If you have trouble seeing the video, it’s here on YouTube. For more information about the singers (and lyrics to this and other songs), check out the Klein Four webpage.
P.S.: You may also enjoy the Valentine’s Day Fail over at Abstruse Goose.
Gobolink Symmetry
I admit, it doesn’t really have anything to do with math, but it looks like a fun way to spend a snowy afternoon:
According to the authors:
Jet black ink should be used, and a good quality of unglazed paper. The ink should not be too thin. The table should be protected from accident with several thicknesses of newspaper. . .
For a specially invited Gobolink party the company may dress in any grotesque fashion, remembering only that both sides of their costume shall be the same, this being a feature peculiar to Gobolink attire.
Quotable: Problem Solving
I do my best to make my students think, but they still try to become good little algorithm followers.
Head’s Up for e-Day
It’s beyond Kitten’s level and beyond my math club (what’s left of it), but for those of you who are interested, this Sunday is e Day. The only place I can remember seeing the announcement is on the blog 360:
[Do you have an e-Day post? I’d be glad add your link!]
If you’ve never heard of e before, then perhaps you are young enough (or young at heart? ;)) to enjoy celebrating his more famous cousin. Pi Day is coming next month. . .
Updates
Maria has a good introduction to e:
And Zac adds:
Pat chimes in with “something totally different”:
While Robert explains:
What is a Math Carnival?
Over at Walking Randomly, Mike has posted a great explanation with FAQs:
You can send in articles now for either carnival:
- the Carnival of Mathematics,
coming to The Endeavour this Friday,the latest edition is now posted here, - or the Math Teachers at Play carnival, which will appear at mathrecreation on February 19th.
Battlestations!!!
Nerds battle hungry football players who want to eat their giant fractal Dorito creation:
For more details on this video (and photos of the fractal’s construction), check out the Blown Apart Studios page. I’m looking forward to their next project, Nerd High, a musical comedy set in an alternate reality where nerds rule the school and jocks are the outcasts.
New Edition of Must-Read Math Book
I thought I knew math fairly well.
I thought arithmetic was boring.
I thought the reason other nations beat America in international math tests was that their students worked harder than ours.
I thought all sorts of silly things before I read Liping Ma’s Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics. Now this must-read book is coming out in a new edition, due in bookstores next week.
I can hardly wait!
In American elementary mathematics education, arithmetic is viewed as negligible, sometimes even with pity and disdain—like Cinderella in her stepmother’s house. Many people seem to believe that arithmetic is only composed of a multitude of “math facts” and a handful of algorithms. . . Who would expect that the intellectual demand for learning such a subject actually is challenging and exciting?
— Liping Ma
Arithmetic in American Mathematics Education: An Abandoned Arena?
Math Teachers at Play #22 via Math Hombre
The new Math Teachers at Play blog carnival is open at math hombre for your browsing pleasure:
The carnival features a wide variety of posts about math and teaching, along with 6 puzzle questions and a warning about the “rare but deadly Blogcarnival Catch 22.” Enjoy!
If you would like to host a future edition of Math Teachers at Play, leave a comment below or send me an email.
Quotable: College Majors
Discovered this in my blog reader this morning, and I thought you would enjoy it, too.
[Note: Stu is not the person’s real name, but is short for “student.”]
Stu came to my office looking for a new major. Stu is bad at math and can’t handle the math sequence required of business majors. So Stu was wondering what majors require the lowest level math sequence that counts towards graduation.
I listed a few.
Stu was disappointed. Stu pointed out that you don’t usually think about people in those fields as making a lot of money. Stu lamented that everything that is in demand requires math.
— Rudbeckia Hirta
Learning Curves blog
Prime Numbers Are like Monkeys
[Photo by mape_s.]
I’m afraid that Math Club may have fallen victim to the economy, which is worse in our town than in the nation in general. Homeschooling families have tight budgets even in the best of times, and now they seem to be cutting back all non-essentials. I assumed that last semester’s students would return, but I should have asked for an RSVP.
Still, Kitten and I had a fun time together. We played four rounds of Tens Concentration, since I had spread out cards on the tables in the library meeting room before we realized that no one was coming. Had to pick up the cards one way or another, so we figured we might as well enjoy them! She won the first two rounds, which put her in a good mood for our lesson.
I had written “Prime numbers are like monkeys!” on the whiteboard, and Kitten asked me what that meant. That was all the encouragement I needed to launch into my planned lesson, despite the frustrating dearth of students. The idea is taken from Danica McKellar’s book Math Doesn’t Suck.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 