Labels:
Geometry,
Math,
Technology
Labels:
General
Recently, two marketing professors, Joseph Simmons and Leif Nelson, discovered that baseball players with initials "K" tend to strike out more than other players and that students with initials "C" and "D" tend to have worse grades than other students. (For those not familiar with the significance of the letter "K" in baseball, it represents a strikeout on a baseball scorecard.) The professors saw this as evidence that people are unconsciously affected by their names. Several news outlets picked up on the stories (for example, ABC News and Fox News) and a brouhaha ensued.
Now, before we all change our names and pick out a new favorite baseball team, as with everything in life, we need to take this research with a grain of salt. It all comes down to what we mean by "worse grades," as the Numbers Guy from the Wall Street Journal pointed out in his article, Is a Carl Doomed To Be a C Student? We Don't Think So. In the names study, a "bad grade" was 0.02 points less than everyone else. In other words, the researchers found that on average, Carls and Dianas have GPA's that are 0.02 points less than a Joe or a Uri, which is really not an important difference.
The baseball study, on the other hand, reveals a more serious pitfall when doing statistics---it is basically a tool to help spot patterns in data, but the pattern does not necessarily prove that there is cause and effect. For instance, if you were to collect the number of ice cream sales and shark attacks over the course of a year in say, Florida, you might find that the number of shark attacks increase as the sales of ice cream go up. So ice cream causes shark attacks? Of course not, the answer is that more people tend to be in the water and eat ice cream (not at the same time, hopefully) as the weather gets warmer. A similar fallacy could be at work in the baseball study.
The moral of the story is that we need to think critically when reading news reports of scientific studies and teach our students to do the same. We should not fall into the all too common trap of assuming that because it sounds "scientific" it must be true. Scientists are not infallible, and the reporters covering them also make mistakes.
Labels:
Math,
Statistics
On November 16, I attended the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) annual convention in New York City. Not only was I never a teacher of English—or of anything—I’d never been to a convention before. I envisioned zillions of teachers crammed into a windowless room, listening to boring speeches for hours. So when I got there, my stomach was in knots.
Labels:
English Language Arts,
Reading
You may be thinking, “There must be a mistake here. What does Spanish have to do with the martial arts?” Most people know that wushu (“kung fu” in But have you ever heard the terms escrima and arnis de mano? They refer to the traditional martial arts of the
As you may know,
The Spanish occupation influenced the Filipino fighting techniques as well, as exemplified by the adoption of the angles of attack typical of Spanish fencing and the simultaneous use of the espada y daga (“sword and dagger”), which the natives substituted with two rattan sticks when a ban on the practice of all native fighting arts and the carrying of bladed weapons was imposed.
So, if you speak Spanish or are considering learning it, know that there is a martial art where you can put your language skills to good use.
Labels:
Spanish
Christmas is approaching, with all its traditional imagery—the brightly lit tree, the Yule log, the mistletoe and holly, and, of course, the tasty dishes and good cheer. It is a time of glad tidings and joy to the world. Millions of Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus; others enjoy the imagery and festivities, especially the giving and receiving of presents. Few ask the questions “How did it all begin?” or “Why do the traditional trappings have such a hold on the minds of so many, especially in the western hemisphere?” The answers, as with so many things, lie in the shadowy realms of antiquity.
Mistletoe
Labels:
Culture,
History,
Myth,
Social Studies
Back in the olden days, math was simpler. The Earth was located at the center of a perfectly spherical universe, Geometry was concerned only with perfectly flat planes, and numbers were discrete and undisturbed by irrational quantities. But then, calamity struck. Civilizations crumbled, wars broke out, and for several centuries, the western world had concerns deemed more pressing than the further investigation of math. Imagine that! 
which, disturbingly, has a finite volume, and an infinite surface area! Clearly charmed with his instrument, Torricelli named the shape "Gabriel's Horn," to indicate the union there represented between the finite and the infinite, or, metaphorically, between the human and the divine. In secular circles, however, the shape is simply called "Torricelli's trumpet."
Incidentally, Torricelli also invented something that could have come in handy for me in the last few weeks: the barometer! Since my last post, New York has had not only snow, but an unpredictable cocktail of snow, sleet, and rain that I like to call "slushy surprise." Be careful what you wish for!
For a change, I was reading the Sunday Times on paper instead of online, when I stumbled upon an article in the Magazine that sent me to the computer seeking more information. Gomboc! I had to see it. I needed video.The Gomboc is a roundish piece of clear synthetic material with gently peaked, organic curves. It looks like a piece of modern art. But if you tip it over, something unusual happens: it rights itself.
Twelve years in the making, Gomboc is the work of scientists Gabor Domokos and Peter Varkonyi of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
The Gomboc, which, naturally, has its own Web site, strikes me as an excellent subject for research, reading, and writing for mathematics students. Here are some Gomboc-related assignments for your students:
Your advanced math stars can also explore the mathematical background, definition, and interesting properties of the Gomboc.
Who is that dork with the gloves and the sailboat? Ouch, ease up on the name calling! That handsome gentleman is actually showing off the geometry manipulative of the previous post.
To begin the proof, choose points R and S so that P is the midpoint of segment RS. Let line PT be any other line in the plane through the point P and let Q be the point where segment AB intersects line PT. We'll use a sequence of congruent triangles in order to prove that line l is perpendicular to PT.| Step 1. Since RP is congruent to PS (under the cardboard), and angles APR and APS (under the cardboard) are both right angles, triangles APR and APS are congruent by SAS. Therefore, the orange strings are congruent (AR and AS, under the cardboard). |  |
| Step 2. Similarly, we can show that the green strings (BR and BS, under the cardboard) are congruent. |  |
| Step 3. We then have that the triangles with the orange and green sides are congruent (ABR and ABS, under the cardboard) by SSS. In particular, the angles of the triangles at A are congruent. Step 4. By SAS, triangles AQR and AQS are congruent. |  |
| Step 5. Finally, since the triangles ARQ and AQS are congruent, the blue strings are congruent (QR and QS). Then, triangles QPR and QPS are congruent by SSS. In particular, the angles at P (QPR and QPS) are congruent. |  |
s Gerard J. Pelisson. He wrote Mastering Social Studies Skills and Mastering United States History Skills. He has also written teacher’s guides, exercises, and tests for other Amsco titles and has reviewed some of the manuscripts of other authors. As an editor, I appreciate his easy-going writing style. I am also grateful for the times he has pointed out inaccuracies in our manuscripts.Background Gerard grew up in the Bronx, New York City, where he attended Fordham Preparatory School and then Fordham University. He earned an MS in Education from Fordham and an MA in History from New York University. Only when he began teaching at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx did he realize the influence his own teachers had had on him. He found himself imitating the techniques of the teachers he had admired. In time, it became his job to have new teachers imitate him. He coordinated a teacher training program for the High School Division of the New York Board of Education. His responsibilities included visiting classrooms in most of the public high schools in the Bronx, observing lessons, and offering advice on how to perfect the art and science of teaching. After more than 20 years of teaching, he retired to devote his time to writing.
Why Skills Books? It did not take Gerard long as a teacher to realize the difference between a student knowin
g a topic and that student’s ability to answer a question on it. He came to see that his job was not only to teach history, but to teach students the skills to express themselves verbally and in writing and to answer questions in various formats. At the time, there were few social studies books that taught skills. Many gave exercises in skills, but with no explanation on how to do them. In 1975, after Gerard had spent several years preparing his own skills material, it just so happened that Amsco asked the social studies chairman at Clinton to recommend a teacher who would have the “skills” to write a skills book in social studies. The chairman recommended Gerard, which led to the publication of the first edition of Mastering Social Studies Skills in 1981.
Other Projects Though long retired from teaching, Gerard spends a great deal of time doing volunteer work for DeWitt Clinton High School and for the DeWitt Clinton Alumni Association. He helps with the graphic design of the school’s newspaper and literary magazine and is editor of the Alumni Association’s semiannual newsletter. In October 2007, he organized a tribute to the school’s namesake, Governor DeWitt Clinton. Nearly a thousand s
tudents participated in the event, which had the support of the New York Historical Society, founded by DeWitt Clinton in 1804. Gerard has also arranged for classes of Clinton students to visit the Historical Society during the winter of 2007–2008. And in the spring of 2008, he will conduct a student oratorical contest on the various accomplishments of Governor Clinton. The winners will receive cash prizes provided by the Alumni Association.
Current Project Gerard is putting the finishing touches on a history of DeWitt Clinton High School. The late Albert Beller, the founder of Amsco School Publications, was an alumnus of that school. So too were more famous men (it was an all-boys school until the mid-1980s): Richard Rodgers, “Fats” Waller, Richard Avedon, James Baldwin, Bob Kane and Stan Lee, Burt Lancaster, Dolph Schayes and Nate Archibald, Judd Hirsch, Garry Marshall, Robert Klein, Tracy Morgan, George Cukor and Stanley Kramer, Neil Simon, Charles Rangel, Sugar Ray Robinson, and hundreds more that Gerard will gladly tell about to whomever will listen. As he and his coauthor wrote their book, they realized they were doing more than compiling a list of famous alumni. They were telling the wonderful story that high schools have played in the development of American society, especially in helping generations of immigrant children. As Gerard likes to say, “The Statue of Liberty may welcome immigrants, but it is schools like DeWitt Clinton that give them the means to feel they belong.” I look forward to this book getting published.
Your Input Which other Amsco social studies authors would you like to see profiled? You can tell us on the comments link below.
Labels:
Skills,
Social Studies
In recent years, many people have switched from tap water to bottled water. Virtually unknown in this country 35 years ago, bottled water now seems to be everywhere you look. In 2006, Americans drank an estimated 8.25 billion gallons of bottled water a year—that’s almost 28 gallons per person, making it a $10.9-billion-a-year industry!
nd out!
everal containers.
Labels:
Science
As English teachers know all too well, most students dread revising their work. Once students have completed a draft, they want to hand it in and be done with it. Some grade-conscious students may be happy to revise if it means a higher score, but even then, it doesn’t mean they know what they need to do to improve their work. How can teachers show students the whys and hows of revising?
Labels:
English Language Arts,
Writing
Public transportation. What could be better? When you ride the bus or the train, you get the satisfaction of knowing you’re doing your part to save the ozone layer, and you don’t have to deal with the hassle of car insurance or getting those pesky tickets paid on time.
Labels:
General
Lately, I have been thinking about evolution, not in the ape-to-man sense, but in terms of how people and ideas have developed historically. This kind of evolution is an aspect of history I believe students will be interested in learning about; presenting it to students will help get them more involved and willing to work in their social studies classes.
Labels:
History,
Social Studies
