# Category Archives: Teaching

## According to Socrates

… it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know … Continue reading

## Mathematical Sense Making

I like the following problem. It was shown by Alan Schoenfeld in his talk yesterday in Singapore. Among the many things he touched upon, he introduced the Mathematics Assessment Project which has a package of lessons for grades 6 till … Continue reading

## Fake curves

Interesting post on how a supposed trig function is actually not trig. I have to admit I used to do things like this and use the arc tool (on powerpoint) to create curves that only look vaguely like the actual … Continue reading

## Is 0 even?

I first saw this from BBC news. The aftermath of hurricane Sandy resulted in a shortage of fuel and New York City had to implement an odd-even system. The following is taken from their press release: 1) Vehicles with license … Continue reading

## Paraphrasing Russell

William Mueller in his 2001 article in the American Mathematical Monthly suggested that we could take Bertrand Russell’s quote* on philosophy and substitute it with pedagogy. So here goes Pedagogy is to be studied, not for the sake of any … Continue reading

## Why are Finland’s Schools Successful?

is an insightful article by LynNell Hancock published in the Smithsonian magazine in Sept 2011. It was recently republished in a local newspaper (strangely without reference to the original publication) and circulated by a colleague. I particularly love this para: … Continue reading

## What is real world mathematics?

According to Tim Gowers, real world mathematics is not really about disguising equations into apples and pears.

## Thurston on education

I was introducing mathoverflow to a student and wanted to show him that world class mathematicians hang out there. In the list of top contributors I saw Thurston’s name and pointed it out to the student. Of course the name … Continue reading

## Magic formula

Was grading some student work and noticed that when they are supposed to solve for $\left(\frac{5y}{4}-\frac{1}{2}\right)^2 +\frac{1}{16} = 1$, 10 out of 16 students expanded the above into a quadratic equation and then used the quadratic formula to get … Continue reading

Posted in Algebra, Teaching | 2 Comments

## MOOC

stands for Massive Online Open Course. Not exactly a very recent concept since some universities have already been making their courses online for years. The “novel” bit perhaps lie in universities or institutions going out to woo international audiences, even … Continue reading

## Of Dice and Math

With apologies to steinbeck. An article by Posamentier on how he taught arithmetic of fractions through applications to dice games. There is often talk of making mathematics relevant to students. This is important, but only when it relates to the … Continue reading

## My infallible calculator

A student came to me today and asked if there was something wrong with my notes because I claimed that $\sin x \ge 0$ for $x \in [2k\pi, (2k+1)\pi]$. The reason that I was wrong was that … Continue reading

## Writing mathematics

The literal physical act of writing out mathematics, I believe, helps in our learning. Even if it was just plain old brainlessly copying down what the lecturer is writing helps to a certain extent. But teaching locally has regressed “evolved” … Continue reading

## The Problem with Word Problem

is the title of Keith Devlin’s May 2010 column. I especially agree with his view that at times when we try to make maths “authentic”, we are actually alienating students because we and students as well are still only think … Continue reading

## It’s Pi Day today

A little creative tinkering yielded this mnemonic for $\pi$ Pi (apologies, latex died) to 15 places. “How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving Euclid’s algorithm” I’ve substituted “quantum mechanics” with “Euclid’s algorithm”, not exactly … Continue reading

## In Praise of Lectures

is a short article rewritten by Thomas Korner about how students should view lectures in mathematics. It should be compulsory reading for all undergraduate maths majors. Note that his webpage is aptly named Korner’s korner.

Posted in Teaching | 1 Comment

## I heart* my TI-84

my department (a.k.a academic group) loaned me a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition because students here are all supposed to be equipped with one. I just love how I’m learning new mathematics everyday with the TI-84. For example, 1) Andrew Wiles … Continue reading

## pendulum waves

Great video illustrating waves with 15 pendulums. Watch to the end to see the pendulums make one complete cycle. First saw this via john d cook.