This is a great example where mathematicians applied some creative thinking to solve a very real world problem. It is Abraham Wald’s Survivorship Bias problem. To help explain the sequence of concepts that lead to his insight, we made some wooden planes to help visualize the problem, and the solution. We start out thinking about the planes that come back
…
MathHappens Foundation and STEM Santa Fe partnered together to host a week’s worth of camp sessions for a group of 27 students from March 15-19. Camp sessions were led by MathHappens staff, Lauren Siegel, Josephine Sheng, Elizabeth Wrightsman, Anh Nguyen and Viyang Shah and group discussions were led by a group of facilitators including Naila Hajiyeva, and Quan Nguyen who
…
We need to include logistics and business experts. PDF Format Here. This is a follow up to a January 4 post, Vaccine Strategies: Follow the Math on mathematics based business strategies that can inform the vaccination distribution. We Aren’t Using the Right Experts By Philip Siegel January 10, 2021 The development of COVID vaccines has been an enormous achievement of our
…
Title: Engagement with Ratio and Proportion: Building a tool to deepen understanding. The full, final lesson plan will be available soon here and on the MoMath website. The MoMath Rosenthal Prize is for Innovation and Inspiration in Math Teaching. I wrote up a lesson on proportional calipers that was selected as the 2021 runner up prize. The best part is that
…
A set of simple ideas that highlight business math principles that would speed up our vaccination process. Here’s a link to a PDF version as well. VACCINE STRATEGIES: FOLLOW THE MATH By Lauren and Philip Siegel A much used saying during the pandemic has been “follow the science”. But when it comes to vaccine distribution we should “follow the math”.
…
Here’s another great organization dedicated to getting the math out to the people, Public Math at https://www.public-math.org. They have just issued an annual report that is full of fun and interesting ways you can share math in public, and it lists all the great people doing this work with them. These projects, like the postcard project or the math vending
…
How can educator forge better relationships with their community? This is a great example of reaching out to the community, providing useful information and showing how some calculations can be important in our day to day life. In fall 2017 Amy Gross decorated a table, created a display of information, shared her hydration tracking system and samples of fruit infused
…
TMWYF is a great group that I really enjoyed meeting. I hope to collaborate with them in the future. Draw snow falling – now make dividing walls that meet – have you now got the start of a turtle – or is it a map of 1854 London and you just need to add a square and some dots to
…
This is a fantastic way to layout this problem posted on twitter by Olivier Longuet and pointed out to me by Ralph Pantozzi. The drawing progression is on the right or you can etch the left (blank) onto wood, and add the finished pieces as you figure it out. Our files are here if you want a jpg, svg, Corel
…
You don’t need robots and computers, just a system and apparatus to organize the steps! This model is based on the results alluded too but not completely explained by an Israeli company in the recent NY Times article by David Halbfinger on creative pool testing options. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/health/fast-coronavirus-testing-israel.html Trying to come up with one of these is a great activity for
…