Mr Honner

08/21/2018 — Happy Derangement Day!

Today we celebrate a Derangement Day! Usually I call a day like today a Permutation Day because the digits of the day and month can be rearranged to form the year, but there’s something extra special about today’s date:

The numbers of the month and day are a derangement of the year: that is, they are a permutation of the digits of the year in which no digit remains in its original place!Derangements pop up in some interesting places, and are connected to many rich mathematical ideas. The question “How many derangements of n objects are there?” is a fun and classic application of the principle of inclusion-exclusion. Derangements also figure in to some calculations of e and rook polynomials.

So enjoy Derangement Day! Today, it’s ok to be totally out of order.

By MrHonner, 8 yearsAugust 21, 2018 ago

81818

The numbers in today’s date were too compelling to ignore.

Happy rotational symmetry / double-reflective symmetry / palindrome day!

Resources

NYSMTP Summer Conference

Next week I’ll be attending and presenting at the New York State Master Teacher Program’s annual Summer Conference at SUNY Cortland.

The NYSMTP summer conference brings together Master Teachers from around New York state for two days of professional learning and networking. The theme of this year’s conference is “Convergence”, and features presentations from Dr. C. Alex Young from NASA, mathematician Steven Strogatz from Cornell, and New York’s Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia.

I’ll be presenting Scratch Across the Math Curriculum with Dan Anderson, a Master Teacher from New York’s Central Region. Dan and I will be sharing our work bringing computer science into math class using the Scratch programming language. This is a continuation of the work I’ve been sharing at workshops and conferences across the country the past several years.

I’m proud to be a part of the NYS Master Teacher program through Math for America, the NYC-based organization that served as a model for the state program, and I’m grateful to MfA for their support in participating in events like the NYSMTP’s summer conference.

Appreciation Numbers

08/12/2018 — Happy Permutation Day!

Today we celebrate a Permutation Day! I call days like today permutation days because the digits of the day and the month can be rearranged to form the year.

In addition to being a Permutation Day, today’s date can also be read as a palindromic number, since 81218 reads the same forwards and backwards.

Celebrate Permutation Day by mixing things up! Try doing things in a different order today. Just remember, for some operations, order definitely matters.

By MrHonner, 8 yearsAugust 12, 2018 ago

Resources

Story Collider Podcast

I performed at a Story Collider event earlier this year and now my story is featured on their podcast!

The mission of the Story Collider is to share true, personal stories about science. Their latest podcast is titled Loneliness: Stories About Finding Friends, and it features my story about how my relationship with math has changed over the course of my life and career. It also includes a poignant story from physicist Cindy Joe about her experience working at Fermilab and her pet snail.

You can find the podcast, and the transcript of my story here, and you can see a video of my talk here.

08/21/2018 — Happy Derangement Day!

81818

NYSMTP Summer Conference

08/12/2018 — Happy Permutation Day!

Story Collider Podcast

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