Teaching

Statistics Teaching

More on College Rankings

This article in the New York Times discusses a controversy surrounding a recent ranking of colleges that put Egypt’s University of Alexandria among the top 200 universities in the world. An informed observer describes the school as “not even the best university in Alexandria“.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/education/15iht-educLede15.html

How did this school achieve such a high ranking? In a subcategory measuring the impact of research, which counted for approximately 33% of the school’s overall score, the University of Alexandria placed fourth in the world, ahead of Harvard and Stanford. Sound fishy? Seems as though most of the research citations came from one professor who published 320 articles in a journal he, himself, was in charge of.

Trying to come up with quantitative measures for colleges (or high schools, or teachers) is tricky business. Not only is it hard to agree on what to measure, but it’s tough to figure out how to measure it.

And once the rating culture sets in, gaming of the system, as seen in this particular case, will inevitably follow. “Tell me how I will be measured, and I will tell you how I will behave“. I’m not sure who said this originally, but an engineer friend shared it with me many years ago, and it always comes to mind in these situations.

Hopefully in the future, more schools will follow the example of Reed College and refuse to participate in these rankings.

By patrick honner, 13 years8 years ago

Application Teaching

Metrocard Calculations

The following article from the New York Times discusses the recent fare increase for public transit in NYC:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/m-t-a-meets-to-increase-transit-fares/

The base fare for a ride on a NYC subway or bus is now $2.25, and price changes have been made both to the monthly unlimited-ride cards and the bulk-purchase bonus rate.

For those of us who live in New York and frequently use public transit, we are faced with the following optimization problem: is it better to buy the monthly unlimited-use card for $104, or purchase some amount of “single-rides” in bulk and receive a 7% bonus?

The above Times article discusses some of the strategies and factors to consider in making this decision. In addition, it points the reader to the website www.metrocardbonuscalculator.com that allows the user to experiment with various purchasing scenarios.

Fare hikes have become more commonplace over the past few years, but reliable public transit is still a bargain. And I’d pay an extra few cents for some additional cleaning crews.

By patrick honner, 13 years8 years ago

Paradoxes, Etc

This is an engaging, if verbose, article in the NYT about logical paradoxes.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/paradoxical-truth/

There’s not much new ground covered here, but the author touches on some of the classics–the Liar’s Paradox (Is the statement “This sentence is false” true or false?), Zeno’s Paradox (you’ll never get from point A to point B because first you have to get halfway to B, say C, then halfway between C and B, say D, and so on).

The author notes that writers and philosophers love paradoxes. Students love paradoxes, too. It’s always enjoyable making a student act out Zeno’s paradox by making them get infinitely close to the board, or arguing about whether there are more even numbers or integers. And of course, everyone loves arguing about whether .999999999…. really equals 1 .

Another nice feature of this article is that the Comments section itself demonstrates a paradox: hundreds of people with nothing to say, saying plenty. It reminds me a lot of being in Philosophy class.

By patrick honner, 13 years8 years ago

Teaching

Sloan Award

I am very proud to be a 2010 recipient of the Sloan Award for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics.

The awards are given out by the Fund for the City of New York, and are sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

This award is particularly meaningful as selection is based on testimonials from current and former students, colleagues, and administrators. It is a true honor, and the award ceremony was an uplifting and humbling experience.

As many speakers mentioned–both invited guests and award winners–if more organizations like FCNY and the Sloan Foundation can celebrate teaching, perhaps that will change public discourse on education for the better.

A brief writeup of all the award winners can be found in today’s Cityroom Blog at the New York Times.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/sloan-awards-are-given-to-eight-teachers/

By patrick honner, 14 years8 years ago

Challenge Teaching

Paddling Upstream

The Canoe in the River problem is an algebra classic. You know how it goes: “Paddling upstream, it takes Betty Boater 6 hours to travel up the river to Point Apex. It takes only 3 hours for the return trip downstream to Point Bellows. If the distance between Point A. and Point B. is 15 miles, what would Betty Boater’s speed be in still water?”

Below is wonderful retelling of the Canoe in the River problem created by Dan Meyer. Using a video camera, an ipod, a quiet morning in a mall, and some great editing, this problem is brought new life in this modern and engaging context.

Check it out at http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=7649. Meyer seems to be focused on modernizing mathematics curricula, and the more stuff he does like this, the better.

And for Betty Boater’s speed, click here.

By patrick honner, 14 years8 years ago

Teaching

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