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5 Fun Ways to Help Your Kids Learn Math Online

My son has finally found a math textbook he enjoys. A few years ago, he was happy to play Timez Attack, which was really the first 3D game he had played. Now my daughter is ready to learn her times tables, but we’ve been playing Fate and Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars and Dungeons [...]

Current_Events | History | Religion | Science

Copernicus

After hearing that the 16th-century astronomer Copernicus was to be reburied with honors in a Polish ceremony, I checked the Wikipedia entry. Woah! Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, quadrilingual polyglot, classical scholar, translator, artist,[3] Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. Among his many responsibilities, [...]

Academia | Culture | Design | Education | Politics | Rhetoric | Science

Who Needs Mathematicians for Math, Anyway?

In Pensylvania, homeshool kids have to take standardized tests every few years (at grades 3, 5, and 8). When he took the grade 5 exams last year, Peter did very well in all subjects, including math, though he 1) often says he hates math and 2) wastes a lot of time not doing math (staring [...]

Culture | Language | Literacy | Science | Technology

Mathematical Notation Gets an Upgrade

I can’t say I understand, but someone invented every symbol and bit of notation that we use from emoticons to the alphabet.  It’s cool to see the story of the need to invent new symbols.  via Wired.

Books | Education | Personal | Psychology | Science

A Math Paradox: The Widening Gap Between High School and College Math

My sixth-grader has scored very well on standardized tests for math, but he finds a blank page of math problems intimidating and boring. He spends hours — literally hours — wasting time at the kitchen table, not doing his long division or word problems. Yet for pleasure, he reads Death by Black Hole: And Other [...]

Culture | Cyberculture | Media | Rhetoric | Technology

On the Edge of Math and Code

Great stuff from Mark Marino… not only is the content fascinating, but the blog-sized presentation, for discusison, of a fundamental theoretical concept is a great example of what the blogging medium can do for (and to) scholarship.

Item for today: =

In Donald Knuth and Luis Trabb Pardo‘s article on the history of computers, the [...]

Ethics | Journalism | Rhetoric

Margin of Error

I’m gearing up to introduce my journalism students to a news project that requires a basic knowledge of math. I don’t want to make it too frustrating to them, but I do want to emphasize how easy it is to be misled by the math. Margin of Error deserves better than the throw-away line it [...]