We were invited, along with the Seattle Universal Math Museum (SUMM) to host a play space at NCTM’s Regional Conference in Seattle that took place earlier this month. The whole team organized materials, and then Matt Hertel and I met in Seattle ready to play math! Due to the nature of the space, and fire codes and whatnot, we had
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Curve Stitching Parabolas
Does this method of curve stitching make a parabola, or just something that looks kind of parabola-ish? Geometrically, a parabola is the set of points in the plane that are equidistant from a point (the focus) and a line (the directrix). The parabola whose focus is the point (0,1), and whose directrix is y= -1 is algebraically defined as y=¼
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Curry Triangle Paradox
Here’s the rap. Me: Can we do a little math together? You: Sure! Me: Here’s a triangle, right? You: Yes. Me: OK. You hold these pieces; I’m gonna swap these, and your job is to fill in the empty space to make the same triangle a different way. … Eventually (anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 minutes later) Us: Oh
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Houston Science Festival: Mathematical Origami
On September 10, Jordan Varat and Stefany Espinoza hosted a table at the Houston Science Festival , an event co-sponsored by Bridges to Science that has the tag line “Casa to College”, because it is a celebration of Hispanic culture and learning at home designed for home educated 5th-12th grade students and their parents. We are really pleased to contribute
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Partner Spotlight: Workshop visit with Kim Kinder from Cuba, MO
Kimberly Kinder is a high school math teacher who is really passionate about bringing new learning experiences for her students. She drove 12 hours to come to Austin because she’s really interested in making some of the models we have and in making her own. We are really excited about supporting her work. Kimberly not only selected some models and
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Resource List for Museum Next
Options for Adding Mathematics connections: Labels on exhibits * Live demonstrations* Make and Take activities * Field Trip programs * Family Activity Area ideas * sculptures and installations. Resource List for Web and in person Mathematics Web and in person: Some organizations who work with museums and in public arenas to provide Mathematics Performances, Events and Experiences. Email addresses will
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New audience. Old artifacts.
If you are a fan of museums, then you have seen something like this object before… probably dozens of times. This impressive artifact is a nocturnal from La Belle and it can be used to tell time at night by the positions of the stars. As historic artifacts and symbols of exploration and discovery, navigation tools like this one spark
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Honored to Receive a MoMath Rosenthal Prize!
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
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Vaccine Strategies: Follow the Math
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”.
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