Thinking of Teaching? Here’s a great conference.

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Brian Katz

Are you looking ahead to a career that involves teaching and starting to wonder what that means for you? Then you should consider attending the annual Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) conference this summer, in Austin. The conference is incredibly welcoming, and this year’s theme is “Empowering with IBL”. The conference has strong connections to the Academy of Inquiry-Based Learning, Project NExT, and the MAA. The conference is inexpensive for graduate students, and it includes housing and food, plus it’s in Austin! See the link for more information.

http://www.inquirybasedlearning.org/?page=conference

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i>Clicker

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Tyler Clark
FullSizeRender-1

i>Clicker GO app on iPhone 7

In September, 2012, Laura Zirbel wrote a post about her experience with using i>Clickers in the classroom. I used to be very against i>Clickers. Oftentimes I found they were used solely as a means of determining attendance and not as a tool to help students learn course material. I am teaching a combined precalculus and trigonometry course this semester and have incorporated i>Clickers into my lectures and am loving the results.
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Metacognition

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Tyler Clark
Image licensed under Creative Commons by dkuropatwa: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dkuropatwa/5048149472

Image licensed under Creative Commons by dankos.de:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dkuropatwa/5048149472

A quick Google search on mathematics metacognition returns more than 300,000 results. What is metacognition and why should we care about it? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as

Awareness or analysis of one’s own learning or thinking processes.

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Celebrities and Math

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Tyler Clark
Photo by Jens Schott Knudsen. The work is distributed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo by Jens Schott Knudsen. The work is distributed under a Creative Commons License.

I always enjoy seeing mathematics in pop culture. When a friend of mine sent me a txt message about an article talking about celebrities who enjoyed mathematics, I was all over it. (Tangent – The title of the article, 10 Secret Celebrity Math Geeks, is a bit indicative of the societal attitude towards mathematicians. It is sad that folks who enjoy math need to be “secret.”) The celebrities included on this list were:

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Posted in Math in Pop Culture, Mathematics in Society | 1 Comment

John Napier: Life, Logarithms, and Legacy – Book Review

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Stephanie Blanda
Photo courtesy of the Princeton University Press

Photo courtesy of the Princeton University Press

Logarithms – this mathematical staple is celebrating its 400th birthday this year. But how much do you know about the development of logarithms or the man behind them? Edinburgh born John Napier, the inventor of logarithms, is in danger of fading into the shadows of the scientific landscape. In the new book John Napier: Life, Logarithms, and Legacy, Julian Havil does a marvelous job of bringing Napier back into the spotlight.

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