ve been teaching through the Robinson Center at the University of Washington. I have [...]
Get tons of free content, like our Games to Play at Home packet, puzzles, lessons, and more!