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 Nov. 1st, 2013

Spectacular visualization from the NBA. You choose the team and the player and see where they are hot and where they are not. They have also done some more detailed analysis of how entire teams do against each other that is pretty cool.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://hotshotcharts.com/

I am always on the lookout for datasets for analysis. Did you know the wettest place in Canada is Henderson, BC? Or that the coldest place is Snag, Yukon? Here is data on weather extremes in Canada
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/Canada/

Correlation is often confused with causation. This is a problem when people believe that just because two variables are correlated that one of the variable's change is the cause of the other's. Here is a tutorial video on proving causation.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://learnandteachstatistics.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/proving-causation/

A throwback to Felix Baumgartner's Redbull Stratos Jump from Explore Learning. A full three part lesson with links to specific Gizmos. Now the lesson basically focus on physics but I still contend that all of the metrics that were on the screen as he first rose in the capsule that could be used for a lesson on ratio, rate and speed. When it was happening I actually took some screen shots. You can download all 20 of them here.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
http://explorelearning.blogs.com/ontario/2013/10/fearless-freefall-felix-updated.html

I thought this was a neat way to collect data. Play Mastermind and then do the analysis. In this case its done in a 4th grade class but this could easily be adapted to be done in a Data Management class when dealing with single variable statistics.
http://rationalexpressions.blogspot.com/2013/10/mastermind-part-1-solving-and-making.html
http://rationalexpressions.blogspot.com/2013/10/mastermind-part-2-refining-our-notion.html
http://rationalexpressions.blogspot.com/2013/10/mastermind-part-3-whats-typical-number.html

What is it like to be a mathematician?
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.slate.com/what_is_it_like_to_be_a_mathematician






The myth of "I'm Bad at Math". A lot of discussion about this article on the Interwebs. Lots of people on both sides. Although the article doesn't mention it explicitly. The theory tends to be that many have what is called a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset. That is, with a fixed mindset you think that you are born with a certain ability and that won't change. Whereas a growth mindset is when you believe that you can always continue to learn. Recent brain info seems to suggest that the growth mindset is supported. Check the following articles out for yourself.
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/the-myth-of-im-bad-at-math/280914/

That being said here is a counter point. Thanks to @mathtans for pointing this one out.
http://rationalexpressions.blogspot.ca/2013/10/someone-is-wrong-on-interne-bad-at-math.html

Here is some research to support the idea of how foster the growth model of learning
http://dev.opeq.blenderbox.com/uploads/files/868cea31-5888-4e45-a832-62b4377dbbfb.pdf

And to finish this topic off, let's hear about being a math major. I saw this a last week and forgot to put it in. Thanks to Sylvie Gava-Zompanti for reminding me of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs9aGVUZ3YA

Ha ha funny. From Vine (and on the Vine YouTube channel) here is a clip about nerd vandalism
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHpN9WeFAA

New from Vi Hart for Fractals and Logs. After I see her videos like this I think she should be ending with "See what I did there?"
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc8sWN_jNF4

The Beauty of Mathematics in widescreen
Curriculum tags: All
http://vimeo.com/77330591

Math Links for Week Ending Oct. 25th, 2013

Who said that math couldn't be emotional? Watch this father react after his son brings home a C mark.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls9Cg8iaq1s

I really like this post about giving a real reason to use ratios. Check it out: "Give them a recipe that involves two quantities, such as lemons and cups of sugar and ask them how to make more lemonade that tastes the same and less lemonade that tastes the same. Have them record different values in a labeled table.". See more examples of this train of thought. Thanks to Dan Meyer for this one.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1D
http://nicoraplaca.com/one-way-introduce-ratios-make-sense-students/

Try out the Desmos Des-Man project. Have your kids flex their Domain and Range muscle by drawing pictures of faces with functions
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MCF3M
http://blog.desmos.com/post/62158789621/des-man-a-desmos-labs-project

The candle is burning at one end at Tap into Teen Minds with another three act math task. Extrapolation, interpolation in scatterplots here. Complete with videos and data.
Curriculum Tags: MFM1P, MPM1D, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://tapintoteenminds.com/2013/10/14/candles-burning-3-act-math-task/

Interesting article about research that suggests why there are fewer women in mathematics than there should be. This XKCD comic kinda sums it up. Thanks to Mark Esping for this one.

Curriculum Tags: All
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/2013/10/21/the-need-for-belonging-in-math-and-science/

Can you use early math skills to predict skills later in life? There is research to suggest this is true about learning things like fractions but is it true for numeracy skills in babies?
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/babies-born-with-math-skills/

Last week I posted a video from the TV show Person of Interest and @ChrisHunter36 helped me find a better version and then I found that he had posted more here
Curriculum Tags: All
http://reflectionsinthewhy.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/teacher-of-interest-episode-1/
http://vimeo.com/58436004

Oh, legos
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://xkcd.com/1281/

Thanks to Edudemic for pointing this one out.
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MCF3M, MHF4U
http://www.edudemic.com/best-math-chart/ 

Math Links for Week Ending Oct. 18th, 2013

Here is a really fun look at distributions via animals and an animation
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://vimeo.com/75089338

Although the actual activity in this post at first seems like it is more for middle school. It quickly moves into polynomials and could easily be adapted up to grade 11 with rational functions. So you might have (x) (6/x) = 6 (or something more complex)
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MFM1P, MPM1D, MCR3U, MCF3M
http://squarerootofnegativeoneteachmath.blogspot.ca/2013/09/this-lesson-cost-me-1.html






As someone who is a fan of Rock, Paper, Scissors as an activity for teaching math, I love that there is an applet for playing against a robot. Especially since you can bring in the research and the Rock Paper Scissors World championship (or regional). And while you are in the vicinity, don't forget Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock and its now famed Big Bang Theory reference. Thanks to Dan Meyer for this one.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://mathcoachblog.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/rock-paper-scissors-and-2-way-tables/

Any time you can do an activity that involves toys and scatter plots, I say go for it. This time its with friction driven cars.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://fawnnguyen.com/2013/10/10/vroom-vroom.aspx


The age old question, "do professional teams that spend the most on their payrolls win more?" From Yummy Math here are stats from the big four professional sports to help answer the question. Let your scatter plots go wild. And if that is not enough for you then take a look at this dynamic view of professional baseball with this cool series of visualizations from Ben Fry.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://www.yummymath.com/2013/do-teams-that-spend-a-lot-win-a-lot/

Why does the number 1729 show up so often in the show Futurama? I will give you a hint, it has something to do with taxicabs and the fact that there were a large proportion of math majors writing for the show. A perfect starter if you are talking about powers of numbers, specifically cubes.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://io9.com/why-does-the-number-1729-show-up-in-so-many-futurama-ep-1445512975

This could be a good starter for a talk about budgets in an locally developed or workplace math class. Thanks to Corrie Silva for this one.
Curriculum Tags: MAT1L, MAT2L, MEL3E, MEL4E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pQJxGIFzdo

I have seen a better version of this clip but for the life of me couldn't find it. Still a neat answer to the question "What is any of this good for? When would we ever use it?" from Person of Interest. The idea is that everything we ever know is hidden in the digits of Pi. Thanks to Kimberly Gibson for this one. Thanks also to @ChrisHunter36 for the better version of this
Curriculum Tags: All
http://vimeo.com/58436405

Here is a neat Flikr group Geometric Images in Real Life. Over 700 images of things that relate to geometry. This could be really helpful when trying to make those connections between geometry and real life.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
http://www.flickr.com/groups/geometryinreallife/

Math Links for Week Ending July 12th, 2013

Still pretty busy these first two weeks of summer so some lite links with images from Indexed (for all of your Venn Diagram and interesting graph idea needs as well as some probability from XKCD
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P, MDM4U

http://thisisindexed.com/2013/07/im-your-third-cousin-once-removed-by-divorce-and-once-removed-by-cps/

http://thisisindexed.com/2013/06/courtesy-prevents-murder/

http://xkcd.com/1236/