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Alex ~ VIC Maths Notes

@vmnalex.bsky.social

#mtbos #iteachmath | Engelmann | Free notes & resources @ http://vicmathsnotes.weebly.com | Author for OUP Maths | CL @ Ochre

418 Posts529 Follower185 Folgt
Alex ~ VIC Maths Notes@vmnalex.bsky.social · 3w ago

Stepping into controversial territory here, but if you know me, then you’ll know I am a fan of Engelmann/DI and so it shouldn’t be surprising that I think that scripts have a place in teaching. Let me try to convince you to write one by the end of this post. vmnalex.substack.com/p/let-me-con...

Let me convince you to try writing a script

I'm trying to talk you down, the man who can't be moved; hoping that this post breaks even.

vmnalex.substack.com

Alex ~ VIC Maths Notes@vmnalex.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Was great to talk to Sarah Duggan at Education HQ about the issues with CAS calculators and UDFs following on from my earlier Substack. educationhq.com/news/defeats...

‘Defeats the purpose’: maths expert takes aim at CAS calculators allowed in exams

Subject study designs that heavily involve senior students using advanced calculators capable of solving problems that veer well into university-level mathematics, risk diluting teacher instruction an...

educationhq.com

Alex ~ VIC Maths Notes@vmnalex.bsky.social · 5mo ago

With the VCAA surveying opinions about UDF use with CAS calculators, what better time to also discuss whether the CAS calculator still has a place for senior mathematics. open.substack.com/pub/vmnalex/...

Casio calculator: "Well, looks like another person is trying to take us down a notch." TI calculator: "I don't think it's going to go well for them"
David K Butler@davidkbutler.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Did an exam revision seminar for 2nd year uni Probability course and discovered just how many of the distributions in the course model situations where you watch for an event to happen. It was nine of the twelve named distributions in the course!

Alex ~ VIC Maths Notes@vmnalex.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is a great analogy. Though implementing it is tough. You need to find the time when students have enough of the background knowledge/skills to approach it as fully as possible and a task that is as close to the desired "full game" as possible, making concessions where teaching needs to occur.

I agree with the seven principles of teaching described by David Perkins in his book Making Learning Whole. He uses baseball as an analogy which shapes the language he uses. His first principle is Play the Whole Game. I like his description of what this means. “We can ask ourselves when we begin to learn anything, do we engage some accessible version of the whole game early and often? When we do, we get what might be called a ‘threshold experience,’ a learning experience that gets us past initial disorientation and into the game. From there it’s easier to move forward in a meaningful motivated way. “Much of formal education is short on threshold experiences. It feels like learning the pieces of a picture puzzle that never gets put together, or learning about the puzzle without being able to touch the pieces. In contrast, getting some version of a whole game close to the beginning makes sense because it gives the enterprise more meaning. You may not do it very well, but at least you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.” (Perkins, p. 9)
MAA@joinmaa.bsky.social · 4mo ago

What if students didn?t have to wait weeks to understand calculus? David Bressoud explores starting with the big picture to create more meaningful learning. Read the full Math Values article here: https://maa.org/math-values/opening-fdwk/

Aspeaky@aspeaky.bsky.social · 4mo ago

What is e? I know it is 2.71, I know it has the great property that e^x is the same when we differentiate it, I also know that if the percentage interest is equal to the number of times it occurs it is the number the compound interest converges too. I don’t understand why it matters? Please help!

David K Butler@davidkbutler.bsky.social · 4mo ago

So #MathSky #iTeachMath, submissions for workshops for my local maths teacher association conference are due shortly, so I am making my yearly request for what things you would have me run a 50-minute session on. (Even if you can’t come, you can imagine what you’d love to be part of if you could.)