Author: Geoff
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Accuracy vs. Understanding
Let’s say you’re teaching a Grade 8 or Freshman level class. Algebra 1-ish. You’ve got some data here. x y 1 3 2 5 4 10 6 10 8 12 10 17 You want to show how data may be modeled as an equation. We could go about this two ways. We could follow some…
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If the sun is an 8 foot diameter balloon, what is Pluto?
Artifacts The following clips are cribbed from Nova: The Pluto Files in which Neil deGrasse Tyson sets up a model of the heavenly bodies of our solar system, comparing their sizes relative to the sun and each other. Not all of the clips were able to be chopped to give the appropriate bleep sound. So we…
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Hot Rod Quadratics: Let’s jump this jump!
Artifact Hot Rod is one of those movies that’s incredibly dumb the first time watching it. The second time watching it, it’s still incredibly dumb, but it gets funnier with each passing viewing. It’s basically just an excuse for Andy Samberg to to Andy Samberg things for 90 minutes. I’m ok with that. Anyway, this…
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Let them get it wrong: Caloric Quandary
Artifact & Facilitation I must have cylinders on the brain. Maybe because they’re actually one of the few traditional geometric shapes that we actually interact with on a regular basis? Maybe it’s because they’re readily measured? Anyway, here have a Coke can and one of those mini-Coke cans. Though it’s dependent on you exactly what…
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What? How do YOU spend your two-hour school delays?, Water Content in a Snow Cylinder
As anyone in town for NCTM in Denver know, it’s been a bit snowy here this week. In fact, Fort Collins just had its biggest snowfall of the year. But how big? We had a two hour school delay this morning as my daughter and I were greeted by this on our back doorstep. “Wow…
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Here are your Algebra 1 and Geometry Problem Based Learning curriculum maps.
Yes, you can do wall-to-wall PrBL. Yes, you can align your PrBL curriculum to Common Core standards. Yes, you can do it all with the help and goodwill of the math twitterblogosphere. Note that these are just the tasks. They are not the facilitation notes, the scaffolding, the assessment. Just the tasks and problems provided…
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Inheriting the wind; these are two of my favorite books about math
Baseball Prospectus I never liked baseball as a kid. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t any good at it. Maybe it’s cause I never went to a professional game. Maybe it’s because it is quite boring when you watch it on TV. Then in the late 90’s the sabermetric revolution upended the stuck-in-the-50’s baseball establishment by…
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Evaluating energy efficiency claims
Artifact This (or other) energy efficient light bulb package(s). So many opportunities here, depending on how targeted you want to be. Or, if you prefer, what kind of problem you plan to facilitate. There’s a clear nod to systems of linear equations (when one compares the time of payoff). There’s also an opportunity for some…
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How does one provide the complex data of global warming to students?
Update (3/12/2013): An atmospheric scientist friend of mine, Katie, suggested a few edits to this post, primarily to clear up a few of the tools listed here. The edits are in bold. My initial thesis on this post was originally going to be “why don’t teachers let students investigate global warming very often?” While this…
emergent math 