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LOGIN: http://tinyurl.com/math20event Mind the Daylight Saving Time! Geoff Roulet and Jill Lazarus will discuss their use of wikis, GeoGebra and Jing with students, and invite participants for an extended DIY exploration. More details concerning the software required are below. All events in the Math Future weekly series: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/events The recording will be at: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/SupportingCollaborativeMath Your time zone: http://bit.ly/z69yzS About Blended Mathematical Collaboration using a Wiki, GeoGebra and Jing This discussion centers on the use of computer tools in a high school class. The goal was to develop a "math-talk learning community" to establish mathematics communication and collaboration as a classroom norm. In support of this we have combined the use of a wiki, GeoGebra, and Jing. We would like to invite educators who have experience with wikis, GeoGebra and screencasts, or who would like to learn more, to discuss our project and share their ideas. Event Hosts Geoff is the skipper of and Jill a crew member on Jeannie, a J35 racing yacht. When not sailing, they are mathematics educators. After graduate work at the University of Waterloo, Geoff Roulet began teaching mathematics, computer science, and chemistry at Roland Michener Secondary School in Timmins, northern Ontario. In the late 1970s, when personal computers for computer science were placed in the back of his classroom, Geoff began using these to support student learning in mathematics. Since then he has been involved in ICT use in teaching and learning at all grades and in all subjects, but with a particular focus on mathematics. Teaching was followed by a short spell of curriculum development and support work with the Ontario Ministry of Education and then in 1990 a move to the Faculty of Education, Queen's University at Kingston. Along the way Geoff completed M.Ed. and D.Ed. degrees at the Ontario Institute for Studies

This unit gives a historical background to mathematics education in South Africa, to outcomes-based education and to the national curriculum statement for mathematics. The traditional approach to teaching mathematics is then contrasted with an approach to teaching mathematics that focuses on 'doing' mathematics, and mathematics as a science of pattern and order, in which learners actively explore mathematical ideas in a conducive classroom environment.

The objective of this site is to show examples of thinking in math, whether it is original solutions from students of problems, or ways to include an inquiry based approach in mathematics education. The idea for the project came from Chris Hunter as a comment on a blog post. I, David Wees, think it is such a terrific idea that I am working on implementing it. I welcome ideas and input from anyone who is interested and would like to help support student thinking in mathematics. Please send an email with your example of original mathematical thinking by a student, or an example of a project students can do to support inquiry in mathematics

Abstract: "The purpose of this chapter is to provide pedagogical strategies and discuss ideas about teaching mathematics using GeoGebra that promote effective use of visualization in a technology-integrated dynamic environment. The author describes his work with prospective secondary mathematics teachers enrolled in a methods course. The results of the study revealed that their perspectives on teaching and learning mathematics with technology were enriched as they worked individually and in small groups to develop and present lessons with GeoGebra, suggesting that creating a collaborative environment for our prospective teachers is as important as incorporating dynamic mathematics software into our teacher education courses." (Full text requires subscription or purchase)

Report from the National Academies. Summary: "The mathematical sciences are part of nearly all aspects of everyday life-the discipline has underpinned such beneficial modern capabilities as Internet search, medical imaging, computer animation, numerical weather predictions, and all types of digital communications. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025 examines the current state of the mathematical sciences and explores the changes needed for the discipline to be in a strong position and able to maximize its contribution to the nation in 2025. It finds the vitality of the discipline excellent and that it contributes in expanding ways to most areas of science and engineering, as well as to the nation as a whole, and recommends that training for future generations of mathematical scientists should be re-assessed in light of the increasingly cross-disciplinary nature of the mathematical sciences. In addition, because of the valuable interplay between ideas and people from all parts of the mathematical sciences, the report emphasizes that universities and the government need to continue to invest in the full spectrum of the mathematical sciences in order for the whole enterprise to continue to flourish long-term."

Book to be published in November 2011

Published in 2011, "reveals the secrets of amazing, fun-to-perform card tricks--and the profound mathematical ideas behind them--that will astound even the most accomplished magician. ... Each card trick introduces a new mathematical idea, and varying the tricks in turn takes readers to the very threshold of today's mathematical knowledge. For example, the Gilbreath Principle--a fantastic effect where the cards remain in control despite being shuffled--is found to share an intimate connection with the Mandelbrot set. Other card tricks link to the mathematical secrets of combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, topology, the Riemann hypothesis, and even Fermat's last theorem." Read more about one of the authors here: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Magical-Mind-of-Persi/129404/

"Calls are frequently heard for improving schooling by closing the gap between children's life out-of-school and traditional learning styles, and by broadening the space and span for life-long learning opportunities. The Math4Mobile development endeavors to engage all students with mathematical ideas. It provides a collection of tools that could be included in a variety of activities to support students' mathematical skills, conceptual understanding, and creative mathematical thinking. "

"Beautiful Mathematics is about beautiful mathematical concepts and creations. Mathematical ideas have an aesthetic appeal that can be appreciated by those who have the time and dedication to investigate. Mathematical topics are presented in the categories of words, images, formulas, theorems, proofs, solutions, and unsolved problems. Readers will investigate exciting mathematical topics ranging from complex numbers to arithmetic progressions, from Alcuin's sequence to the zeta function, and from hypercubes to infinity squared." (MAA, 2011)

Published by University of Chicago Press, July 2012. "Math and science hold powerful places in contemporary society, setting the foundations for entry into some of the most robust and highest-paying industries. However, effective math and science education is not equally available to all students, with some of the poorest students-those who would benefit most-going egregiously underserved. This ongoing problem with education highlights one of the core causes of the widening class gap. While this educational inequality can be attributed to a number of economic and political causes, in Empowering Science and Mathematics Education in Urban Communities, Angela Calabrese Barton and Edna Tan demonstrate that it is augmented by a consistent failure to integrate student history, culture, and social needs into the core curriculum. They argue that teachers and schools should create hybrid third spaces-neither classroom nor home-in which underserved students can merge their personal worlds with those of math and science. A host of examples buttress this argument: schools where these spaces have been instituted now provide students not only an immediate motivation to engage the subjects most critical to their future livelihoods but also the broader math and science literacy necessary for robust societal engagement. A unique look at a frustratingly understudied subject, Empowering Science and Mathematics Education pushes beyond the idea of teaching for social justice and into larger questions of how and why students participate in math and science. " Excerpts in Google Books

"This is a rather unusual structure for organizing mathematical content, but offers an exciting opportunity for teachers across the nation and abroad to exchange ideas and discuss what they teach. This Wiki will address the underlying central concepts and propose activities that also provide rich opportunity to engage students in the Mathematical Practices. "

"In this article we introduce the free educational mathematics software GeoGebra. This open source tool extends concepts of dynamic geometry to the fields of algebra and calculus. You can use GeoGebra both as a teaching tool and to create interactive web pages for students from middle school up to college level. Specifically designed for educational purposes, GeoGebra can help you to foster experimental, problem-oriented and discovery learning of mathematics. We will illustrate the basic ideas of the software and some of its versatile possibilities by discussing several interactive examples."

In Educator's Algebra I course, instructor Dr. Grant Fraser walks you through the building blocks of mathematics, starting from Functions, Graphs, and Inequalities, to Factoring, Polynomials, and Rational Expressions. Utilizing his 27 years of teaching experience, UCLA educated (Ph.D and B.S.) Professor Fraser carefully explains each concept from multiple angles to ensure learners of any math ability can master Algebra. Dr. Fraser finishes off every idea with a reinforcing example in addition to the four worked-out video examples and things to remember at the end of each lecture.

first mathematics education seminar: Understanding Abstract Concepts in the Context of Abstract Algebra. Mathematics is a science of numbers, quantity, and space. All of the listed components are abstract ideas. How do we learn abstraction?"

Mount Holyoke physics professor Mark Peterson argues that Galileo's applications of mathematics to Dante's Inferno laid the groundwork for his later discoveries (to be expanded on in a forthcoming book: ""Galileo's Muse: Renaissance Mathematics and the Arts" )

Emaths is an interactive site, allowing teachers of mathematics to share ideas and resrouces. Teachers should check this out - look under 4Teachers link for lessons and interactives. The site contains a huge amount of free resrouces for any teacher of mathematics. Emaths was established in 2004 as a way of sharing materials. It has always been entirely free to use, and always will be.

Researchers from Notre Dame and Harvard, in a paper to be published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, discuss Soviet mathematicians' movement to U.S. institutions following the breakup of the Soviet Union, how Soviet mathematical study engaged in different areas of specialization from that of the west, and subsequently "a flood of new mathematicians, theorems and ideas."

Subtitled "A Place for Elegant Solutions." From the author's description: "This blog is a presentation of the interesting solutions I come across, and an exploration of the deeper mathematical ideas therein. Most often this means exploring the mathematical structure of a problem to lubricate the cogs of algorithm design. In seldom cases, this involves using programs to reason about mathematical theory."

David Tall, emeritus professor from Warwick in the UK, published this book in 2013, and this links to his summary and a sample chapter. His papers and other math resources are on his website: http://homepages.warwick.ac.uk/staff/David.Tall/index.html

Math is a game, playing with ideas. This blog is about learning, teaching, and just playing around with K-12 mathematics.

From rockets to stock markets, many of humanity's most thrilling creations are powered by math. So why do kids lose interest in it? Conrad Wolfram says the part of math we teach -- calculation by hand -- isn't just tedious, it's mostly irrelevant to real mathematics and the real world. He presents his radical idea: teaching kids math through computer programming.