Monthly Archives: January 2010
MATLAB course details and update
We start classes this week, a bit later than most other folks thanks to our January term. That means the long-awaited MATLAB course will be formally kicking off. I’ve had a few people ask me about what we’re doing in … Continue reading
Filed under Computer algebra systems, MATLAB, Teaching, Technology
Fractal Doritos!
Students and faculty at University Preparatory School in Redding, CA have created the world’s largest Sierpinski triangle constructed entirely out of Doritos. (Well, it’s probably the only one, but still.) It is 64 feet long and made out of 12,000 … Continue reading
Filed under Geekhood, High school, Math
Friday Random 10: 1/29/2010
Happy Friday to all: Without The Light (Kelly Joe Phelps, Roll Away the Stone) Partita #3, Menuet II (Paul Galbraith, Bach: The Sonatas and Partitas) Tenderoni (Chromeo, Fancy Footwork) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (The Beatles, White Album) Jump Up! (Imagination Movers, For … Continue reading
Filed under Friday Random 10, Music, Personal, Weekly features
Girls inheriting math anxiety from female teachers?
The LA Times reports on a study suggesting that female elementary school teachers who are anxious about math transmit that anxiety to the girls in their classes: Girls have long embraced the stereotype that they’re not supposed to be good … Continue reading
Filed under Early education, Education, Teaching
A school for grown-ups
My 6-year old is in kindergarten and fascinated by school and schoolteachers. Last week she asked me: “Daddy, are you a teacher?” I told her I was. “What’s your school?” I told her I teach at a college. “What’s a … Continue reading
Filed under Education, High school, Higher ed, Life in academia, Student culture
Friday Random 10: 1/22/2010
It’s Friday again, so for your musical pleasure: Bad Dream (Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, Essential Chicago Blues) All About Love (Earth Wind & Fire, Essential EWF) No Such Thing (John Mayer, Room for Squares) Look Mama (Howard Jones, The Best … Continue reading
Filed under Friday Random 10, Music, Personal, Weekly features
Courses and “something extra”
Some of the most valuable courses I took while I was in school were so because, in addition to learning a specific body of content (and having it taught well), I picked up something extra along the way that turned … Continue reading
Piecewise-linear calculus, part 3: Integration
This is probably the last of three articles on how piecewise-linear functions could be used as a helpful on-ramp to the big ideas in calculus. In the first article, we saw how it’s possible to develop some of the main … Continue reading
Friday Random 10: 1/15/2010
It’s that time of the week again: Heart of the Heartland (various, Lewis & Clark soundtrack) The Maker of Noses (Rich Mullins, The World As Best As I Remember It, vol 2) Shot of Love (King’s X, Out of the … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Unexpected kudos
Last night I received this email from my colleague Dan Callon, who is at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco: Robert, I went to a session at the national joint meetings tonight on Wolfram|Alpha, sponsored by the MAA Special … Continue reading
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Filed under Casting Out Nines, Technology, Wolfram|Alpha
