Math Links for Week Ending Jan. 31st, 2014

Do you need a Mile of Pi? That is, would you like to print out over 40,000 digits of pi so if you stretch them out end to end, it will be a literal mile long? This zip file will do it. Sure its 3500 pages long but hey that's only 7 packages of paper. And if you don't want so many pages, this Pi strip is a bit more manageable but only has 1000 digits.
Curriculum Tags:All
http://www.think-maths.co.uk/mileofpi

Need a practical use for statistics? How about gaming the system on the OK Cupid site. There is way more of the data in the actual Wired Magazine (yes the paper copy!).
Curriculum Tags: MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/01/how-to-hack-okcupid/



It's true, Indiana once tried to legislate that Pi would be 3 instead of 3.14159..... For this and other funky Pi facts you can also listen to this awesome radio show by Simon Singh (which is part of this bigger series).
Curriculum Tags: All
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/remember-the-time-indiana-almost-passed-a-law-declaring-pi--3


Need some real world data about Twitter. Just type your hashtag into this site and you will get 24hr worth of data on it.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://www.hashtags.org/how-to/tips/tracking-hashtag-data/




Some really good stuff on authentic assessment from Grant Wiggens. Some of the characteristics that resonate with me are :

• They do not rely on unrealistic and arbitrary time constraints 
• They offer known, not secret, questions or tasks 
• They are not graded on a curve, but in reference to legitimate performance standards or benchmarks 
• They involve transparent, de-mystified expectations 
• They identify (perhaps hidden) strengths [not just reveal deficits]

I think I may have a long way to go to get there but its good to have some guidelines. Thanks to Chad Barett for this one.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/authenticity-in-assessment-re-defined-and-explained/

It seems that on a regular basis there are new videos produced dealing with the Fibonacci numbers. Here is latest. Its well produced. For an entire course on the Fibonacci numbers you might want to watch this (which is one of 5 videos from this Stanford iTunes U course) or if you want to learn about Fibonacci himself, read this.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9d1mxgZ0ag

I always like when data is put into perspective. Here is a neat way to represent 200 calories.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMGUmcveQeg