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Opinions expressed on these pages were the views of the writers and did not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the American Mathematical Society.
Author Archives: evelynjlamb
Blogs for an IBL Novice
This semester, I’m teaching complex analysis using an inquiry-based learning approach. I kind of jumped into the deep end: it’s my first time to teach the subject and my first time to use this teaching method. Although I’m new to … Continue reading
There’s Something about Pentagons
Last month, researchers Casey Mann, Jennifer McLoud, and David Von Derau at the University of Washington Bothell found a new pentagon that tiles the plane, and the crowd went wild. It’s tough for a piece of research mathematics to get … Continue reading
Posted in Math Communication, Recreational Mathematics
Tagged pentagons, tessellations, tilings
1 Comment
Promoting Diversity and Respect in the Classroom
For a lot of us, the new school year is just around the corner. We’re getting ready for new classes and a new group of students. We have plenty of learning goals for our students and subject-specific material to think … Continue reading
Posted in Math Education
Tagged Adriana Salerno, Darryl Yong, David Kung, implicit bias, racism, sexism, teaching
3 Comments
Dimensions of Flavor
We talk a lot about visualizing mathematics, and we can even listen to it sometimes. But it can be hard to get the other senses involved, especially taste. Last year, I was delighted with Andrea Hawksley’s tasty and attractive Fibonacci … Continue reading
Posted in Math Communication
Tagged Andrea Hawksley, data analysis, data gastronomification, Flowing Data, Nathan Yau
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PCMI Blog Roundup
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to give a cross-program talk at PCMI, the Park City Mathematics Institute. I talked about how doing math online can help us reach others in the math community, building bridges between teachers, researchers, and … Continue reading
Posted in Math Communication, Math Education
Tagged #pcmisummer, PCMI, teaching blogs
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Specifications Grading Redux
Last December, I wrote about specifications grading, an idea I first saw on Robert Talbert’s blog Casting out Nines (Co9s is ending, so you can find new posts at rtalbert.org) and wanted to try out in my class. Talbert has blogged about his … Continue reading
Posted in Issues in Higher Education, Math Education
Tagged grading, Linda Nilson, Robert Talbert, specifications grading
9 Comments
Getting Warmer…
I’m currently teaching a summer school for high school students. Our main focus is number theory and its applications to cryptology, but I like to start each morning with some kind of warm-up math puzzle or game. I know plenty … Continue reading
Botanical Mathematicians
When I clicked on a blog post called “Bamboo Mathematicians,” I assumed it would be about the bamboo multiplication table recently cleaned up and analyzed by researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Those bamboo strips, dating from approximately 305 BCE, … Continue reading
Posted in Applied Math, Biomath
Tagged bamboo, biology, botany, Carl Zimmer, cicadas, mathematical models of evolution, plants
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Money, Money, Money
Ben Bernanke is blogging. (For some reason I find that funny: former Federal Reserve chairmen— they’re just like us!) In March, he started a blog at the Brookings Institution website. Several of the early posts are about explaining (and defending) the … Continue reading
Prepare to Be Nerdsniped
You have a lot of bags, and you want to store them by stuffing all of them into one of the bags. For n bags, how many ways are there to do this? I’ve spent a good amount of time … Continue reading
Posted in K-12 Mathematics, Math Education
Tagged combinatorics, education, fun problems, nerdsniping, thinking in math class
2 Comments