education
Scientific method
Posted by David Wees on May 16, 2012
(Image credit: Jack Amick)
When many people think of science, they think of the tools of science, much like the photo of a traditional science lab above shows. They think of beakers, and hypotheses, and labs, and think that this is science. Playing with the tools of scientists does not make one a scientist, or become a scientist. Thinking like a scientist does.
Teaching probability
Posted by David Wees on May 12, 2012
My colleague found an activity to do with his 5th grade class, similar to this one. Basically, he gave the students 10 coins each, and asked them to put the 10 coins on a number line (with numbers from 1 to 12) with a partner. Each round they roll 2 six-sided dice, find the total, and remove a coin from their number line if it matches the roll. They keep going until one of the two students has no coins on the number line.
PISA results from 2000 to 2009 for Canada
Posted by David Wees on May 12, 2012
I noticed through this blog, that the CBC had published the PISA results for Manitoba (released as charts) for 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009.
Culture and counting
Posted by David Wees on May 12, 2012
Not convinced that there are cultural nuances in how we understand and define math? Watch the following short video (see http://www.culturecognition.com/ for the source) in which a child explains the number system his culture uses to another child.
We didn't do any math yesterday
Posted by David Wees on May 9, 2012
Yesterday, I was covering a colleague's math class at the last minute, and he had made photocopies of a chapter 1 to 7 review. I looked at the review sheets, and the grade 10 students in front of me, and decided that it was unlikely that the review sheets were going to be useful. I handed them out, and then started putting puzzles up on the board.
Interesting ways to use Google Apps in the math classroom
Posted by David Wees on May 8, 2012
I just found this presentation from more than a year ago on some interesting ways to use Google Apps in a mathematics classroom. I noticed that it had been edited slightly, so I did some more edits and thought I would share it here.
On motivating mathematics education
Posted by David Wees on May 7, 2012
Here is a funny comic from the Fake Science blog.
I did professional development all wrong
Posted by David Wees on May 1, 2012
Last year, I presented a lot on the need to improve mathematics instruction. I had pictures, I had questions, I had effective arguments, and my audience was engaged. I could present like the best of them on some of the ways that we can improve mathematics instruction. What I did not have was effective teaching.
Disclaimer: The ideas discussed on this blog are my own, and in no way represent those of my employer.
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