Through Math for America, I am part of an on-going collaboration with the New York Times Learning Network. My latest contribution, a Test Yourself quiz-question, can be found here:
Test Yourself Math — January 7, 2013
This problem is based on the reported salaries of top hedge fund managers. How many average US household incomes is the yearly salary of the founder of SAC Capital Advisors equivalent to?
I like how this piece of playground equipment is designed to demonstrate some mathematics: the braces are color-coded by degree. For example, the blue braces are vertices of degree 6; the red braces are vertices of degree 5; and the green braces are vertices of degree 4.
The color-coding makes it easy to see the overlap of polygons here, too: around each red vertex is a pentagon, and around each blue vertex is a hexagon.
I’m pretty sure this is a bit of cheat as far as regularity goes, but it’s still a nice piece to play with!
Through Math for America, I am part of an on-going collaboration with the New York Times Learning Network. My latest contribution, a Test Yourself quiz-question, can be found here:
Test Yourself Math — January 2, 2013
This question deals with the economics of schools districts that are turning to online learning programs in the face of budget cuts. How far below the state average is the school budget in Manchester, NH, a district that is looking to adopt online learning programs?
A nice consequence of maintaining a blog is that it makes reflecting on the year easy and convenient. And 2012 was quite a busy year! Here are a few math and teaching highlights.
In March, I ran a workshop at the Celebration of Teaching and Learning that focused mathematical writing. I wrote a piece for the CTL blog, and was inspired to put together some additional resources on getting students writing in math class.
In April, I spoke at TEDxNYED on creativity and mathematics. My talk can be seen on the TED website here.
In July, I visited the White House for a roundtable discussion on President Obama’s proposed National STEM Master Teacher Corps. I was even photographed with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan!
Also in July, I attended the Bridges Math and Art Conference, and I’ve posted a number of images of some of the beautiful artwork on display there.
In September, my piece “N Ways to Apply Algebra With The New York Times” ran in the NYT Learning Network. The piece, a response to Andrew Hacker’s controversial OpEd “Is Algebra Necessary?”, generated a lot of great comments and ended up being the third-most-viewed lesson on the LN in 2012.
In October, I posted “This is Not a Trig Function“, which not only generated a lot of great discussion, but also caught the attention of a Fields Medalist! I also briefly appeared in this Relatively Prime podcast on mathematics education.
In November, I ran a workshop at the TIME 2000 conference on combinatorial dancing, and I was honored to be interviewed over at Math-Frolic!.
And in December, I was named runner-up for the inaugural Rosenthal Prize for Innovation in Math Teaching by the Museum of Mathematics.
All in all, it was a fun, productive, and busy year! I look forward to a great 2013, and hopefully a little more downtime.
Happy New Year to all!
Related Posts
Here are the most popular posts from MrHonner.com for 2012.
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| This is Not a Trig Function | The Algebra of Coffee Consumption | Which Triangle is More Equilateral? 2012 Edition |
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| Proof Without Words | Why Write in Math Class? | Another Embarrassingly Bad Exam Question |