Mathematics Educators Weekly Newsletter - Thursday, April 30, 2015

Mathematics Educators newsletter

Top new questions this week: Issues with "equals", where does this come from and how do I combat it? An issue I see with students a lot is abuse of the equals sign. For example, one problem asked "what is the degree of the polynomial: $polynomial$?", and I got answers like "$polynomial=3$". I tried ... mathematical-pedagogy algebra   asked by avid19 35 votes answered by Daniel Hast 35 votes Teaching a very enthusiastic and bright 5 year old I was asked to give extra lessons to a 5 year old boy who loves math (he says he likes 3 sports: football, swimming and math). However, I have never tought at this age and I am unfamiliar with the ... reference-request primary-education reference-books private-lessons   asked by Lucas Virgili 9 votes answered by Joseph O'Rourke 4 votes Resources for reading mathematics out loud in different languages Are there reference books or online material for reading mathematics out loud in different languages? For example, the expression1) $$ \int x^2dx=\frac13x^3 $$ is understandable to anyone who has ... reference-request reference-books language-use english-language-learners   asked by Joonas Ilmavirta 8 votes answered by Gerald Edgar 1 vote Resources suitable for a beginners course with exponentials I'm currently involved in developing materials for a new UK tier of examination known as Core Maths. The course is designed for 16-18 year olds to further their mathematics education but without ... secondary-education functions logarithm   asked by Karl 8 votes Where can I find realistic data for college-level elementary statistics problems? I'm creating a large number of practice problems for my statistics students. These problems are for an elementary stats course where students: measure central tendency measure dispersion use linear ... examples statistics word-problems   asked by futurebird 3 votes answered by DavidButlerUofA 3 votes My two assumptions look inconsistent. How can we explain it better? Background I am trying to solve the following problem and explaining it to my students. However, my students (as well as I) think of my two assumptions contradictory. > Given 2 distinct curves ... secondary-education   asked by Newbie 3 votes answered by Luis Gomez Sanchez 2 votes Way to assign points for an item based on the percent of students who answered the item correctly Is there a common and simple way of assigning points for a test item based on the percent of students who answered the item correctly ($p$-value)? For simplicity, let us disregard for a moment the ... grading   asked by Mark Lao 3 votes answered by Frank Newman 0 votes Greatest hits from previous weeks: What interesting properties of the Fibonacci sequence can I share when introducing sequences? The Fibonacci numbers are one of the first sequences given as examples of sequences in many calculus textbooks as they have a definition that does not obviously have a closed form and they have many ... calculus sequences   asked by Brian Rushton 17 votes answered by brendansullivan07 19 votes Simple "real world" L'hopital's rule problem? I am on a team which is writing a set of lecture notes for differential calculus. I am using a format of "Break ground" which poses a problem, "Dig in" which develops the tools to solve the ... calculus examples   asked by Steven Gubkin 15 votes answered by Aeryk 9 votes

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