[Edu-sig] revisiting old themes (OOP meets abstract algebra)...

[kirby urner]

Quite a bit of Python in this essay (link below), relating to math teaching.

This is a philosophy of education I used to post about here in fire hose
quantities, in dialog with Arthur and the OLPC folks, among others.

No reason to top-off an already-full tank, right?

But maybe some are nostalgic, want to revisit old themes, even start
up new debates (if bored by all the quiet -- getting like math-thinking-l
around here).

http://www.mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7223356&tstart=0

If you're cross-subscribed with Diversity, you know I'm working to
recruit more truckers to Python (why should Java have all the fun
-- and Visual FoxPro seems to be fading).

No, this doesn't make me a "fossil fuels nut".**

Maybe some of those trucks are electric, like in the early 1900s (I've
been reading Edwin Black's 'Internal Combustion' so consider me
under the influence).

I thought this most recent NCTM geometry book:

Focus in High School Mathematics: Reasoning and Sense Making in Geometry

...was somewhat snarky to truckers, as the text protests the sign is
correct, in giving the right clearance.  But that's not what the situation
calls for (what's the sign for, if not to prevent just such accidents?).

Here's what I'm talking about:

"""
Mathematician Henry Pollak (2004) wondered why tractor trailers
often got stuck under a certain underpass when the maximum
clearance—the height from the roadway to the bridge—was
clearly labeled on a sign.
"""
http://www.nctm.org/catalog/product.aspx?id=13525  (Read an Excerpt)

My review:
http://www.mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7223427&tstart=0


Kirby

** when all the oil companies become one (click for larger view):
http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2006/03/big-oil.html

Relevant:
http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/oopalgebra.html  (yeah, Java, but same ideas)