The structure of this post comes from Dan Meyer’s Three Acts of A Mathematical Story. Act 1 Play the teaser video. Have students write down questions they have about the video. Ask them to be silent during this part so … Continue reading
New Math Puzzler up this week: Tommy’s Drive to Work RAY: Tommy has a new car, it’s 19 years old. … It has one of those newfangled six-digit odometers. It can register as many as 999,999 miles. So one fine morning last … Continue reading
Great article from the NY Times on the Danger of Praise, with an excellent puzzle included: Circle of Differences The numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 are written at the corners of a large square. At each step, at the … Continue reading
Car Talk has a new math puzzler up that mixes math and science: There Was an Old Man…RAY: I’m going to recite an equation and, from that, you are going to give me a limerick that consists of five lines. TOM: Does … Continue reading
Here is a quick tech trick for quickly posting your homework key (or any document that doesn’t need to be editable). Because of my new homework policy, I’ve been posting my homework key on the classroom website on the day … Continue reading
Great post from John Scammell walking through a how-to for “wcydwt” (what can you do with this) or “ltps” (learning through problem solving). Can we just call it great teaching? Learning Through Problem Solving Process 1. Present the problem. The problem is … Continue reading
From the brilliant(?) minds at vat19.com, I present to you, the IcoSoKu: Just thousands, that’s it? In my list of mathematical strengths probability does not appear, but there are: 12 unique numbers (vertices of an icosahedron), so 12! = 479,001,600 ways to arrange … Continue reading
Great post from Terie Engelbrecht: 1) I do it so students can focus on learning, not points or effort. 2) I do it for students who take longer to make their own meaning; those same students that often get plowed under in … Continue reading
In Search of the Bogus Coins RAY: We have seven stacks of coins, each with 100 coins. Real coins weigh ten grams, and phony coins weigh 11 grams. We’re going to weigh the coins on an analytic scale, which works just … Continue reading
Looking up at the ceiling of Westminster Abbey in Henry VII’s Lady Chapel. No questions, just thought it was cool.