"Abstract
What does it mean to have random numbers? Without understanding where a group of
numbers came from, it is impossible to know if they were randomly generated. However,
common sense claims that if the process to generate these numbers is truly understood,
then the numbers could not be random. Methods that are able to let their internal
workings be known without sacrificing random results are what this paper sets out to
describe. Beginning with a study of what it really means for something to be random, this
paper dives into the topic of random number generators and summarizes the key areas. It
covers the two main groups of generators, true-random and pseudo-random, and gives
practical examples of both. To make the information more applicable, real life examples
of currently used and currently available generators are provided as well. Knowing the
how and why of a number sequence without knowing the values that will come is
possible, and this thesis explains how it is accomplished."
LOG IN January 24th 9pm ET: http://tinyurl.com/MathFutureEvent
Music and mathematics have been linked together for thousands of years, but rarely have students had the opportunity to explore the many connections that exist between them. To try to fill this gap, Mike Thayer of Hyperbolic Guitars is developing a course. At the event, we will discuss the course outline, as well as math and music links in general.
All events in the Math Future weekly series: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/events
The recording will be at http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/HyperbolicGuitarsCourse
Event challenge!
Help Mike find a resource - a web page, a video, a music piece - to go with one of the topics in the course outline. Full syllabus and details of the outline:
http://hyperbolicguitars.wikispaces.com/Math+%26+Music+Course
Major topics:
What is sound, anyway?
The physics of waves
The mathematics of waves
Resonance
Elasticity
The generation of sound by "simple" systems
The vibrating string
The vibrating rod
The vibrating plate (e.g., drumhead or cymbal)
Open and closed pipes
The Helmholtz resonator (--> the vocal chords)
White noise, pink noise
The concept of "timbre"
The perception of sound
Human listeners
Other "listeners": Digital recording
The interaction between the generator and the listener: the science of acoustics
What makes sound become music?
What does a listener "listen for" in music?
Basics of music and musical notation: Musical descriptions
Basics of music: Psycho-physical (auditory) descriptions
What makes sound "musical" (
LOG IN February 22, 2012 at 2pm Eastern US time: http://tinyurl.com/math20event
During the event, John Mason will lead a conversation about multiplication as scaling, and answer questions about his books, projects and communities.
All events in the Math Future weekly series: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/events
The recording will be at: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/JohnMason
Your time zone: http://bit.ly/wQYN1Y
Event challenge!
What good multiplication tasks about scaling do you know?
Share links and thoughts!
John writes about elastic multiplication: "It is often said that 'multiplication is repeated addition' when what is meant is that 'repeated addition is an instance of multiplication'. I have been developing some tasks which present 'scaling as multiplication' based around familiarity with elastic bands. Participants would benefit from having an elastic (rubber) band to hand which they have cut so as to make a strip; wider is better than thinner if you have a choice."
About John Mason
John Mason has been teaching mathematics ever since he was asked to tutor a fellow student when he was fifteen. In college he was at first unofficial tutor, then later an official tutor for mathematics students in the years behind him, while tutoring school students as well. After a BSc at Trinity College, Toronto in Mathematics, and an MSc at Massey College, Toronto, he went to Madison Wisconsin where he encountered Polya's film 'Let Us Teach Guessing', and completed a PhD in Combinatorial Geometry. The film released a style of teaching he had experienced at high school from his mathematics teacher Geoff Steel, and his teaching changed overnight.
His first appointment was at the Open University, which involved among other things the design and implementation of the first mathematics summer school (5000 students over 11 weeks on three sites in parallel). He called upon his experience of being taught, to institute active-problem-solving sessions, w
"Technology has inevitably been inserted to nearly all aspects of our lives today. First and foremost, the use of computerised cash registers have been around for a few decades now. Trying to remember cash registers which operated without a digital display might be nearly impossible. The generation which might be able to do so has been replaced with a new generation who depend on technology to a large degree. The dependence on new technology is starting to 'show signs' of the effect of converting from our analogue counterparts. Below is an example that I recently experienced the effect of technology in a transaction at a doughnut shop."
Make maths worksheets with this tool from microsoft. Just write one example question and the program will generate more questions of the same type and even provide an answer sheet.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths
A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes-measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation-was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K-12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K-12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education).
ix
A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. ***The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.*** The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes-measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation-was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K-12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K-12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education).
ix
The goal of HippoCampus is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge.
Lots of free online courses
The goal of HippoCampus is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge.
Lots of free online courses some cross referenced to textbooks.
This is a wonderfully simple maths quiz site with a good collection of activities for the 4 operations. Choose your category and get 10 randomly generated questions to answer.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths
Abstract: "n this study we explored the impact of performing mathematical tasks presented in the context of an
"adventure challenge" or a "mathematical challenge" in a videogame. This videogame - "Matemáquina
do Tempo" - is being developed to facilitate learning of mathematical skills like counting, grouping,
and relating numbers. The videogame consists in various movement control tasks with dynamic (e.g.,
running) and static (e.g., pointing) interactions. Our goal was to test the impact of the integration of a
direct mathematical task versus an indirect mathematical task. A group of 18 five year-old children
performed the game in two conditions: a)
adventure challenge
, which implied movements such as
running or climbing trees to perform mathematical tasks of counting and grouping; and
b)
mathematical challenge
, which included swimming after selecting the correct path through counting,
followed by a direct mathematical task of pointing to organize numbers in a line. Our assumptions
were evaluated according to questionnaires and video analysis of the children playing the game.
Results confirmed our hypothesis, showing that players performing the mathematical challenge
generally considered that they were learning with the game, and most agreeing that the game was
fun. Participants in the adventure challenge condition on the other hand, showed a tendency to
evaluate the game as
very amusing
and were more distributed in the learning evaluation. In
conclusion, we suggest that the inclusion of direct mathematical tasks in the videogame might lead to
increased perception of learning, although they also seem to result in lower amusement ratings."
"Mathics is a general-purpose computer algebra system. Enter queries and submit them by pressing Shift + Return. See the gallery for some neat examples or the documentation for a full list of supported functions. Mathics uses MathJax to display beautiful math."
From the abstract: "The purpose of this study was to find out from current high school math teachers, of geometry specifically, what their views of technology are. The goal of the study was to ask these teachers which technologies they use and whether they believe technology has beneficial effects on student learning. Data was collected for the survey by asking teachers to take brief electronic surveys and conduct in-person interviews. All questions in both the survey and interviews were focused on the effects of technology that they see in their classrooms. The scope of the participants was restricted to Columbus, Ohio, and thus, generalizations for any classroom or any school building cannot be made. However, this study did find a consensus among the participants as to which technologies they felt were the most beneficial in their classrooms, as well as those that might not be needed at all in a classroom. The three technologies that these teachers claimed to be the most beneficial were SMART boards, TI-nspire calculators and Geometer's Sketchpad/GeoGebra. Again, this study cannot make solid conclusions, but it is safe to say that this study gives insight into teachers' viewpoints, which, in a sense, are more important than those of outside researchers. The teachers agreed on a few technologies that are the most beneficial and thus future studies should focus on really studying the effects of these technologies as well as focus on getting a wider range of teachers' opinions on this topic."
"Kill Math is my umbrella project for techniques that enable people to model and solve meaningful problems of quantity using concrete representations and intuition-guided exploration. In the long term, I hope to develop a widely-usable, insight-generating alternative to symbolic math."
Abstract: "Middle school students lack efficient problem solving skills due to several factors. The writing
process has been linked to the development of students' problem solving skills. The present study
investigated the impact of the writing process on the mathema
tical problem solving skills for middle
grades students. N = 96 students participated in a six weeks, after school STEM program, and they
were randomly assigned into two groups: one focused on the writing process with mathematical
problem solving and the o
ther on homework/high stakes test preparation with mathematical
problem solving. In this quantitative study, the results provide evidence that the students from the
writing process group were more likely to generate and apply better problem solving skills
as
compared to the control group. This study further contributes to the support and importance of
integrating different subjects across the generalized learning realm"
"Math games are a great way to help students improve their math facts accuracy. These games can be general math or focus on a specific math concept such as, solving integers.
One math game is called "Fraction Face-Off." This game can also be modified to address a varied of math concepts."
Think of a computer program that generates educational worksheets, and mathematics is the kind that immediately comes to mind. The ones you find here we think are some of the best around. Try them out and see if you think so too.