Monthly Archives: February 2009
Friday Random 10 for 2/27/09
Haven’t done one of these in a while, so… Simplify (Wes King, A Room Full of Stories) Let’s Groove (Earth Wind & Fire, Best of EWF Volume 2) When I Look at the World (U2, All That You Can’t Leave … Continue reading
Comments Off
Filed under Friday Random 10, Music, Weekly features
Why do we overcomplicate calculus like this?
Image via Wikipedia In the Stewart calculus text, which we use here, the first chapter is essentially a precalculus review. The second chapter opens up with a treatment of tangent lines and velocities, with the idea of secant line slopes … Continue reading
Thank you, and updates
First of all, you may have noticed I am again posting after a lengthy hiatus following the birth of our third child. He’s 5 weeks old now, and we are beginning to return to some kind of routine in our … Continue reading
Filed under Blog announcements, Casting Out Nines
“Maths as Latin Mass” in Australia
Image via Wikipedia Down under, the Australians are going through many of the same arguments about mathematics education that we are here in the US. In this column from The Age, Marty Ross — who holds a PhD in mathematics … Continue reading
Filed under Education, Math, Student culture, Teaching
“This is a science course. Lasers are not voodoo.”
The teacher who graded this dismal paper from a physics class is either a lot braver than I am or cares a lot less about his/her relationships with students; and s/he certainly has better artistic skills and a lot more … Continue reading
Spreadsheets and calculus: Proceed with caution
Spreadsheets are one of the most underrated tools available for doing and learning mathematics, especially calculus. At my college we include spreadsheets as a central tool for our Calculus I course and use them every chance we get. But as … Continue reading
Filed under Calculus, Math, Teaching, Technology
