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Reports research from UChicago: "Students who spend just ten minutes writing about their worries before a test score higher than" otherwise. Math tests of increasing difficulty and with more daunting circumstances were used in the study.

"This book is designed to provide mathematics undergraduates with some historical background to the material that is now taught universally to students in their final years at school and the first years at college or university: the core subjects of calculus, analysis, and abstract algebra, along with others such as mechanics, probability, and number theory. All of these evolved into their present form in a relatively limited area of western Europe from the mid sixteenth century onwards, and it is there that we find the major writings that relate in a recognizable way to contemporary mathematics."

"Visualize your numbers, explore charts, and share insights with others. " Great data source. Students can explore data sets, identify different ways of representing data, as well as identify different characterisitics of data.

Maths Solutions features experienced teachers demonstrating solutions to a series of maths problems that are known to challenge students. The solutions are presented as a series of short video clips displayed on the screen in a step-by-step format; in the same way as a teacher writing on a page or whiteboard. Choose the maths area that you need help with.

An awsome blog of resources

The OpenScience project is dedicated to writing and releasing free and Open Source scientific software. We are a group of scientists, mathematicians and engineers who want to encourage a collaborative environment in which science can be pursued by anyone who is inspired to discover something new about the natural world.

Microsoft Mathematics 4.0, for students in middle school, high school, and early college, shows how to solve equations while bolstering understanding of fundamental math concepts. It features built-in Ink Handwriting Support, which lets you hand-write math problems and equations in a worksheet area on a tablet or ultra-mobile PCs for immediate solving or later work. The software also includes a graphing calculator capable of plotting in 2D and 3D, a movie editor, a library of formulas and equations, a triangle solver, and more.

This page aggregates blog entries by people who are writing about TeX and related topics.

A college institutional researcher reveals some data concerning math placement tests and the pressures impacting students to opt for more difficult math courses without adequate preparation and unsatisfactory results. He writes: "In my mind, this disconnect exemplifies the degree to which incoming students and families don't grasp the difference between going to college to acquire content knowledge and going to college to develop skills and dispositions. ... [I]f students understand that college is about developing skills and dispositions, I think that they might be more likely to appreciate the chance to start at the beginning that is appropriate for them, savoring each experience like a slow cooked, seven course meal because they know that the culmination of college is made exponentially better by the particular ordering and integrating of the flavors that have come before."

"Late last month, Curtis Cooper of the University of Central Missouri moved one small step closer to Euclid's infinity, when he announced that 257,885,161-1 is prime. This is now the largest known prime number, eclipsing the previous record-holder, which had been discovered at UCLA in 2008. The new number has 17,425,170 digits-just writing them down makes for a 22.45-megabyte text file. The UCLA number had knocked an earlier number of Cooper's, from 2006, out of the record books. "

"Mathematics is not a series of Statement-Reason proofs punctuated by the occasional "QED". Mathematics, as Paul Lockhart writes in A Mathematician's Lament, is "wondering, playing, amusing yourself with your imagination.""

A useful addition game where users 'handwrite' the answers in the box. The intro page is in Japanese, but the activity is in English. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

"Chances are you've seen this symbol before, because it's one of the most well-known Egyptian symbols. It's called the Eye of Horus. It's been in the background of plenty of mummy movies, and been turned into a lot of necklace charms. Some people think it's writing. Actually, it's math."

The January issue of the ICTmagic Show online magazine is out, full of my favourite recent finds and how you can use them in your class. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/%2AICTmagic+Show

This list of "myths" written with a strong political bias. Take it in with a grain of salt. I like that they include references and links for why they believe what they do. This article would be good fodder for discussion.

I keep writing, in bits and pieces, about the middle way between the two approaches. For example, there should be enough discovery for every kid to firmly believe they could derive anything, if needed. This "just enough" will vary from student to student, too. In "The Glass Bead Game" Joseph took years to trace one short (highly abstract) game transcript to its very roots. He wanted to see for himself if the game was real. He did not do it for every game, though. The idea of "flow channels" between two opposite bad states comes to mind: http://www.secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/elements/flow.jpg

A volume edited by Mircea Pitici, including such contributions as "why Freeman Dyson thinks some mathematicians are birds while others are frogs; why Keith Devlin believes there's more to mathematics than proof; what Nick Paumgarten has to say about the timing patterns of New York City's traffic lights (and why jaywalking is the most mathematically efficient way to cross Sixty-sixth Street); what Samuel Arbesman can tell us about the epidemiology of the undead in zombie flicks."

Math Mama is Sue VanHattum, a community college math teacher interested in all levels of math learning, and the mama of a young son. I'm entering the blogging world as I begin work on an anthology about learning math.