Greetings, Kirby,<br>just thought I'd throw-out-there that
physics/astronomy can offer a context that is neither meaningless, nor
open to political propaganda. Of course anything can be twisted, but
at least it's relatively free from the specters that your opponents
point out. Just a .02 cent thought ....<br>
Cheers,<br>Charles Cosse<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 10:40 AM, kirby urner <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kirby.urner@gmail.com">kirby.urner@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
I've been haunting the math-teach list, as usual,<br>
suggesting we take a page from AP computer<br>
science and build our math around an interlinked,<br>
themed, consistent set of story problems -- rather<br>
than making these "meaningless" (deliberately).<br>
<br>
The opponents in this debate bring up the specter<br>
of political manipulation, propaganda, tainted "pure<br>
math" with someone's good ideas about applications.<br>
<br>
My approach to math teaching, as readers here<br>
know (some of 'em), is to bake OO into the matrix<br>
pretty early, meaning the idea of "math objects"<br>
(vectors, polyhedrons, rational numbers) connects<br>
to our Pythonic notion of types.<br>
<br>
Here's some background reading for any wanting<br>
to sample the more detailed nuances of this thread<br>
(on-going, and for over a decade for sure).<br>
<br>
<a href="http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2289577&tstart=0" target="_blank">http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2289577&tstart=0</a><br>
<br>
(most posters long time veterans of this list, with<br>
carved out positions)<br>
<br>
I also take it a step further in that the story problems<br>
under consideration often have a strong "off your<br>
duff" component, in that your mathematical reasoning<br>
translates into physical expenditure of energy.<br>
<br>
Yes, sounds a lot like summer camp (the "self<br>
quantification movement" also syncs up).<br>
<br>
<a href="http://fastwonderblog.com/2011/07/30/crunching-the-numbers-open-source-community-metrics-at-oscon/" target="_blank">http://fastwonderblog.com/2011/07/30/crunching-the-numbers-open-source-community-metrics-at-oscon/</a><br>
<a href="http://hashtags.foxepractice.com/healthcare-hashtag-analytics.php?hashtag=QuantifiedSelf" target="_blank">http://hashtags.foxepractice.com/healthcare-hashtag-analytics.php?hashtag=QuantifiedSelf</a><br>
<a href="http://www.4dsolutions.net/presentations/urnermindstorm.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.4dsolutions.net/presentations/urnermindstorm.pdf</a><br>
<br>
Kirby<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>AsymptopiaSoftware|Software@theLimit<br> <a href="http://www.asymptopia.org" target="_blank">http://www.asymptopia.org</a><br>