Math Links for Week Ending June 13th, 2014

Speed dating and Row games are two really nice activities to promote kids doing questions and then self checking whether they are correct or not. I first learned about these from @k8nowak on her Function of Time blog a few years ago. I was recently reminded of them when @thescamdog tweeted that they have a little video introduction to these on their provincial math site in Alberta. Speed dating has students become experts in the solution for one question each. They are then paired sitting across from each other and switch question. Once that question is solved then they shift one position and switch with another student. Row games has students paired with a worksheet where there are two columns of questions and each student does the question in one column. The beauty of the worksheet is that the answer for each question in any particular row is the same so that if the students get different answers they know that one or both of them has made a mistake. Thus it's self checking.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.aac.ab.ca/projects-grants/high-school-mathematics/#FormativeAssessmentRowGamesandSpeedDatingvideo-6

How about some data on the lyrics that boy bands of the 90's used the most. Yep, there's data on that. Hey, data is data. This could easily be used for central tendancy, bar graphs, or even box plots.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/90s-boy-band-lyrics-theyre-all-about-you/

I like collecting real data in classes, and so I was thrilled with a reason to do so. That is, the mystery of why there are different weights of regular M&Ms vs Peanut Butter M&Ms per bag. The actual reason is a bit of a mystery and you can listen about that mystery with the Planet Money podcast here . But collecting data about how many M&Ms are in each pack (or how much each pack weighs in reality) is a good way to talk about measures of central tendency, dot plots, and standard deviation.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/06/05/319084976/why-a-pack-of-peanut-butter-m-ms-weighs-a-tiny-bit-less-than-a-regular-pack

Though this is a couple of years old, I just came across it today. Math Goes to the Movies is a book that connects scenes in movies to teaching specific math concepts. Having done presentations on this sort of thing at OAME, I am interested to see what they have found that I haven't
Curriculum Tags:All
https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/math-goes-movies

Math anxiety is real. We have all seen kids who suffer from it. Here are some ways to combat this problem.

Curriculum Tags: All

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-to-fight-your-kids-math-anxiety/372572/

Mixing dance and math to entice girls in an after school program.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/science/2014/04/18/after-school-program-uses-dance-nurture-girls-interest-math/JmszMn1zOR7DPcRiozShpN/story.html

One of Keith Devlin's more recent books was Leonardo & Steve about, you guessed it, Fibonacci and Jobs. It comes in ebook only form but if you want to get the gyst of what's in the book you might look at this two part talk on the same subject.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://vimeo.com/93390473
http://vimeo.com/93532834

I like this math "takedown" of this motivational poster. It leads to a nice problem about comparing the volume of cylinders, spheres and cubes. Could be used in grade 9 math measurement or in grade 8 if you leave out the sphere.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, Gr8
https://twitter.com/dandersod/status/477024981042626560

Might as well have a graph about the World Cup. This is coming from the 538 blog where they predict the winner of the soccer tournament. And as they point out, you don't need a computer model to predict that Brazil is the heavy favourite (even after their controversial win over Croatia). Either way they go through the reasoning behind their prediciton
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/its-brazils-world-cup-to-lose/

538 keeps hitting with the data that has so much bearing on world events. Which is the blingiest NBA playoff matchup? That is which pair of teams has the most rings.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/its-the-second-blingiest-finals-matchup-in-modern-nba-history/

Math Links for Week Ending April 11th, 2014

I have been showing this example from Deborah Ball for about a year now. I really like how she really articulates what distinguishes a good math teacher from someone who just knows how to do math. The neat thing is she does it in front of the Michigan legislature. For a longer talk by Dr. Ball on this topic you can click here.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2014/04/02/the-infinite-variety-of-wrong-answers/

I am fascinated by this Veronoi Diagram. Each dot represents an airport and the regions represent areas that are closest to that airport (compared to another airport). So the lines separating the regions represent places that are equidistant to the nearest airports. Its a really neat geometric property that could be adapted to the geometry units in grade 7&8 connecting to quadrilaterals. On the site the diagram is an interactive so that the entire globe's airports are mapped out. Thanks to @ddmeyer for this one.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://www.jasondavies.com/maps/voronoi/airports/

I like it when concepts can be introduced in unique ways. Here Mathy Cathy does has an interesting way to introduce compound events in probability. A simple true and false test (with random answers). Kind of reminds me a bit of the March Madness contest but on a smaller scale.
Curriculum Tags: MBF3C, MDM4U
http://www.mathycathy.com/blog/2014/03/true-or-false/




I like Kyle's Baby Beats 3 Acts task. Proportional reasoning is a topic that needs as many varying tasks to help students get a handle on it.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
http://tapintoteenminds.com/2014/03/25/making-connections-proportional-reasoning/



We have seen cell phone plan questions before. And they all have a little bit of the pseudo math thing going on. But this one takes a slightly different take. Instead the standard fixed monthly cost and then a per minute charge (which is typically not how a phone plan works anymore) it has the fixed cost and then the extra cost for more data. A little more realistic.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MFM2P
http://www.yummymath.com/2014/cell-phone-plans/

I am a sucker for raw data. On this site Visualizing.org not only is there neat visualizations but they have all kinds of raw data. Check out this set on over 40,000 meteorites. Enjoy.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://visualizing.org/






Speaking of data, who doesn't like sports data. This post does a great job of summarizing places you and your students can get sports data. Thanks to Free Technology for Teachers for this one.
Curriculum Tags: MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/blog/2014/03/sports-data-sites-2370

Another one from Free Technology for Teachers is about four sites for free graph paper (of many types): Imcompetech, Print Free Graph Paper, Math Drills, Gridzzly. Some other graph paper sites include Printable Paper, Math Worksheet, Dynamic Paper, Free Online Graph Paper, & Math Bits.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/03/four-sources-of-print-on-demand-graph.html

I have been known to have a bit of heavy foot while driving. So it's ironic that I have been saying that speeding doesn't get you there much faster (in general). I even wrote a task about it about 10 years ago. You can download it here. But now you have the data to show you in what situations speeding could possibly pay off. Its a really great way to talk about rational functions.
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U
http://lifehacker.com/does-speeding-really-get-you-there-any-faster-1556767685

Lots of Articles this week. Here's one with our education minister talking about how we need to go back to basics. If she's on that bandwagon then I guess she doesn't get it.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/ontario-education-minister-wants-the-basics-learn-your-multiplication-tables/article17666049/

Not so much for intermediate and senior math but none the less the idea is still good. In terms of problem solving we don't tap into our youngest kids enough
Curriculum Tags: All
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/04/are-we-underestimating-the-math-powers-of-our-youngest-students/

Here's an article on how women are using their training in STEM fields to create entirely new jobs
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/this-is-not-your-fathers-stem-job/359684/

This post about the statistical probability that global warming is happening (99.9%). But those deniers will then say "So there's a chance". Totally reminds me of this clip from Dumb and Dumber
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-statistical-probability-that-climate-change-is-natural-is-01-percent

Who knew Cindy Crawford when to school for Chemical Engineering (I'm sure some did)? But listen to her talk about how she was on the wrong end of a stereotype from her calculus prof
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/01/cindy-crawford-calculus-professor-judgment_n_5065616.html

I was shopping with my daughter the other day and saw this sign for a sale. I like it because the implication is that it's a 60% discount but, in fact, the successive discounts work out to 52%. The math is all right on the sign but it would be a good discussion for grade 7&8 students about percents.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
instagram.com/p/mduvdTx66Y/

Some common thoughts about cancer that data shows is false

1. Unless treated, cancer is fatal
2. The earlier you diagnose and treat it the greater the chance of being cured

The article below talks about how those two are not necessarily true. As a hint, take a look at the graph below.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/102/9/605.full

Some fun examples of bad math. I have seen some of these before but these two below I haven't
Curriculum Tags: All
https://sftimes.co/?id=411

Math Links for Week Ending Mar. 21st, 2014

I have been teaching solving systems of equations for many years and I have found it to be really nice and challenging and rich for academic students. But for applied students it can be meaningless and very abstract. Here is the expectation from grade 10 applied: solve systems of two linear equations involving two variables with integral coefficients, using the algebraic method of substitution or elimination (Sample problem: Solve y = 2x + 1, 3x + 2y = 16 for x and y algebraically, and verify algebraically and graphically.) Do you see what I mean? Too abstract for applied students. Even within a context, the method of elimination or substitution is still abstract. However, if you can find a way to take away that abstraction of the solving process (at least for a minute) then you might actually get them to eventually buy into those methods. That being said I love this post from the Making Math Meaningful blog giving a problem that is manageable for applied students and then giving them manipulatives to create the solution. Take a look at the solution seen here to the problem "If 4 jujubes and 6 smarties costs 24 cents and 2 jujubes and 5 smarties cost 16 cents, then how much does 1 jujube costs and how much does 1 smartie cost? "
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
http://marybourassa.blogspot.ca/2014/03/mfm2p-day-23.html

When not creating his own from scratch Kyle at the Tap Into Teen Minds blog is adapting found resources and turning them into 3Act Tasks. Some new ones include a probability task for MDM4U and a linear relations task for grade 9. And the other thing he does is matches them up to Ontario curriculum (by course and expectation), even Dan Meyer's. And then he does another solid and makes them searchable by grade, expectation and author. 
Curriculum Tags: MFM1P, MPM1D, MDM4U
http://tapintoteenminds.com/3act-math/darius-washington-free-throws-win/
http://tapintoteenminds.com/3act-math/crazy-taxi/


And why not some more basketball math. Warren Buffet has put up a Billion dollars for anyone who can pick every game in every bracket in this year's college basketball tourny. Scientific American has done the math on this and apparently only each American needs to enter 425 trials for someone to be likely to win. Here it is
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/2014/03/17/we-only-need-to-fill-out-425-brackets-each-to-win-buffets-billion/




Hey do you need some data on the frequency of rhyming words in pop songs? And as an extra bonus, it's dynamic. Click on the desired pair of rhyming words in the graph and the graph changes to give the historical frequency in pop music.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/02/justin_bieber_and_the_beatles_they_both_liked_to_rhyme_the_same_words.html

OK, so this I love. Its one of my favourite MDM4U problems. the ones that deal with false positives and their meaning. Take this example of a test for Alzheimer's that is supposed to be 90% accurate. However, when you actually do the math and incorporate that accuracy on two groups of people (those with and those without Alzheimer's) you actually see that the test isn't that accurate at all due to all the false positives. Check out the math and the nice visuals here. 
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/2014/03/11/how-a-90-accurate-alzheimers-test-can-be-wrong-92-of-the-time/

It seems that there still needs to be some work done in this area. Both genders think women are bad at math! That is not good. Read about it here.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://news.sciencemag.org/math/2014/03/both-genders-think-women-are-bad-basic-math

And to make things worse now it seems that genetics might predispose people to math anxiety. This doesn't bode well for the growth mind set. Read about it here.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140317095843.htm

Do you need some examples of scatter plots of real data? These aren't so good for line of best fit but they are pretty good for talking about the meaning of where points are on the graph. These graphs are about the connection between life expectancy and income. Go to the website for the details.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/03/15/business/higher-income-longer-lives.html

And finally this week, some mathematical poetry about parallel lines.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/SciencePorn/status/441748070133272577/photo/1

Math Links for Week Ending Dec. 27th, 2013

I really like Arthur Benjamin. Not just because he was a featured speaker at OAME 2011 (of which I was the Co Chair), but also because he is pretty good at mental computation and also thinks that knowing probability & statistics is more important than knowing calculus. And now he has done his third TED talk, this time on Fibonacci. And I know there are all kinds of videos on Fibonacci out there but I really like the way he connects the geometric to the numeric. A good video for anyone teaching about sequences or patterns.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MCR3U, MCF3M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjSHVDfXHQ4

You can never have too much data or too many good representations of data. Here you can find a collection of some of the best graphs dealing with behavioural science. And although its not new, probably my favourite is the one on water consumption in Edmonton during the 2010 Olympic gold medal game. This is certainly good for any classes looking at interpreting graphs.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MCF3M, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.ie/2013/12/the-15-best-behavioural-science-graphs.html

Need some data on linear relations? Want to use technology in your classrooms? Have a video camera of some sort? Been to an airport? If you have answered yes to any of these questions then take a look at this link where someone was bored at the airport and collected some simple linear data. This data exists all over (not just airports) and this post shows how you can use the Tracker software to analyze any motion.
Curriculum Tags: MFM1P, MPM1D
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/video-analysis-at-an-airport/

More great data visualizations that could be called art.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://www.buzzfeed.com/h2/fbad/levis/awesome-ways-data-has-been-turned-into-art

And if you haven't had enough data on this week's links, how about more evidence that the up and coming field to get into is data scientist.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/the-berkeley-institute-for-data-science-everyone-is-going-to-have-to-become-a-data-scientist/

In grade 9 we have to connect the algebraic form of Pythagorean Theorem to the geometric. This video tries to do just that. Thanks to Corrie Silva for this one
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaj0XcLtN5c

A relatively new video from Vi Hart on logarithms. I totally love the way she starts with simple addition and works her way to logarithms. At first you don't see the connection but I think the payoff at the end is worth it.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-7tcTIrers

Oh BatDad, you are funny.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhWoQFtxKyo

I have spoken a few times over the last few weeks about Simon Singh and his new book about math and the Simpsons. Here he is on Numberphile to talk about it (and Futurama)
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJDiZi9dqOg

Everyone needs a bit of trig humour.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P, MCR3U, MCF3M, MBF3C
https://twitter.com/MathsForMasses/status/411033916791726080/photo/1

Surely we can come up with a nice topical question on percents given this holiday sale
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MFM1P, MPM1D
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1536703_10202950354665802_493920908_n.jpg

And finally something to put you in the holiday spirit. I wish I was smart enough to know if it is correct though.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1533942_726754600678887_1942735765_n.jpg