Mathematics Education TED Talk

I'll be teaching Calculus I at Emory University this fall, so I found this TED talk to be particularly interesting and useful. TED is a small nonprofit devoted to ideas worth spreading. In this TED talk, Dan Meyer, a Math educator, proposes a Mathematics curriculum makeover in America. He breaks down Mathematics into two categories: computation and math reasoning.

He claims while computational methods may be easily forgotten, as educators, we should focus on math reasoning. He outlines successful procedures to promote mathematical intuition and discussion in the classroom to foster math reasoning. This, in turn, will help students get involved in the formulation of the problem, a useful skill for students who continue to study math, and those who don't.

Can't wait to incorporate his suggestions in my classroom! Have a look and get inspired:

Chinese Abacus as Home Decor?

We've lived in our condo for a year now, and somehow our walls remain white and bare. As I was surfing online to find some wall art inspiration, I was intrigued by the abacus wall art available at Pottery Barn and CB2. I thought this would be THE perfect souvenir for two math fans to bring home from China. While other travelers may be searching for jade, porcelain, and magic carpets, thus started my endless search for a giant abacus on our holiday to the Orient.

The Chinese invented the abacus in 2nd century B.C. as a counting instrument. To my surprise, the abacus is very much in use by store clerks and accountants even today. In fact, I learned that the suanpan, the Chinese name for abacus, can be used for multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, square root, and cube root calculations as well. According to Feng Shui, the abacus placed on desk or cashier will multiply profits and enhance business dealings. For those seeking for knowledge in fields of such as mathematics, accountancy, science and engineering, placing an abacus on the study table can enhance learning.

Although my dreams of finding an ginormous abacus in China did not come true (yet!), I brought home functional abacuses (or is it abaci?) to place on our study table. Looking forward to many GREAT academic years ahead!

Wendy's Biggie Fries Container

Here is one to try on your next fast food date.  My husband and I were in the airport Wendy's enjoying our fries with ranch dressing and noticed the statement on the container read, "We figured out that there are 256 ways to personalize a Wendy's hamburger.  Luckily someone was paying attention in math class."  So naturally, we asked each other how many condiments does Wendy's offer to result in 256 combinations of burgers? 

I immediately answered 8 condiments, using the notion of power sets.  2 to the what equals 256?  Meanwhile, my husband attempted to solve the equation nC0 + nC1 + ... + nCn = 256 and also got 8 (after what seemed like hours after I gave my answer).  Alternatively, I suppose, you can just take a walk over to the fixings bar and count them.  Thanks Wendy's for making our layover so entertaining!