Polar Graphing
- Choose Graph | Plot New Function.
- Use the Equation menu to choose r = f(θ).
- Type "c" (for "cos"), "2", and "th" (for "theta").
- Click OK.
- If your … Continue Reading ››
Cartesian and Polar Graphs
Exponential Harmony with Sketchpad
Last week was the fourth session of my spring Advanced Secondary Math Methods class at the University of Pennsylvania. Each year I assign a semester project in which groups of three students use lesson-study techniques—on a small scale—to create, test, refine, teach, evaluate, and document specific shared instructional products, composed of a (possibly multi-day) lesson … Continue Reading ››
A Swan Song for Sweet Karen Coe
Today I leave for my first proper vacation in a year and a half. Last time I took such a vacation, Key sold its high school textbooks to Kendall Hunt and transformed from a publishing company to a educational technology company. This time I just hope to survive the end of the world. 🙂 Before … Continue Reading ››
Pass the Candy! Sweetening the Study of Probability
As part of our guest blog series, we bring you another post from Kathryn Shafer. A former middle school and high school math teacher, Kathy is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Ball State University, Indiana. She's done a variety of … Continue Reading ››
Creating Origami Whirlpool Designs with Sketchpad
Tomoko Fuse is a Japanese origami artist whose designs are highly geometric. A Google search for her origami models reveals a plethora of boxes and intricate three-dimensional structures, many of which are folded from multiple sheets of … Continue Reading ››
ICME: The Nature of Students’ Mathematical Thinking
Like other enthusiasts of mathematics, I’m captivated by the way that mathematical ideas can explain things in the physical world around me, and by the way that I can carry out mathematical thought experiments in my mind and then apply the results to control my external physical environment.
ICME: A Sensory-Motor Experience of Korea
I had the immense good fortune this year to attend ICME, the International Congress on Mathematical Education. The Congress is held every year divisible by 4, and this iteration (the twelfth) was held in Seoul, Korea. It is quite something to be at a meeting of nearly 4000 … Continue Reading ››
The Standards Are Not The Curriculum
We were so impressed by Jamila Riser's talk at NCSM a couple of years ago that we asked her to present an Ignite! for us this year. Now, we've asked her to guest blog so we can share even more about the amazing work she's doing in Delaware. Jamila is the Director of the Delaware … Continue Reading ››