Following a discussion using matrix algebra to show computation in a Multivariate Analysis of Variance, a doctoral student asked me, “Professor, when will I ever use this? Why do I need to know this?” He had a valid point. I’m always asking myself why I’m teaching something. Is it because it interests me personally, because…
I was talking to a friend of mine today who had taken a test for a new job recently and he had a hard time with the math portion of it. We were in college about the same time and he did perfectly fine in math, but it had been a while. This got me…
I’m working on a section of a game that teaches fractions. If a player misses the question about where to meet up with the returning hunter, he or she gets sent to study. There is a movie that plays before this about needing to get back to the camp before dark. Here is the question,…
I’ve spent a good bit of my life living and working in places that many of my colleagues would not drive through in the middle of the day with the windows rolled up and the car doors locked, so you’ll have to excuse me if I am a bit cynical about the latest push to…
Having taught math myself for the past 30 years, and with a brother who is a middle school math teacher, I am obviously not tarring all math teachers with the same brush, but I am really starting to get pissed off here. I have beautiful daughters, and it is not just me who says so….
If you want to be a programmer, entrepreneur or a statistician, the best advice that I can give is, “Don’t believe other people are smarter than you.” Sometimes that is hard advice to take. I read an interesting blog post by Ali Berlinksi, “I miss being stereotyped”, about being Asian-American and moving to an area…
Let’s face it, 90% of everything on the Internet is crap. This is especially true when it comes to educational resources. So I cannot believe I did not come across these until now. Maybe they were just lost in the swamp of effluvia. I came across so many good resources lately that I am planning…
Here is a math problem: Hoksinato and Tasunka Ska are going to steal horses. They could steal the scrub ponies from the edge of the camp. The last 15 times warriors from the tribe tried to steal scrub ponies, they got away 12 times and were caught and tortured 3 times. If they…
It’s not often that you read a paragraph and it sticks in your mind for months. That this particular paragraph came not from some great literary work but rather from the proceedings of the annual meeting of the Association of Small Computer Users in Education is even more expected, but there it is. Douglas Kranch…
The third of my four daughters was being questioned about her training before the last Olympics, and answered; My mother was the first American to win the world championships, so I called her for advice, and believe me, Mom is always brimming with advice, whether you want it or not … In fact,…