Tangerine

Double Negatives and Positives (some jokes)

A student sent me this:

"An MIT linguistics professor was lecturing his class the other day. "In English," he said, "a double negative forms a positive. However, in some languages, such as Russian, a double negative remains a negative. But there isn't a single language, not one, in which a double positive can express a negative."

A voice from the back of the room said, "Yeah, right." —Sai Kishore K"

A nice image of the joke:

Some double negative jokes as well (why not):

Megaannus and other Units

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year#SI_prefix_multipliers

funny comment thread: 

https://m.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2u0ryg/til_that_a_megaannus_is_a_unit_of_time_equal_to_1/


Article to spark conversation:
http://nyti.ms/1Ij7gPR

Colbert, Causation and Correlation

Interesting problems on correlation and causation are not easy to find. Perhaps I am not looking in the right places, but when I start to search, this is what I find:

Source: http://www.regentsprep.org/regents/math/algebra/practicetests/MCTest1.htm

This problem offers a nice contrast between causation and correlation, but it feels manufactured. There is nothing compelling about it. Nothing that shows why the causation-correlation contrast is worth thinking about. When we discuss the answer, students understand that the rooster doesn't cause the sun to rise. They know this is ridiculous and wonder, "why are we talking about this? No one thinks that a rooster causes the sun to rise." 

And this is where I am struggling. I want to use examples that show a meaningful contrast between correlation and causation, because I know I can find problems that reflect common assumptions about causation and thus spark a class debate. 

How many times do people assume that a correlation means causation? I know there are endless examples of this, but I need to start compiling them.  

I was watching Colbert this week and found one of my first examples. With some major editing, I am going to show this as my opening:

This clip captures answers a lot of the "so what" question as well as a hilarious example of correlation and causation:

I am now going to think about how to turn the autism and vaccine connection into a investigable lesson.

Martial Arts and Math

Is mathematics useful?

Of course!

Do I expect all of my students to leave class and use the quadratic formula on their way home?

Certainly not!

That is because the quadratic formula, just like all of the other content we teach in mathematics, has value that goes beyond its application (even though its application is fantastic). I want society to stop placing value on the mathematics we learn and teach simply because we will or will not "use" an exact topic outside of the classroom. Instead, I hope we look more towards the habits of mind, which pretty sums up the reasons I teach mathematics.

Mathematics is more than the sum of its content, just as martial arts is more than a collection of kicks and punches:

Math Meme

I am hanging this in my classroom next year.

You can't say that you don't know how to solve a problem until you have tried something. Problem solving isn't just about what you know, its about what you do.

source:
http://img.pandawhale.com/82307-weve-tried-nothing-and-were-al-9vbA.png