Thanks! I'm very interested in this approach and will take a look. Wish I could find something like it in English, as I don't speak Russian :)
Your two points are really the same point. The reason that people don't understand what mathematicians do, is because we've been referring to calculation as mathematics our whole lives. If we did a better part…
Maybe not as simple as you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYemnKEKx0c
I just realized it might not be that easy to find my contact info. I added it to the website, but it is my username here, no caps, at gmail.com
The Lego Friends theme doesn't have firefighters because it is focused on social relationships, not overcoming conflict. It doesn't have to be a girl vs boy thing (although it is undoubtedly targeted toward girls to…
As a mathematician, how much time do you spend studying proofs written by other people? I'm genuinely curious, because I think that if I wanted to be a novelist, I would spend a lot of time reading novels before trying…
I'm still struggling with how to handle this. On the one hand, it makes a lot of sense for it to be public. On the other, I've given up a lot to spend time developing it (including going part time on my day job), and I…
I think you're absolutely right that math has to be motivated. A lot of the effort to motivate it is to provide problems that students understand relate to the real world. Most of them come across as contrived. You hit…
ESR is being extremely condescending and patronizing. I don't consider that friendly or helpful. He's giving tons of hand-wavy pop psychology in response to a technical issue on which he's out of his depth. His…
Linus wisely declined to respond to this extremely condescending comment by someone who was out of their depth and didn't clearly understand the issue at hand.
Probably depends on whether you are in Minnesota, trying to get warmth, or in Phoenix trying to stay in the shade...
He didn't ask whether it was an honorable, noble thing to do, he asked whether they were "obligated" to do it. Once you are obligated to do something, it is no longer honorable or noble just to do it. Your uncle stood…
I agree completely. I'm working on a curriculum just like this :)
Agreed, but I'm not sure the solution is upping the statistical standards so much as educating researchers about what the statistical standards actually mean, how to use them, and how to construct a valid, repeatable…
The number of us who look at the school system today and see it as barbaric and ineffective is growing rapidly...
I've thought a lot about this and haven't found many good resources. I finally gave up and started reading history of math books. Unfortunately, most of them are aimed at grad students in history or grad students in…
You are good at math and bad at calculation. There are branches of math where calculation is not so important... also, use a computer for the calculations :)
Good for you! "The difference between good at math and bad at math is hard work. It’s trying. It’s trying hard. It’s trying harder than you’ve ever tried before. That’s it." I love this quote. I think that nails it.…
By this criteria, there is very little science going on anywhere. We don't teach philosophy of science enough anymore. In most of the fields that I'm familiar with, reproducibility is very hard and rarely bothered about…
It would be interesting to look into this. My experience has been that multi-disciplinary researchers are more likely to be familiar with a broader range of research and familiar with statistical techniques across their…
I haven't seen any reason to believe that being multidisciplinary makes this more likely. The whole problem is caused by the fact that most of the single-disciplinary researchers are using bad statistics. Very few…
True, the millions of children killed by chemistry sets don't live to tell...
I don't understand the liability issue. He isn't selling it as a toy, it is a science kit. Anyone can walk into any store and buy stuff that is dangerous if ingested or misused... cleaning supplies, cooking knives, etc.…
I hope so too, but I hope that for those not buying the set as well. Seriously, parents should be looking for opportunities to teach responsibility and work with real "stuff". This is not exactly as dangerous as a…
I wish I lived near enough to visit. Very inspiring story.
Thanks! I'm very interested in this approach and will take a look. Wish I could find something like it in English, as I don't speak Russian :)
Your two points are really the same point. The reason that people don't understand what mathematicians do, is because we've been referring to calculation as mathematics our whole lives. If we did a better part…
Maybe not as simple as you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYemnKEKx0c
I just realized it might not be that easy to find my contact info. I added it to the website, but it is my username here, no caps, at gmail.com
The Lego Friends theme doesn't have firefighters because it is focused on social relationships, not overcoming conflict. It doesn't have to be a girl vs boy thing (although it is undoubtedly targeted toward girls to…
As a mathematician, how much time do you spend studying proofs written by other people? I'm genuinely curious, because I think that if I wanted to be a novelist, I would spend a lot of time reading novels before trying…
I'm still struggling with how to handle this. On the one hand, it makes a lot of sense for it to be public. On the other, I've given up a lot to spend time developing it (including going part time on my day job), and I…
I think you're absolutely right that math has to be motivated. A lot of the effort to motivate it is to provide problems that students understand relate to the real world. Most of them come across as contrived. You hit…
ESR is being extremely condescending and patronizing. I don't consider that friendly or helpful. He's giving tons of hand-wavy pop psychology in response to a technical issue on which he's out of his depth. His…
Linus wisely declined to respond to this extremely condescending comment by someone who was out of their depth and didn't clearly understand the issue at hand.
Probably depends on whether you are in Minnesota, trying to get warmth, or in Phoenix trying to stay in the shade...
He didn't ask whether it was an honorable, noble thing to do, he asked whether they were "obligated" to do it. Once you are obligated to do something, it is no longer honorable or noble just to do it. Your uncle stood…
I agree completely. I'm working on a curriculum just like this :)
Agreed, but I'm not sure the solution is upping the statistical standards so much as educating researchers about what the statistical standards actually mean, how to use them, and how to construct a valid, repeatable…
The number of us who look at the school system today and see it as barbaric and ineffective is growing rapidly...
I've thought a lot about this and haven't found many good resources. I finally gave up and started reading history of math books. Unfortunately, most of them are aimed at grad students in history or grad students in…
You are good at math and bad at calculation. There are branches of math where calculation is not so important... also, use a computer for the calculations :)
Good for you! "The difference between good at math and bad at math is hard work. It’s trying. It’s trying hard. It’s trying harder than you’ve ever tried before. That’s it." I love this quote. I think that nails it.…
By this criteria, there is very little science going on anywhere. We don't teach philosophy of science enough anymore. In most of the fields that I'm familiar with, reproducibility is very hard and rarely bothered about…
It would be interesting to look into this. My experience has been that multi-disciplinary researchers are more likely to be familiar with a broader range of research and familiar with statistical techniques across their…
I haven't seen any reason to believe that being multidisciplinary makes this more likely. The whole problem is caused by the fact that most of the single-disciplinary researchers are using bad statistics. Very few…
True, the millions of children killed by chemistry sets don't live to tell...
I don't understand the liability issue. He isn't selling it as a toy, it is a science kit. Anyone can walk into any store and buy stuff that is dangerous if ingested or misused... cleaning supplies, cooking knives, etc.…
I hope so too, but I hope that for those not buying the set as well. Seriously, parents should be looking for opportunities to teach responsibility and work with real "stuff". This is not exactly as dangerous as a…
I wish I lived near enough to visit. Very inspiring story.