Math Links for Week Ending Oct. 2nd, 2015

I know I have recently mentioned the BetterQS blog but I wanted to feature some of the posts and the varied contexts. On Fist Bumps @samjshah tells us the questioning techniques that go along with combinatorics. On 67 Questions Andy S details a great idea. Recording the audio of your lesson and then reviewing it. I have done this with video and it is very eye opening (mostly in sad ways - "I can't believe I do that") but totally worth it. On Better Homework Questions @marybourassa gives details about how she handles homework in her spiralled grade 10 class. And in Time Travel @dandersod poses an interesting question to his class "If you could travel back in time, what would you tell your past self to help them with .....". These are just a few of the offerings on this blog all by different contributors. Another product of the #MTBoS
Curriculum Tags: All, MDM4U
https://betterqs.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/fistbumps/
https://betterqs.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/67-questions/
https://betterqs.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/better-homework-questions/
https://betterqs.wordpress.com/2015/09/23/time-travel/

As an amateur Ironman triathlete I am always keen on info about the sport. But I am also keen on a clean data set that you can download and analyze.. Especially one I can download and analyze. So here are the prize winnings so far over 800 professional triathletes from this year. Some good single variable analysis could be done with this data (dot plots, outliers, average, median etc). It's cool to see that #14 is a guy from the town I live (one of the 3000 of us) and it is also cool to see how few of them could actually make a living from their winnings.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://trstriathlon.com/pro-triathlon-money-list/

So what happens if a parent with math anxiety helps their kids with their homework. Apparently a new study shows that those students will achieve 1/3 less knowledge in that year compared to not getting any help at all. Listen here for the details
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/quirks-quarks-for-sep-12-2015-1.3224539/children-catch-math-anxiety-from-parents-1.3224577

I thought this was pretty fun. Not sure where you would fit it into the math curriculum but it's still kinda neat. The idea is that there is a way to fold a piece of paper such that you can cut it once and end up with just about any shape. For example, in the video she ends up creating a way to fold paper and cut out each letter of the alphabet with one cut each
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZREp1mAPKTM

Mathematician Bob Osserman is having a conversation with comedian Steve Martin and Robin Williams, who was in the audience, comes up on stage and they all talk about math, physics and more
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHW45zw23gU&list=PLqTY7Otk6U4dOuXyjhdMX0-bGGJSEg83q

In these times of more awareness of mental illness comes a story of one mathematician's battle with depression from the @story_collider
Curriculum Tags: All
http://storycollider.org/podcast/2015-09-25

The static picture doesn't do this justice. Click on the link for the looping animated Gif
Curriculum Tags: All

Bart's Infinite Chalkboard Punishment: the Koch Curve! pic.twitter.com/wOfIPOQEbj

— Simon Pampena (@mathemaniac) July 31, 2015

I love this Math With Bad Drawings about probabilities and how people interpret them. Be sure to click on the link to see them all
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MEL4E
http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2015/09/23/what-does-probability-mean-in-your-profession/