Algebra is boring. No! Algebra is Magic! Magic? Yeah, Magic. You know that Magic isn t really magical , right? I mean, it s not supernatural. There s always some clever hidden mechanism that makes it work. The illusion is cool, but to me the best part is trying to figure out how they did it! It s like what Continue reading Algebra is Magic!
Below I m going to talk about quadratics, but first, I want to say a little about why it s been almost 2 years since my last post, in Dec. of 2019. I had actually collected up some stuff to post before well Covid Duh! On the face of it, that doesn t sound like Continue reading Mental Models of Algebra (1) Quadratics
Leo has gotten very interested in interesting data graphics. To be honest, he s always been pretty interested in complex drawings; Since he was old enough to draw articulately, he s drawn very complex mazes and maze-like pictures; never (or rarely) artistic sorts of things (like paintings). And he s always been interested in the probabilities of things Continue reading Statistics on Children s…
I did a brief Game Theory camp with Leo and one of his friends, Justin. It was just a half-day camp (although we may do another half-day in a a couple weeks). We started out by talking about the three central concepts in game theory: Strategy, Payoffs, and Signaling. We divided signaling into the 2 2: Continue reading A Minecraft Game Theory MiniCamp
This post is part of a series that Leo and I are developing about teaching math through Minecraft. The topics of this post are (a) estimation, (b) giant numbers, (c) binary [as in computer representation, and powers of 2], and (d) thinking in scientific/exponential notation. You can see some of our other posts related to Continue reading Right-sizing Minecraft (A Whirlwind Exercise in Scientific…
I think that I ve done pretty well with Leo in math. Of course, I m biased, so don t take my word for it; We recently got back the results of a standardized nation-wide math test that Leo took at the end of last year that is, at the end of 4th grade on which Continue reading Understanding and Explaining Math, and My Teaching Philosophy
Leo and I do a lot of our learning from YouTube (as does everyone these days, of course!) In other posts I ve listed some of the channels we subscribe to, and I should update that. But I want to give a shout-out to three terrific science ed channels, and to one specific video on each Continue reading The Three Best Science Math Channels on YouTube; And One Video from each that will Blow Your Mind
A PiWord is a sort of crossword puzzle/magic square where you can find the across and down digits in the digits of Pi. Because Pi is transcendental, if you go out long enough you ll be able to find any number you like, so you can obviously create a PiWord that is as large as you Continue reading PiWords (Magic Squares in Pi)
(Leo had to write an essay introducing himself to his math teacher. We were reading The Friendly Book , by Margaret Wise Brown, to Ada, and got the idea to do a math poem in that style. Leo mostly wrote this himself, although I made some suggestions about rhyming and meter.) I Like Math By Leo Continue reading I Like Math (a poem)
After the moderately positive experience of Chem Camp, we decided to do a somewhat more abbreviated home Physics Camp, with Leo s same friend, Connor in the two days before school started this week. This didn t go nearly as well as Chem Camp, mostly, I think, because Leo and Connor were significantly more distracted by one Continue reading Physics Camp