At a recent meeting of mathematics content coaches (many from the organization Reimagined) we investigated the following problem: What is the perimeter of the polygon below? It appears at first that there isn't enough information to solve the problem. Indeed, the lengths of only three of the polygon's … Continue Reading ››
The title of this post is a nod to the Sketchpad activity module Pythagoras Plugged In by Dan Bennett. Dan's book contains 18 visual, interactive proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem. And there are more: The Pythagorean Proposition, published in 1928 by Elisha Scott Loomis, contains over 350 proofs, 255 of which are geometric. Wow! I revisited the … Continue Reading ››
Several years ago, I wrote a blog post about the value that students derive from writing mathematics with Sketchpad. The post included an example of a simple Logo iteration, easily implemented in Sketchpad, that produces some very complex and interesting shapes depending on the values of several input parameters. In the … Continue Reading ››
Metamorphosis is a New York-based company that offers professional content coaching to transform the mindset and practice of both teachers and administrators. I recently had the pleasure to collaborate with Metamorphosis staff members Toni Cameron and Kara Levin as well as mathematics coach Ariel Dlugasch from P.S. 276 in a coaching learning community that brought … Continue Reading ››
What does dilation feel like? I recently had the opportunity to work with a group of students who were testing activities that treat geometric transformations as functions (what I call geometric functions). I got lots of good ideas for improving the activities not only by watching the students, but also but also from their suggestions … Continue Reading ››
In a prior blog post, I described the pins-and-string approach to drawing an ellipse: Press two pins into a corkboard, place a loop of string around the pins, pull the string tight with a pencil, and trace the pencil tip's path as you pull the pencil around the taut string. Guaranteeing that the traced … Continue Reading ››
Today's blog post features a sketch from Anna Nguyen, who's a 9th grade student. Anna observes, "Math is one of my favorite subjects. I'm not a genius or the smartest in my class, but I do enjoy dealing with letters and numbers, which is also why I like chemistry. I think GSP is the most … Continue Reading ››
By Adrienne Barrett This post is by guest blogger Adrienne Barrett, who's a senior mathematics and education dual major at Rowan University. She is currently student teaching and upon graduation in May, she hopes to find a full-time position teaching high-school mathematics. She's always loved math, and studying it in college has given her … Continue Reading ››
Today there is no lack of outrage directed at the high-stakes standardized testing that has become so prevalent in the U.S. educational system. A recent opinion piece in The New York Times examines the backlash against the Common Core and lays the blame not on the standards themselves, but rather … Continue Reading ››
In my previous post, I shared Dan Meyer's analysis of what's wrong with computer-based mathematics assessments. Dan focuses his critique on the Khan Academy's eighth-grade online mathematics course, identifying 74% of its assessment questions as focusing on numerical answers or multiple-choice items. This is … Continue Reading ››
It appears at first that there isn't enough information to solve the problem. Indeed, the lengths of only three of the polygon's … Continue Reading ››