Edu-sig

Download

edu-sig@python.org

April 2010

25 participants
27 discussions

Confused how teach geometry and importance of teaching geometry in 21st century.
by chris＠seberino.org April 10, 2010

April 10, 2010

I'm teaching high school math to homeschoolers and I'm looking for how to make geometry year meaningful. I'm having a "crisis of confidence" because from my viewpoint, algebra was 10x more useful for future math and science work. The only thing I can remember that was useful from geometry was a few volume and area formulas. That can justify maybe a month but not a whole YEAR of geometry!?!? cs P.S. Yes yes I know that geometry is meant to teach logical reasoning. Maybe one can get that from chess, debate club and other activities as well if not better? People also say geometry is where you learn proofs. Couldn't proofs be just as easily emphasized in all the other math classes? -- _______________________________________ Christian Seberino, Ph.D. Email: chris(a)seberino.org _______________________________________

7 8

Re: [Edu-sig] using Python as a calculator
by Daniel Ajoy April 10, 2010

April 10, 2010

On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 11:23:23 -0500, <edu-sig-request(a)python.org> wrote: > I humbly disagree that this is the right place to start. I teach > students with diverse backgrounds -- some extremely bright and others > really behind in school and using Python as a calculator is one thing > they would all agree is terrifically boring and not so compelling. > How many students have ever said "man, I really wish I had a trig > table right now?" What kind of things do you think kids would find exciting about programming? I've identified these things: Turtle Graphics Sprite Animations Virtual Robot programming Number crunching Make the computer do your homework In "number crunching" I try to collect all the things that excite students about making the computer show its awesome powers of calculation. I think there is an element of excitement in making a program that makes the computer work a lot to produce results. Maybe, that table falls into this category. I have the impression that using a programming language as a calculator is boring, too. But if we use it to help us solve homework I think it becomes interesting. Thinks like, solve: (x + 2) / 10 = 100 to solve do.while [ make "x random 1000 ] [not (:x + 2) / 10 = 100] print :x end solve 998 Daniel

1 0