09.11.07
Tuesday reading list and DITL
Today I’ll be attending the Fall Teaching Conference sponsored by the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. The math department, especially the preceptors, collaborate a lot with the Bok Center in the training of graduate student teaching fellows. I’ve given several talks in these conferences, but I’m free this year.
There are sessions on teaching and learning in the conference. Erin Driver-Linn will speak on “The Confused Problem-Solver in Math and Science,” presenting research on student learning Ryan Hickox will speak on “Successful Science Sections”, a nuts-and-bolts session. There will be panel discussions, case studies, all kinds of great stuff.
One of my favorite Bok Center talks was given by a colleague of mine, talking about the importance of the first day. He decided to create the worst example of first-day teaching and model it without telling the audience. He showed up late, he mumbled, he looked disheveled, he forgot his handouts. Someone asked a question and he said, “What a stupid question!” Fortunately, most of the attendants either figured it out or waited long enough for Andy to reveal the ruse. That’s something I wouldn’t be able to pull off!
The conference runs every Fall and Spring (two days in the Fall, one in the Spring), and features one of the more famous free lunches on campus.
Links for today:
- We All Use Math Every Day: a set of learning modules created by TI linked to episodes of Numb3rs. I’ve blogged before that Numb3rs is kind of realistic, IMO.
- Homework Guidelines: extremely appropriate advice to students on how to prepare and present their homework, both physically and logically
- TIME BANDITS: The New Yorker: A review of a biography of Kurt Gödel including his interactions with Einstein at Princeton
- rst2a: a new package of tools (with a web services API) to convert reStructured Text to “anything” (as long as “anything” means HTML and PDF). I love RST and use it all the time.
- Gotta love xkcd
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Bret Benesh said,
September 11, 2007 at 7:19 am
Do you think that it is really true that “we all use math every day?” I know that this is not the main topic of this post, but I’m asking you anyway.
leingang said,
September 11, 2007 at 7:36 am
Well, Bret, you and I certainly do.
Does everybody use math every day? I think the answer to that is yes as well. Although I guess not everybody does a math problem every day, we always have to process information and express ourselves qualitatively. Whether it’s reading a newspaper or counting change or keeping track of your fantasy football team, numbers are everywhere, and where there are numbers, there is math. And of course there are the other branches of math, which I think we also use a lot.
And I think another point of the website is that we all benefit from math every day, too. The computers we use and the bits that they send over the internet (oh, and the internet, too), wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for math. I think it would be hard to swing your arms around and not hit something that didn’t require math to create. Unless you’re out in a forest, but there’s math there to be observed, too.
Bret Benesh said,
September 11, 2007 at 10:13 am
I agree with everything you said - particularly the point about (most) everybody benefiting from math every day.
Here is what I suppose I was really asking (still in devil’s advocate mode): after, say, 8th grade math, does any of the math that we study significantly help us interpret the everyday math more fluently? At least, in any measurable amount? I could keep track of fantasy sports teams in middle school, read a newspaper, and count change. This is not simply because I was particularly gifted at math - I would guess that well over half of Americans could do these things without any high school math.
Response?