Back in April, I wrote about Math Circles and Safety, and a large part was inspired by Brandy Wieger’s presentation at the Math Circles on the Road 2011 conference in Houston. You can now watch her talk here:
This is one of the videos recently posted by The National Association of Math Circles. Check out their YouTube channel here: MathCircles.
A sentence in natural language can often be interpreted in two ways, but in mathematics, we must be precise in our use of language and avoid ambiguity. This often least to humorous interpretations of street signs and the results can be adorable.
Take this street sign example, which I photographed in September of 2010 at the Happy Paws pet store near NYU. It’s a wonderful sign on a messy street that immediately attracted my attention and confusion.
Do Not Litter And Feed The Birds
Please leave a comment below on how you understand this sign:
A) Two separate commands: you should not litter AND you should feed the birds. Why?
B) You should neither litter nor feed the birds. Why?
C) You should either not litter or not feed the birds, or do neither. Why?
D) All of the above (and why?)
E) Explain a distinct interpretation.
Last weekend was the last meeting this semester of the Bard Math Circle at the Kingston Library, and we made magic cubes. A magic cube is a large cube made up of eight smaller cubes that are hinged together in such a way that they rotate through themselves magically, revealing many surfaces. This activity is a little more involved that what we normally do, so you either have to follow directions, or problem solve.
Several museums sell these with artistic pictures on several surfaces, but you can make your own. It’s more fun!
Instructables has instructions that also use wooden cubes, but go a step further with photos: http://www.instructables.com/id/Crazy-Foto-Cube/. The downside of Instructables is that they want you to become a member.
Here’s a site, Chica and Jo, that gives full instructions in a very nice presentation: http://www.chicaandjo.com/2008/05/08/magic-folding-wooden-photo-cubes/
A company that manufactures magic cubes as a promotional product. Here’s one of their simpler models, but they have quite a few to choose from:
http://www.magicubes.com/product/promotional-product-puzzle-for-trade-show-events-magic-cube-gifts/45
The German website http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/magiccube.htm also has some clear instructions. Their instructions are revised for the clearest instructions yet: http://sofia.nmsu.edu/~breakingaway/Lessons/MFC/MFC.html.
Enjoy!
The job market in NYC for teachers and schools has reached a new level of irrationality this year with unreasonable threats of a massive teacher layoff (yet again), and a seemingly eternal (yet porous) hiring freeze that separates a pool of talented but anxiety-ridden teaching applicants from ever more desperate public school principals in need of qualified instructors.
My prediction is that the big winner this year is the charter school. This is not a big surprise; their lack of restriction in hiring gives them unfettered and early access to the candidate pool. I’ve also heard that they have a direct line to bottomless pits of hedge fund monies.
A lack of restriction and unlimited funding is one thing, but last week I saw an unstoppable weapon, the charter school recruiter!
I met my first recruiter last week while observing one of my MAT math students at one of my favorite urban high schools on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. My student was doing a brilliant job: he was motivating, provided excellent scaffolding and carried out a wonderfully planned lesson. Several times throughout the lesson, his students had truly become thinkers and mathematicians.
And then, a stranger appeared. In walked an elegant and confident young lady. She was dressed for success and exuded expertise. In the clearest pantomime performance I’ve seen, she asked my student teacher, “can I videotape your lesson with my flip video recorder?” Then she sat down next to me in the back of the room, and I introduced myself.
It turns out that she is one of two full-time recruiters working for a cluster of four charter schools in Harlem. She was following up on my student’s interview with a visit to his classroom, just long enough to let him know that they were very interested, and to record some footage of his lesson for the charter school principal.
Even in this market, where I expect many of my amazing students to linger on the job market through the summer, and to be excited when any tenuous job offer comes in (after the first day of the school year, and with a long commute), I knew that this student was not going to be on the job market for long.
The best teaching candidates never stay on the market, even in the worst of times. (I suspect that the very best candidates never even step foot on the job market.) But there are exceedingly good teachers on the market right now. This week, the job market is HOT!
Last year an extremely good math candidate contacted me for help finding a job. I sent out emails, made phone calls on her behalf, and offered her encouragement (there was a lot of anxiety even in last year’s market). Five days later, she landed her first interview on a Friday. The school immediately invited her in for a demo lesson on Tuesday and offered her the job on the spot. She wrote to me that “Surprisingly, Discovery HS took three days to carry out the hiring process- interview, demo and decision making.” In all, she was on the market for only 7 weekdays.
How can we compete with professional recruiters, and schools that can turn around a hiring decision in just three days? It may seem simplistic or silly, but I think it is easy:
Confirm receipt. When a prospective hire applies, they should get a personal response promptly. This immediately reflects that they will be treated with respect, from the very beginning.
Explain the process. The worst part about being on the job market, is the experience of limbo. It takes almost no effort to explain how the hiring process will work, and approximately how long each part will take.
Check completeness of the application. Let them know if there is anything missing, and if so, what it is.
Interview them if they are of interest.
Let them go if they’re not. Don’t keep their hopes up, but say it nicely.
Inform them what comes next. How long will it take? How close are they to a hiring decision?
Answer them promptly. Don’t let a decision linger!
If you’re curious how I know that this method works, just check out what the first initials spell. This is exactly why the MAT program brings in students year after year, and is able to compete with the more established schools, as well as the cheaper programs.
Happy Hiring!
The Bard Math Circle is growing rapidly this year. Perhaps this started because the wonderful Kingston Library director, Margie Menard, sent out a press release that was picked up by the local media, or that we’ve worked hard to develop a consistent and predictable schedule. But the fact is that the Bard Math Circle has found its niche: libraries.
This has me thinking of ways to ensure that our activities are safe spaces.
Safe to Take Risks
One important aspect of this is that participants should feel safe to take mathematical risks. Considering all the adults I meet whom have experienced some sort of mathematical trauma when they were young, this is crucial. Participants need to feel safe to explore mathematical ideas.
Here’s a quote from a Kingston grandmother who brought her granddaughter to yesterday’s math circle. After hearing this, I know that we’re doing a great job:
Since she’s been coming here, her math has improved. She thinks about things now. This is the most worthwhile thing she’s been involved in.
Right on! We’re definitely going to come back to this topic in the future.
Physical Safety
Another important aspect of safety for our Math Circles is physical safety. I traveled to Houston last month to attend the Circle on the Road Spring 2011 conference. Besides some incredible mathematics, the most interesting presentation, by far, was Brandy Wiegers‘ talk, Always Be Prepared. Brandy has been involved in Girl Scouting for over 20 years, and as a result, she is the mathematician I’d most want to be with in an emergency.
Here’s Brandy’s abstract:
Math Circles should be fun and engaging. To keep it this way it is important to be prepared with a box of tricks and some quick plans to ensure safety. In this session we’ll discuss what we keep in our Math Circle Box of Supplies, important legal aspects of working with minors including adult to student ratios and the buddy system. We’ll conclude the session discussing participant waivers and plans for emergencies. With a little bit of work we can all be more prepared to ensure that we never need to use our emergency plan. This way we can get back to math and everyone can have fun!
Brandy’s talk was really a Math Circle milestone. Talking about safety means that Math Circles are established, and that it’s now time to plan for safety. What procedures and guidelines does your Math Circle have in place to ensure the physical safety of your students? I think this is the beginning of a Math Circle discussion at the national level.
Well, Brandy did give us a lot of useful information. Perhaps the best thing she did was point us to the Girl Scouts, who’ve put a whole lot of thought into how to keep girls safe.
Safety-Wise
The decades-old Girl Scout safety bible is a publication known as Safety-wise. I just found out that this publication has been replaced with the new publications:
Here are links to some specific online Girl Scout safety pages:
These safety guidelines are focused on keeping girls safe, but one thing I know for sure – if it’s good enough to keep the girl scouts safe, then it will keep all of our math circle students safe!
Now, let’s get back to math and have fun!
I presented my talk “Jim and Nim” yesterday at the Bard Math Seminar, and managed to fill the house.
My introduction actually extended over two days, as I visited math and CS classes on Wednesday and Thursday and personally invited students to my talk. This was really fun, and I got to meet some of Bard’s amazing undergraduates. I teased them with the Magic Birthday Trick:
Have you seen this?
Here’s a picture that I used to explain why this trick works. I’ll leave it to you to puzzle it out!
Another teaser I shared is the game I call 21-Nim. Start with 21, and on your turn you subtract 1, 2 or 3. The first person to reach 0 is the winner. (My MAT student Kristen used this at our Pi Day Celebration for the students at 345 Brook Avenue in the Bronx.) What’s interesting here is the set of losing numbers, and I challenged the Bard students to find them. In a losing position, the next player will lose, if her opponent plays correctly. Can you find the losing positions?
We didn’t play 21-Nim during my talk, but we did play the classic game of Nim, with Teddy Bears:
Can you explain why this is a Losing position?
One of the most exciting parts of the talk was at the end, when I revealed the connection between Jim and Nim with this slide:
Well, you might have had to be at my talk for this to make sense. Please leave a comment below to describe how Nim and Jim are related!
The Bubble Sort and Shell Sort algorithms are demonstrated. Wow!
Credits from the video:
Created at Sapientia University, Tirgu Mures (Marosvásárhely), Romania.Directed by Kátai Zoltán and Tóth László. In cooperation with “Maros Művészegyüttes”, Tirgu Mures (Marosvásárhely), Romania.Choreographer: Füzesi Albert. Video: Lőrinc Lajos, Körmöcki Zoltán. Supported by “Szülőföld Alap”, MITIS (NGO) and evoline company.
Wow! This book claims to show 8 ways to knit a Sierpinski’s Triangle!The MAA now hosts a Pi Day webpage: http://maa.org/piday/
This is a must-visit site for next year’s Pi Day.
How did you celebrate Pi Day?
Saturday, March 5, 2011
http://www.math.brown.edu/sums/
The Brown University Symposium for Undergraduates in the Mathematical Sciences (SUMS) has been held annually since 2002. The symposium’s goal is to foster greater undergraduate interest and scholarship in mathematics by demonstrating the ubiquity of mathematics throughout the sciences. The conference also provides an evironment in which motivated undergraduates can come together to share their own work and learn from distinguished faculty from around the country.
The next symposium, which is scheduled for March 5 of 2011, features the topic of Math and the Design of Form. Our faculty speakers are:
Professor Joy Ko, Rhode Island School of Design
Professor Kyna Leski, Rhode Island School of Design
Professor L. Mahadevan, Harvard University
Professor Richard Schwartz, Brown University
Professor Peter Winkler, Dartmouth College
Although the target audience of the symposium is math and science interested undergraduates, we would also like other members of the academic community to attend. The presence of high school students and teachers, college professors, and humanities students can only enrich the overall learning experience.
Funding for SUMS 2011 provided by the Brown University Department of Mathematics, the Division of Applied Mathematics, the Office of the Dean of the College, and the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics.