Saturday, August 4, 2018

Math Links for Week Ending Aug. 3rd, 2018

If you are looking for an online PD fix then apparently August is the month for you. There are two virtual conferences going on right now with some big names. First there is the Build Math Minds Virtual Math Summit with 31 presenters over 3 days. You could have watched each presentation live or go to the site below and watch the recordings. Note, however, that anyone can watch all the videos until August 6th. After that, you have to become a member of the site. Don't forget to check out Ontario educators @mathletepearce and @mrorr_geek while you are there. 
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and for a more completely free online conference, consider @SamJShah's Virtual Conference on Mathematical Flavours. Here we have a slightly different type of conference. Each week in August there are two keynote "speakers" and then other teachers (you included, possibly) are invited to present as well. Now these are not so much presentations as they are blog posts on the topic at hand. So if you want to be a "presenter" that means you are basically just creating a blog post using this question as a prompt: “What flavour of mathematics are you serving up in your classroom?”. This week the keynote presenters are @benorlin and @Anniek_p and the slot of supporting presenters for this week is up as well. 
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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the idea of these Estimation Stations from @mathgeek76 and @madisonsandig4 when they previewed them at TMC18. It's a way to make those Estimation 180 tasks and mash them up with Desmos Activity Builder. The result is pretty sweet and does a great job in helping students figure out how to make better estimates (dynamically). You really have to try this out to see it's benefit. Do that HERE. And then go to the latest post, below, to see the six stations that they have made so far.
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http://undercovercalculus.com/estimation-stations-beta/


Also a couple of weeks ago I showed a new beta feature in Desmos Activity Builder called snapshots. As it turns out they feel they have got all the bugs out and have taken it out of beta for general release. It's a great way to take your Activity Builder game to a new level. And if you have read the "Five Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussion" then this new tool is for you (and if you haven't the tool is still good but you should read the book too). Watch this video to get a sense of how this new feature works then read the blog post to get more details
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http://blog.desmos.com/post/176542603032/orchestrate-more-productive-mathematics

Interested in what 21st century math teaching/learning should be about. Then you might like this post and video from @profkeithdevlin. He has long been an advocate of maximizing the potential of the 21st century and to do so that means we have  to rethink how math is presented to students. As he says: "Teachers are taken aback to be told that calculation is less relevant in today’s world." Watch the video of his presentation and the summary at his post
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http://devlinsangle.blogspot.com/2018/07/by-keith-devlin-you-can-follow-me-on.html


So apparently scientists have discovered a new shape. Who knew that was a thing? Not me but thanks to @standupmaths I now know about the new shape (and the old shapes) and its connection to biology. And thanks to @Gelada for giving me an impromptu mini lesson on the history of new shapes.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.popsci.com/new-shape-scutoid

Although this may not be appropriate for all students, this graph on breast cancer survival rates from @monachilabi is pretty cool. Especially if you like heat maps.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://twitter.com/MonaChalabi/status/1025116579347017729


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