Monday, December 12, 2016

Math and Education Links

Here's some of what I've been reading over the past few months!

DeanDad on active learning.
I took an inquiry-based (pretty strictly Moore Method) course the semester that I was in Budapest, and I remember the professor telling us that any course that was very inquiry-based needed to be opt-in. He'd taught IBL Calculus at UChicago, where it was one of several options; it wouldn't have worked if it had been the only choice (even with the right class sizes). Some of that is because of what DeanDad talks about here. Active learning can be really empowering (as Francis Su talked about at the IBL conference in August), but it can also feel like abandonment, and I've seen it go both ways.

Modeling as creative science.
This is an article from earlier this year that Rhett Allain reposted this fall. After reading him for a few years, getting more experience doing mathematical modeling, and going to a conference that focused on using and teaching modeling in the classroom, I pretty much agree with Allain's focus on models. This particular post is about having students do the modeling work, which is really important; I also agree with him that there's great value in presenting information as models.

Using Student-Generated Examples.
This reminded me a lot of some of the problems that were assigned in my real analysis class, except there so often there was one type of intended example, and here that changes a lot by question (and variety is part of the point). What kinds of math classes does this fit into well? It seems natural for thinking about patterns and functions.

Ben Orlin does interesting things to the high school math curriculum.
I have an immediate adverse reaction to the Utility Belt Curriculum, and I'm not quite sure why. I love the Go Forth and Prosper Curriculum and would love teaching any of the 11th/12th grade courses, but as Orlin mentions, it's not feasible in most schools. I don't find Four Square Meals particularly appealing, partially because I don't really understand doing AP Calc AB and BC in two years, so I don't like the rationale. (Though yes please to it being normal for everyone to get decent stats ed.) I like the Verb-Powered Curriculum, though not doing some calc in the modeling class or circling back to modeling in the class that involves calc seems unfortunate. There's a ton of modeling that you can do without calculus, obviously, but so many modeling possibilities open with calculus.

Math with primary sources.
Could be good for integrating into math courses, for math history courses, or for history projects related to math topics.