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Brief musing on mathematical physics with links to a variety of perspectives on the influence of math on physics.

"Complicated mathematics presented in a generally understandable way Examples from everyday life are mathematized Many examples presented with a good sense of humor Small riddles and conjuring tricks garantee an entertaining reading Imagine that you've finally found a parking space after a long and harrowing search, but are now encountering some difficulty in trying to enter this space."

Abstract: "A mobile learning research project was conducted in Trinidad and Tobago to determine if mobile learning can assist high school students in learning mathematics. Several innovative techniques were used in this research to address the problem of high failure rates of mathematics in high schools in the Caribbean. A mobile learning application was developed based on a subset of the high school mathematics curriculum used in the English-speaking Caribbean. Game-based learning, personalization and multiple learning strategies were used in conjunction with mobile learning to assist students in improving their performance in mathematics. Three evaluation studies were conducted with the mobile learning application. During the studies, usage data was captured automatically by the system and this was used to determine the extent to which the students actually used the mobile application. At the end of each study, a questionnaire was used to capture student opinions of the mobile learning application. Questionnaire data is based solely on student responses and there is no guarantee of its accuracy and reliability. This paper focuses on the responses of the students to the questionnaire and seeks to determine if the usage data can increase the reliability of the questionnaire data. It summarizes the behaviour patterns of the students gleaned from the usage logs and compares this to the students' responses to the questionnaire. Generally it was found that the students' responses agreed with the usage data, though there were occasions when the responses diverged."

Lecture from 2010 ""Mathematics and Art: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty," "use of mathematics to create realistic art"

Great blog re mathematics teaching

from the abstract: "we show that ANS precision measured at preschool, prior to formal instruction in mathematics, selectively predicts performance on school mathematics at 6 years of age."

Well received book on using physics to demonstrate mathematical concepts by Mark Levi, professor of mathematics at Pennsylvania State University

The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel noted that many middle school students have a weak understanding of mathematical equality and that this lack of understanding impedes their learning of algebra.

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?"

The Math 2.0 Interest Group is an international network of researchers, educators, families, community leaders and technology enablers. We are collaborating on a variety of research and development projects and conversation threads about social media as it relates to mathematics and mathematics education.

"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.

Math Central is an Internet service for mathematics students and teachers. It is available in English, French, and Spanish. The site includes: * Resource Room: teaching resources and glossaries * Quandaries and Queries: ask a question or search and browse answers * Mathematics with a Human Face: biographies and career information * Teachers' Bulletin Board: conferences, organizations, newsletters and periodicals * Outreach Activities: Canadian educational outreach opportunities * Math Beyond School: articles addressing "where will I ever use this?" * Problem of the Month: see a new problem in September

Abstract: "An innovative mathematics game shown to be effective for low-achieving mainstream students is tested in special education for learners with intellectual disabilities. The game relies on a graphical, intuitive representation for numbers and arithmetic operations to foster conceptual understanding and numbers sense, and provides a set of 2-player games to develop strategic thinking and reasoning skills. The game runs on computers and interactive white boards, and as an augmented reality application at a science centre. We compare its use in special education and mainstream education with respect to usage, performance levels and learning gain. The game has been used by teachers in special educations, with gains in mathematical understanding, strategic thinking and communication skills as effects."

"This Issue Brief examines 8th-grade achievement in reading, mathematics, and science for language minority students (i.e., those from homes in which the primary language was one other than English) who began kindergarten in the 1998-99 school year. Data come from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), which tracked the educational experiences of a nationally representative sample of children who were in kindergarten in the 1998-99 school year. The analyses present a picture of students' achievement at the end of the study by focusing on students' scores on the standardized assessments that were administered in the spring of 2007, when most students were in grade 8. Students are categorized into four groups according to language background and English language proficiency. Additionally, assessment scores are reported by three background characteristics-students' race/ethnicity, poverty status, and mother's education-that have been found to be related to achievement."

Beta of a new TED educational video site, featuring "collaborations between talented educators and animators nominated through the TED-Ed platform," and which are available for use as lessons and evaluating student learning. The above link points to the mathematics section

Abstract: "How can smartphones apps enrich the learning of mathematics in vocational education? This article examines how mathematics teaching can be enriched by apps using smartphone sensors such as gyroscope, compass, camera, and touch screen in a gaming context. An iterative and participatory design process involving two classes of carpentry students from different vocational colleges resulted in two highly successful and course-relevant games based on trigonometry. Each game consists of quests and missions whose successful completion unlocks more theoretical multiple-choice exercises for the classroom. The combination of competition to unlock exercises, competition for placing on the high-score list, and physical activity proved very motivating for the students and was also approved by their teachers. In this article we describe our design principles, the overall game architecture and the games themselves. We talk about our experience in implementing our design process and subsequently summarize the pros and cons of the application and the smartphone platform and how the app developed contributes to vocational mathematics teaching"

"In Math on Trial, mathematicians Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez tell the story of ten criminal trials in which mathematical arguments were used-and disastrously misused-as evidence. Using a wide range of examples, from the Dreyfus Affair to the Amanda Knox murder trial, they show how the improper application of mathematical concepts can mean the difference between walking free and life in prison. A colorful narrative of mathematical abuse featuring such characters as Charles Ponzi, Alfred Dreyfus, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Math on Trial shows that legal expertise isn't always enough to prove a person innocent."

A review of Paul Lockhart's new book with a focus on mathematical reasoning and geometry, with a video of the author.

Published 2013 by CRC Press. A collection of essays and stories on mathematics for the general reader, including such topics as mathematicians, mathematical discoveries, prime numbers, puzzles, equations, proofs and the value of mathematics.