Welcome Third Group!

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 as terrible as he used to be.
Death metal is the only real metal.
Two and a Half Men is the worst piece of crap ever to land on a screen.

That was so easy! I just feel it, then I say it. If you ask why, I don't have to give an answer!

But it's harder to communicate things that are true or not. Watch this:

Genetically modified food sources are safe and important for eliminating world hunger.
Vaccines are a safe and proven way to reduce childhood mortality.
Global warming is real and caused by human actions.

See, those statements are either true or not. And, you shouldn't be convinced just because of who says them, you should ask "why?" and get a good answer. And when the topic is complicated, it is reasonable to include data visualizations, to make the information more digestible, such as this chart on causes of death in the 20th century:

Homework

Fill out this!

Finally, if you made it this far, here is a picture of Poppy!

Comments

Feltron Variables - Monday 2/1/2015

Do you have your tickets... to the gun show? #flexin #doyouevenliftbro Please complete this to show you did your homework: Loading... 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 cod...

Monday 9/28

9/28/15 Monday Check in: Friday class & Homework Classwork: As long as we’re talking climate change... If someone tells you they don’t believe humans are causing it, you might want to ask them if smoking is bad for you. Why? There is as much evidence that humans are causing global warming as there is evidence that smoking causes cancer (you don’t have to click that link, I just like to put it up). Anyway, here’s a chart: It is entitled “Breakdown of the anthropic greenhouse gas emissions by gas, in billion tons carbon equivalent, in 2004” - it is a breakdown of the greenhouse gases emitted in 2004 that humans are responsible for. What’s the biggest greenhouse gas? What’s all that CO2 doing, and where does it go? A lot of it goes into the ocean, which seems better than the air, and it is... up to a point. The more CO2 in the ocean, the more acidic it gets (And the more acidic it gets, the lower its ph gets). That is fine... until it’s not. At some...

Marvin Minsky, AI, Math Education

The audio is too good to make this a gif. So, to be clear, this is the blog post for THURSDAY, 1/28. If you are looking for Tuesday's post, go back a post. I wanted to mention to you all that a mathematician and artificial intelligence researched named Marvin Minsky died on Sunday. Among lots of amazing things he did in his life, he wrote about math education for the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project. Here is that article ; I'd like you to read it for homework. Speaking of death, check out this amazing visualization ! Finally, for classwork, I would like you to go back to Tuesday's blog post, and comment on other people's homework. Specifically do you like the charts they chose? Are they interesting? Any feedback? Homework IMPORTANT: Pick which 5 (or more) variables that you will track for the Feltron project. Think about how you will keep track of them - pen and and notebook? The Reporter App? A pedometer? Also, that Marvin Minsky article is really...

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