Sam's Blog

You are here, at the end! You did it! Just one last little thing. You did well on the Feltrons. There is nothing you don't know. You can do this! Link to final. Remember, you can't edit it directly. You have to click "File > Make a copy...", then you can edit your own copy.

You're pretty much done! Go you! You just need to take this practice final, then the real final. If you haven't yet, you need to turn in your Feltron. If you didn't request an extension, you should still reach out and and check in with me and give me an update about when you will turn it in. Practice Final Here

Today you will keep working on your Feltron. As a reminder, if you need an extension, send me an email. However, even if you get an extension, make sure to, from a spreadsheet, know how to make bar, line, pie and histogram charts, and compute the minimum, maximum, average, and median. So, maybe things are going well. Maybe you are struggling to make enough charts. If you are, let me assure you, you can totally do it. If you think you can't make enough charts, be sure to make one chart for each thing you measured. For example, if you measured "Avocados eaten", "water drank" and "steps taken" you should make a chart of date/avocados, date/water and date/steps. You could also do date/avocados/water and date/water/steps (and date/avocados/steps). If you really feel stuck, look at the second trimester Feltrons . Also, check out the post I made with how to videos . Finally, I made these new videos for more help:

Keep working on those Feltrons. Think about what fonts you want to use (pick 2) and the color scheme. Picking fewer colors usually makes it look professional. If you can get a non-white background with white writing to work, it looks good.

Today your one goal is to work on your Feltrons. You want to make as much progress as possible. Your goal is to send them to me by Friday evening. Sorry I am not there, I am in Arkansas to see my little brother-in-law graduate high school. I will be back tomorrow. If you feel confident just going to work, then do that. By "do work," I mean make the charts and write about them; also calculate the mean, median and mode of every value you can... also the max and min. If you need help, I made a series of videos leading you through the most common things.

Status check Homework Feltron Update - there's a final (Post-Feltron) Birthday problem Homework How many people do there need to be in a room for it to be the case that at least two MUST share a birthday?

Starting with Venn Diagrams, do Independent and Dependent Probability

We talked about the basics of probability. So for classwork, we did this . Do it if you haven't yet. For homework, finish statistical studies if you haven't yet. Have a good weekend!

Keep working on  Statistical Studies topic !

Ok, today didn't go exactly as planned. If you saw the blog post I had up planned for today... we will get to that, but I incorrectly estimated how long some work would take you. Not your fault. You guys just move so fast through most material! You are working on the  Statistical Studies topic  on Khan Academy. It is not easy. That is okay. You don't have to get frustrated, or discouraged, or stressed. If it takes longer than I thought it would, I'll give you more time. Some good insights from the classwork: Go straight to the exercises, but go back to the videos if you are stuck If the videos feel too long, you can speed up playback (in the options menu, click the gear button). 1.25x isn't even noticeable. 1.5x is, but if you listen for a while you get used to it and can switch to 2x An "experiment" involves splitting a subset of the population you are looking at into two groups: one called the "control", who don't do anything diff

Do you have your tickets...  to the gun show? #flexin #doyouevenliftbro Please complete this to show you did your homework: So, let's talk about what makes this project hard: actually collecting data. It's not hard, but somehow, doing it every day is hard. It's easy to miss a day... then two... then all the sudden, you have missed a bunch, and it's scary and you don't want to think about it, so you don't do it. So we are going to preempt all that by putting some work in today to make it hard to forget. First, we will make a Google form.  I started it for you, all you is copy it and add your 4 variables . Once you have that, you are going to use a cool feature of Google Sheets to have google email you this form every day. The form will be in the email itself, so all you have to do is open the email, fill out the form, and hit enter. Here are the instructions to follow . Don't be intimidated! You just have to copy and paste some code, but if y

Let's talk about what variables you plan on tracking. What should we track as a class? This discussion can be painful or not... So be respectful and listen more than you talk. Also, let's talk about your other ideas, and what works vs what doesn't. Steal each others' ideas liberally. If it sounds like something good to track, do it. Homework: Make a copy of  this google doc  and make sure the share settings are "Anyone with link can view" Fill it in with 5 charts you like and answer all questions Get a link to your doc and copy it as a comment to this blog post Where does one look for charts? The Pew Research Center  is a source for information that will make you smarter and better able to make convincing arguments (try the  interactives !) The  Dadaviz  site has some gems Information is Beautiful  has the prettiest graphs Flowing Data  has lots of interactive visualizations Dear Data  has amazing, hand-drawn charts, and is a really cool

I love you guys to death, but I am going to start this class without computers because you just hone in for the links to get work done (which I LOVE) but it means that it is hard to communicate information, and a big part of today is talking as a group. The Feltron Project Do you know what it is? Look back about 40 posts to "Feltron Intro", and always, www.feltron.com We need data... so we will do a "quantified self" project and collect information about ourselves. What type of data? ANYTHING! Number of steps per day Number of poops per day time on screens what you ate what you listened to books read tweets tweeted instagram pictures liked cups of tea drank websites you visited take a picture of everyone you meet your location (if possible) track every flight that goes over you (or your house) ...so much more! You will pick six variables to track: four personal ones, and one that the whole class agrees on. I want this to be EASY. I h

Ahhhhhhh! Check it out: this message is being pulled from a Google sheet and inserted here, will like five lines of JavaScript (give it a second to load if you don't see it yet): So, just another example of how amazing Google Sheets, and the internet in general is. (Feel free to ignore this explanation... but if you're curious,  here is the sheet  it is being pulled from, and you can hit  CTRL+SHIFT+C  to go to the "Inspect Element" screen, and look for a Script tag , which tells the page how to do stuff (in this case, pull information from a Google Sheet). It uses  Sheetsu ). Today Todo We survey the class to find each person's Name Height Age Foot size in inches (no need to measure, just use  this chart ) Everyone makes a Google Sheet where a ROW represents a student, and COLUMNS represent attributes of the student (their name, height, age, and foot size). Make two new rows at the end, for MEAN STUDENT and MEDIAN STUDENT. The value of each

I'm tired and this is really funny Anyway. Today you are going to learn about  SPREADSHEETS! YAY! "What are spreadsheets?" you ask? Behold! ...it's a grid of boxes, called "cells". "But wait!" you naively protest, "that isn't exciting or interesting!" Ok, I grant you it may not be exciting, but it is interesting. Spreadsheets are oddly powerful. They changed the face of commerce since their widespread adoption in the 1980s (there's a good podcast about that that we can listen to sometime if we have extra time) Spreadsheets count as a programming language, and are the most widely-used one. The vast majority (>90%) of companies use spreadsheets. And finally: They do all the work for you! Can you imagine how much you have to add, subtract, multiply, divide, calculate means, etc when you are running a business? You pay for things, you sell things, but the price of things change. What will the thin

Histograms? That sounds hard... Actually, everything we are going to talk about today is easy. Histograms are a frequency table, that is, the height represents how frequently  that value appeared. For example: Apparently, the most common height for a Black Cherry tree in this study was between 75-80 ft. Let's get some data about the class: maybe "when do you wake up?," "how tall are you?," and/or anything else interesting. Now we'll chunk the data - divide it into bins. In the cherry tree example, the bins are "trees of height 60-65 feet, 65-70 feet,... etc" As a side note, when I say 60-65 and 65-70 are separate bins, what do I mean? Where does 65 go? Alright, let's pick one of the measurements, put them in order from smallest to greatest, and find a few things: The minimum (the smallest value) The maximum (the largest value) The median (median is the one in the middle) The upper quartile (the number between the med

Here is the plan: Sign up for Khan Academy if you do not have an account or can't get into it Go to  khanacademy.org/coaches There, in the "Add a coach" field, enter the class code V6ZGZG In a new tab, go to Tuva Labs Click "Sign Up" in the upper-right The class code is qs0i7  You are now signed up for the accounts you need! Hopefully I was able to guide everyone through that. Now, you are gonna be SUPER CHILL for Liz as she keeps an eye on you. Classwork Go to this Tuva Labs dataset Play with the chart to answer the following questions: Loading... Homework Log in to Khan Academy and do the following exercises: Constructing Scatter Plots and Making Good Scatter Plots

Well, everyone did their first and second assignment! Good. You also did them right away. That is interesting... See, first trimester, here is what happened with the second assignment: I think it bodes well that none of you procrastinated. One thing worth mentioning is that this was a “ Donut chart .” It is a type of  pie chart , it just has a hole cut out of the center. I use donut charts over pie charts every time because I think they look better - but you might not. But I am right. Please, show me you get what's going on by  filling out this form  (you will be filling it out a lot, so don't lose this link (it will be on the blog, right here)). Moving on, here is another chart [ source ]. This type of chart is called a  horizontal bar chart . Discuss: What is caffeine? What is this chart telling you? Do you like the way it looks? Then:  fill out the form again!  Really, every time you see a chart, fill out the form. Next up, here we have a chart that looks v

Last trimester, Rocky convinced me to start every class with a gif, so here is today's: That is Poppy, my daughter. You will see many gifs of her. She was only 1 month old in this gif, now she is almost 5 months. Today in class 1. "What's wrong with these charts?" Round-table discussion 2. "Sam Info" Check out this info graphic . I have been collecting data about myself for my own Feltron project. Then answer these two questions: Homework Make sure a PARENT fills out the following: If you are done and there is time in class, why don't you look at the original Feltron projects ? Also, always feel free to check out Free Code Camp when you are done. It is one of the best projects on the internet, and I think it is a glimpse into the future of education.

Hi! I'm Sam! I'm teaching your math class this trimester. What class is that? Well, the long-winded name I came up with is Math as Communication: Data Visualization, Statistics, and Probability What does that mean?  By the end of the trimester, you will be able to: Effectively read graphs Understand large data sets by using measures of central tendency Communicate likelihood using probability Interpret and communicate data sets by producing interesting and clear graphs and other data visualizations How will you learn this? Well, you will Have homework almost every night Work effectively in class so homework can be minimal Take a few quizzes Do a project called the Feltron Here are two example Feltrons: BUT WHY??? It's really easy to communicate opinions. You just say what you feel. You don't have to think, and you don't worry about being wrong. Watch this:  Drake is the worst rapper of all time. Justin Bieber isn't

Finally, you can find the ASHANATRONA at  http://ashanatrona.blogspot.com/ !

To the many of you who are done with their Feltrons, congrats! If there were little mistakes I found, or other ways to improve, I commented on the doc. So look at the comments. If you haven't turned in your Fetron - don't forget. It's important. And to all of you: good job. I'm proud. I think you learned a lot, and did some impressive things. I brag to my friends about you. If your Feltron isn't already online, I will make it into a format where I can put them all together on a website, so they can be shown off, like they deserve.  I hope you feel like you learned. Again, I'm proud. I'll miss you. 

Take a deep breath, and look at the baby. Relax... Everything is fine. Everyone working today either knows everything they need to, or are sitting in a room with someone who does. So really, get to work. If you turn your Feltron today, Wednesday, or Thursday, and you ask me to, I will give you feedback on how you could make it better. EMAIL ME!!! You can turn it in by Friday at 5 for full credit. Also, I made a website for Marcelle and my wedding. What do you think? This is for Sam Havens and Marcelle Justison's wedding http://www.samandmarcelle.com/

We only have a 45 minute class today, so please work efficiently. Also, type your questions as you run into them. Anything that doesn't get answered, email to me.

An Interesting Problem  The following problem was posed by a mathematician. He has a site where he posts interesting problems for non-mathematicians to think about.  https://www.expii.com/solve/3/3 The World Health Organization has just identified a new disease. The good news is that it is very rare: only 1 in every million people has it. The bad news is that it is very deadly. There is a test available that can tell you whether or not you have the disease. It gives the correct diagnosis 99% of the time. This means that if someone with the disease is tested, the test will say "positive" 99% of the time and "negative" 1% of the time; if someone without the disease is tested, it will say "negative" 99% of the time and "positive" 1% of the time. You take the test, and it comes up "positive". Oh no! Before you start to panic, what is the probability that you definitely have the disease? Round your calculation to the nearest whole

Work We have two HW assignments to go over... and one classwork assignment. The cancer problem - two people write their solutions on the board I want to see everyone's 5 charts from yesterday I'd like to see everyone's "Feltron Style Guide" - the font pairings and color schemes This will probably take all class. Homework I'd like you to add to your style guide a section called "Contents." It will have a list of at least 10 features (either charts, interactive charts, or text) and a brief description. For example: A pie chart of ways I wore my hair A bar or line chart of bedtimes A histogram of hours of sleep Some text with the mean & median of everything I tracked etc

This is crazy: it starts  at about 20 micrometers across... that's 1/500 of a centimeter. I think it's zooming in on the eye of a mite. Anyway, the data I have been collecting on myself is health-related. Since Poppy was born, I have been trying to keep better care of my body. I want to make sure I am eating right and exercising enough. High cholesterol and related health problems, like strokes and heart attacks, run in my family, and I don't want that to happen for a while. I wasn't approaching health logically: I didn't like to hear that some things I was doing weren't healthy. I ignored advice from my doctor, and told myself I was exercising a lot and eating right. But I didn't really know  that, because I didn't have any information. Just a vague picture of what "eating healthy" is, and sort of thinking about what I ate. Once I stopped being defensive, I realized that it was time for data collection. Here is a spreadsheet of the

5 people didn't do their homework: 1/2 the class. I hope you just forgot to post the link in a comment on yesterday's blog. If so, do that sometime today. Anyone whose work isn't posted by today won't get credit for the homework. Sidenote about me: I care more that you attempt all assignments and ask questions. Next in importance is understanding the concepts and process. Last, in my estimation, is getting the correct answer. TODAY Read an interesting article A problem Those who didn't do their work; do it now Those who are caught up, let's discuss the questions you made on Tuesday. What worked? What didn't? Which questions are our favorites? If time, questions about probability for those feeling lost A HW Problem INTERESTING ARTICLE I'd like to read this aloud. Everyone reads a paragraph. Parents often say: ‘I just want my children to be happy.’ It is unusual to hear: ‘I just want my children’s lives to be meaningful,’ yet that

Read this. Work Come up with > 3 conditional probability questions that are related to that reading and/or Geometric Probability Sign into Google Make a form with those questions, and any needed explanations / diagrams Post a link to the form in the comments of this blog post Other things which need to be done Make sure your Feltron data is entered Start thinking seriously about your Feltron The originals are a good place to start It will be all on the computer - you don't have to make a poster or print it or anything Examples: Esme Bibi's Things to think about HAVING ENOUGH INFORMATION AND CHARTS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT... however, looks matter too Fonts Colors  Just hit space to get another pallet until you find some pairings you like

Today: this visualization of conditional probability Figure out what's going on; be able to explain it. You can discuss it in groups. Then, work on anything that's fallen through the cracks... data gathering, old homework. If you are caught up, we can start on the Feltron projects.

nom nom nom! Pre-Intro How goes the data gathering? Any hiccups I can help with? I haven't heard anything from anyone, so I will assume the class is going well. Let me know if there are problems. They're with the class, not you. Intro hmmm...nothing seems to be here... Main Hey, so, remember geometry? Here's a summary: shapes and their properties. One of those properties is area; it's how much space something flat (two dimensional (2D)) takes up. So, a line doesn't have area, and neither does a ball, because neither are flat (in the sense of being 2D; the line is one dimensional, the ball is three). However, the following do have area: triangle rectangle circle trapezoid If you haven't seen any of these formulae before, just ask me if you have questions. Anyway, you should really know those. I will tell you them when I ask geometry questions, but, like vocabulary, there are certain math concepts that you're just expect