## 2013 Rosenthal Prize

Preliminary applications for the 2013 Rosenthal Prize for Innovation in Math Teaching are due Friday, May 10th.

The Rosenthal Prize, presented by the Museum of Mathematics, is designed to celebrate and promote the development and sharing of creative, engaging, replicable math lessons.  The author of the winning activity receives \$25,000, and the lesson will be freely shared with teachers around the world by the Museum of Mathematics.

Although May 10th is fast approaching, this first deadline is just a preliminary one.   If the application process is anything like last year’s, all that is required at this early stage are a few short essays about teaching philosophy and the overviews of the lessons you intend to submit in the fall.  If an applicant passes through the preliminary stage, a more comprehensive application portfolio will likely be due in the fall of 2013.  Again, this assumes the process is similar to last year’s.

If you’ve got some fun, engaging, and replicable math lessons to share with the world, consider applying for the Rosenthal Prize!  More information can be found here.

## Scientific American on the Rosenthal Prize

I am proud to be featured in the Roots of Unity blog at Scientific American.

Evelyn Lamb’s piece, “Award Winning Teachers Put Math on Hands and Heads“, reports on the inaugural Rosenthal Prize for Innovation in Math Teaching, presented by the Museum of Mathematics.

As runner-up for the Rosenthal Prize, I was interviewed for the piece, and had a chance to talk about my teaching philosophy, my award-winning lesson, and the value of hands-on, collaborative activities in mathematics class.  In summarizing my approach to teaching mathematics, I said

“I want the classroom to be a place where we explore ideas together, where students can play around, experiment, collaborate, argue, create, and reflect on everything.”

The purpose of the Rosenthal Prize is to encourage and promote innovative, replicable math activities that engage and excite students.  I’m honored to be a part of this endeavor, and I look forward to more fun and creative math lessons being shared in the future.

Studying vector calculus tends to make you see space curves everywhere you go.  Here’s a conical helix (or a helical cone?).

A good way to understand the behavior of curves in space is to understand how their projections behave.  The sun does a nice job of showing us one such projection of this space curve.

This suggests a common mathematical practice:  trading a hard problem for an easier one.  Space curves can be difficult to analyze, but their projections are more easily understood.  And by understanding its projections, you can develop knowledge of the space curve itself.

Of course, it’s important to understand what information you lose through the projection, as well!

## Proof Without Words: Two Dimensional Geometric Series

I offer this visual proof of the following amazing infinite sum

$\frac{1}{4} + \frac{2}{8} + \frac{3}{16} + \frac{4}{32} + \frac{5}{64} + ... = 1$