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Answers and Other Tidbits: The Pharaoh’s Treasure

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

[Read the story of the pharaoh’s treasure here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.]

I confess: I lied — or rather, I helped to propagate a legend. Scholars tell us that the Egyptian rope stretchers did not use a 3-4-5 triangle for right-angled corners. They say it is a myth, like the corny old story of George Washington and the cherry tree, which bounces from one storyteller to the next — as I got it from a book I bought as a library discard.

None of the Egyptian papyri that have been found show any indication that the Egyptians knew of the Pythagorean Theorem, one of the great theorems of mathematics, which is the basis for the 3-4-5 triangle. Unless a real archaeologist finds a rope like Alexandria Jones discovered in my story, or a papyrus describing how to use one, we must assume the 3-4-5 rope triangle is an unfounded rumor.

Continue reading Answers and Other Tidbits: The Pharaoh’s Treasure

Carnival, Carnival, Carnival

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

The 120th Carnival of Education is now up and running at I Thought a Think. As always, a wide variety of interesting articles to browse. Enjoy!

Carnival of MathematicsEdited to add: Oops! I missed the 8th Carnival of Mathematics last week.
My favorite posts mostly came in pairs.

Two puzzles from MathNotations:
When Curves Collide
Going off on Tangents

Two brainteasers from SharpBrains:
The Unkindest Cut of All
The Really, Really, Really Big Number

Two mind-blowing infinity puzzles that were fun to read, even though I didn’t really understand the answers:
Cats in a Tree
Dogs in a Mineshaft

And the odd-one-out is a history post:
Calculators: Past, Present and Future

My Favorite Unpopular Posts

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

I get a bit tired of the various memes [definition: things to blog about when you have no ideas of your own, a state with which I can easily identify!] that float around the blogsphere—songs from A’s iPod, irrelevant things that nobody knew about B, or C’s favorite TV commercials… But Dana at Principled Discovery has a new meme that actually looks interesting.

Objective: Share ten of your favorite posts, although they went largely unnoticed in the broader blogosphere.

Continue reading My Favorite Unpopular Posts

The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure, Part 3

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

[In the last episode, Alexandria Jones discovered a mysterious treasure: three wooden sticks, like tent pegs, and a long loop of rope with 12 evenly spaced knots. Her father explained that it was an ancient Egyptian surveyor’s tool, used to mark right angles.]

Back at the camp, Fibonacci Jones stacked multi-layer sandwiches while Alexandria poured milk and set the table for supper.

“Geometry,” Fibonacci said.

“What?”

“Geo means earth, and metry means to measure. So geometry means to measure the earth. That is what the Egyptian rope stretches did.”

Alex thought for a moment. “So in the beginning, math was just surveying?”

“And taxes…”

Continue reading The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure, Part 3

Quotations IX: A Good Student Is…

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Aaaargh! My Internet service is on the brink again. But since I had to run into my husband’s office to check email, I’ll take a few minutes to post a quick note. Here are a couple of quotes especially for teachers:

The only teaching that a professor can give, in my opinion, is that of thinking in front of his students.

— Henri Léon Lebesgue

A good student is one who will teach you something.

— Irving Kaplansky

How To Harness Metacognitive Decision-Making

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

To organize a homeschool co-op requires an awesome team of innovative planners. The e-mails keep flying as we attempt to generate dynamic problem-solving strategies. Our goal for the fall semester is to orchestrate learning intensive experiences that will encourage real-world critical thinking in our upper-level students, while at the same time maximizing developmentally- appropriate enrichment for our preschool and elementary communities.

Now you, too, can talk just like a school system bureaucrat with this handy-dandy Educational Jargon Generator. Have fun!

[Hat tip: Matthew Tabor.]

Spring, the Season for Planning…

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Oops! No Alexandria Jones post this week. My writing time has been overtaken by the monster school supply catalog (“Mom, haven’t you ordered my books yet?!“) and by yesterday’s co-op planning meeting and today’s 13 (so far!) follow up emails.

Planning a homeschool co-op is a little bit like juggling kittens. No matter how careful you are, something is going to get scratched. Several of the classes I was hoping for did not draw enough interest in the public polling, but of those that remain, I would like my students to study:

dd#1 — drama, photography, sewing, Spanish, writing, guitar, and biology lab
ds — drama, photography, writing, Spanish, guitar, PE/health, and maybe biology
dd#2 — art, sewing, cooking, music, science, and maybe PE/health
[Wouldn’t you know it, not a single one of my kids wants to take any of their mom’s math classes. 🙂 ]

Problem: We only offer three class periods. And dd#1 plans to teach karate during one of those time slots.

Well, whatever else works or doesn’t work out, I sure hope we can get the lady who took these pictures to teach that photography class.

Geometry: Can You Find the Center of a Circle?

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Is it possible that AB is a chord but NOT a diameter? That is, could circle ABC have a center that is NOT point O?

For the last couple of days, I have been playing around with this geometry puzzle. If you have a student in geometry or higher math, I recommend you print out the original post (but not the comments — it’s no fun when someone gives you the answer!) and see what he or she can do with it.

[MathNotations offers many other puzzles for 7-12th grade math students. While you are at his blog, take some time to browse past articles.]

Homeschool Burnout? 10 Tips for Coping

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

[Rescued from my old blog.]

Spring cleaning has made my desk look worse than before. Nobody feels like studying. The kids would rather be outside, and their mom would rather take a nap. Sound familiar? It is our annual attack of homeschool burnout.

If you, too, are suffering from lethargy and can’t face another day of school work, here are some ideas that have helped me:

(1) Re-read the homeschooling books on your shelves, or get some new ones from the library. Try to read about one a month, if you can, to help get your enthusiasm back. And then read at least one new homeschooling book per year to help you stay inspired.

(2) Connect with other homeschoolers. Meet with friends for tea, or have a Mom’s Night Out while Dad babysits.

(3) Attend support group meetings. I find that after so many years, I let the meetings slide. I think, I already know everything they are going to say. But being with other homeschoolers is encouraging, and if you find out that you can help a new homeschooler with advice, that gives you a boost, too.

Continue reading Homeschool Burnout? 10 Tips for Coping