Group items tagged

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."

"New president is a nationally known math professor and educational innovator" "In 1997, Burger became one of the first individuals to make instructional mathematics videos accessible to a broader audience through mediums such as CD-ROMs and the Internet. Since then, he has created more than 3,000 such videos covering the curriculum from kindergarten through college-level mathematics that are watched by millions of people from around the world. "

Summaries of presentations from a symposium at Florida International University in 2012

Motivation and Disposition: Pathways to Learning Mathematics - 73rd Yearbook (2011) Product Description Daniel J. Brahier, Volume Editor and William R. Speer, General Editor "Teaching mathematics is a much broader endeavor than simply helping students to acquire skills and problem-solving strategies. ...NCTM's seventy-third yearbook examines such elements as the demographic composition of a school; the role of movies, television, and the Internet; and nontraditional pedagogy as means of promoting and influencing positive student and teacher dispositions." Of particular interest is Chapter 9 "What Motivates Mathematically Talented Young Women?," which evidently reports on high school girls at a summer camp. Available for .pdf download via purchase, or in a library: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/715171259

Abstract "This article reports on a case study of the web-based educational maths application, Mathletics. The findings are drawn from an ethnographic study of children's technology use in Melbourne, Australia. We explore the experience, governance and commerce of children's Mathletics use, and offer insights into the developing possibilities and challenges emerging through the adoption of Web 2.0 applications for learning and education." (Full text requires subscription or purchase)

Digitization project at Cambridge University

in "A Letter to the Mathematics Community" Elsevier confirms its withdrawal of support for the Research Works Act, the number of open mathematics journals it publishes, clarifies policies on self-archiving of mathematics papers, and announces establishment of a "scientific council for mathematics."

Kristine Fowler, mathematics librarian at the University of Minnesota, shares results from a survey of mathematicians concerning how they want to be able to reuse their work, discusses alternatives to standard copyright contracts and urges scholars and institutions to be aware of not only their options but the rights they may cede in entering into publishing agreements.

"Why Learn It (WLI) aims to address the issue of motivation around learning math by helping students explore the beauty and relevance of what they would otherwise dismiss as inconsequential in school. Targeting late middle-school and early high-school students, WLI takes a hybrid approach to cultivat- ing motivation. It leverages the engagement value of short (approximately three-minute long) videos depicting real people talking about how math and computational thinking are critical to their successes in a number of professional areas. Students then complete a series of interactive exercises that help students explore an application area discussed in the video in more detail. These exercises, however, are not simply drill problems aimed at making students experts in a particular content area. Instead, they are multi-step assignments that require the students to draw upon both detailed mathematical knowledge and a big picture view of how this knowledge can be used to draw useful, meaningful conclusions. The exercises are focused on bridging the worlds of number, images, and sounds in or- der to help students build intuition around a particular topic. Therefore, while some questions have objectively correct responses, others require students to gather knowledge they have built through answering previous questions within the packet to draw new inferences. Hints are provided along the 1 way to ensure students receive assistance when necessary. Finally, WLI is housed online and is oered for free, signifying minimal barriers to usage by educators and students."

"MathJax is an open source JavaScript display engine for mathematics that works in all modern browsers. "

Online Communities of Enquiry in Mathematics Education. A free article in a conversational style with practical tips for online communications and learning. Colin McAllister and Rebecca Hanson ask: What is it like to take part in online discussions? How do moderators and contributors create active and successful conversations? How is the technology employed in the management of discussion forums evolving? What could be achieved through discussion forums in the future?

"Bright Spark Education is using Indian teachers trained in the UK curriculum to help British students aged 7 to 16" via Skype; "not looked upon favorably by at least one UK teacher"

Encouraging students to use critical thinking is more than an extension activity in science and math lessons, it is the basis of true learning. Teaching students how to think critically helps them move beyond basic comprehension and rote memorization. They shift to a new level of increased awareness when calculating, analyzing, problem solving, and evaluating.

My Blog About Mathematics and Science as a PDF file on Scribd.com. Articles: Editing Equations on Web 2.0 Sites, Representing Scale in Mathematics, Nesin Mathematics Village in Turkey, A mathematician of prime numbers. A mathematician of topology. Flash game for teaching mathematics. From http://cmcallister.vox.com/

This is a great motivator why and how we could spice things up in our maths class!