What If Spreadsheet Math

Spanglish is one of those movies that grows on you. A coming to America story filled with themes that move us: a dedicated and resourceful… Continue

As I was again reading the Common Core Standards, I was struck by their introduction of variables in grade 6. Jim, I could not help… Continue

If a mathematician were asked what these two numbers had in common, she might wonder if they were both primes. They are not. A gambler… Continue

I have long loved Maxwell’s Equations as the epitome of beauty in physics and as the source of inspiration for my teaching. But though the… Continue

G.H. Hardy, one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century wrote this: A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns.… Continue

I feel most fortunate when I have a year I get to work on a new great idea in it. This past year has thus… Continue

It was forty years ago this September that I started my career as a high school mathematics teacher, a career that spanned 36+ continuous years.… Continue

As I watched a young woman the other day learning to ride her bike, zigzagging down the street, desperately trying to keep her balance, I… Continue

If you are a Bostonian by address, birth, or just a connection, you can’t help but be full of pride this morning for your baseball… Continue

“Today, it seems as if nearly everyone agrees that high school mathematics needs to change. For far too long high school mathematics has not worked… Continue

I like to hang out in the Harvard Graduate School of Education library. It has a good vibe, is usually full of students focused on… Continue

One of the four C’s, perhaps for many the most important 21st century skill, is considered in our schools, cheating. Students caught talking to each… Continue

The words curious and curiosity do not appear in the Mathematics Common Core Standards document, yet they are arguably the most important words in mathematics… Continue

Empathy is an odd idea to discuss in math or even in STEM/STEAM education. It is usually thought of as an issue in psychology or… Continue

Teaching done right has always been a hard job, but it is now substantially harder. Talk to any teacher and they will tell you that… Continue

I do not know who, when, or where this iconic mathematical representation was developed. It is, however, one of the most powerful and ubiquitous of… Continue

We call our problem solving process, functional thinking. When we apply functional thinking to problem solving in the digital age, we find that a few… Continue

We call our problem-solving process, functional thinking. When we apply functional thinking to digital age problem solving, we find a few fundamental models give us… Continue

Perhaps the most profound and lasting effect of the Covid Virus pandemic on our economy will be in the change in the way people work.… Continue

It caught my eye, this headline/story posted on EdWeek recently. Seems there was a panel at a conference that was supposed to debate what they… Continue

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As mathematics takes an increasing role in work and life, creativity must become central to its learning, because: 1) creativity and creative problem solving are… Continue

The University of Chicago is not known for its athletics, so when I entered it as a first-year student I was very surprised that I… Continue

My fortune cookie today read, “If you’re happy, you’re successful.” Usually for me that is true, but not today. For during that same lunch my… Continue

Math is not only the last letter in STEM or STEAM, it is the only one that we do not picture as experimental. We don’t… Continue

In a magazine published for college trustees, a recent short article captured the latest statistics from the ACT and SAT tests. The downward trend was… Continue

I still feel it months later, the thrill and awe I knew from finding an answer to a question I have long been troubled by.… Continue

Recently, in a history of physics magazine, I came across this picture and a short story on Harvard Project Physics, and I thought about the… Continue

Our education model is broken. Despite the economic promise of and documented need for a bachelor’s degree: graduation rates are stagnant, achievement gaps are widening,… Continue

I just looked at a wonderful short video by Sir Ken Robinson on creativity at https://youtu.be/63NTB7oObtw in which he describes creativity as a process that… Continue

These two words have caught the imagination of educators and parents. They were designed to be the frames for talking about the value of digital… Continue

Envisioning technology that reinvents our schools not automates them should, I believe, be our goal and our dream for personalizing learning. Continue

Math Blaster was the biggest hit educational product in the 1980’s, the first decade of the personal computer age. Flying saucer like objects would vaporize… Continue

This picture from a recent blog post sends shivers down my spine. It is our picture of a “modern” classroom with the desks lined up… Continue

The Genius Behind Accounting Shortcut? It Wasn’t Einstein The Rule of 72 is a nifty shortcut for estimating investment returns; first published mention was in… Continue

Small changes, seemingly inconsequential acts, can have momentous repercussions. Dead birds set off the environmental movement. An assassin’s bullet protesting an exhausted empire started a… Continue

It was an appropriate title for the movie about Jaime Escalante and it is an appropriate title for the role that teachers continue to play.… Continue

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The key to the digital age is also the key to learning algebra. Despite what many of us may believe, our digital age did not… Continue

On this 10th anniversary of the iPhone it is worth remembering that this invention, as world-changing as it was, will not be deemed the most… Continue

Despite the many attempts to codify the creative process, it is as surprisingly individualistic as it is human. John Irving, author of iconic works like… Continue

This picture was first published in 1638! It is from Galileo’s great work Two New Sciences, that he smuggled out of his home imprisonment in… Continue

What is the hardest question a teacher has to answer? As teachers, especially math teachers, we face this most painful question all too often, rarely… Continue

To make its workers more productive, the Western Electric Company, makers of phones and other parts for the Bell Telephone System, conducted one of the… Continue

Or how to build an atomic bomb. One of the best curriculum ideas I ever had was to use this book as the text for… Continue

Our good friend Larry Myatt, one of the great thinkers and leaders on the future of education, recently sent out a New Years greeting that… Continue

When MOOCs were the rage in higher education, I asked my friend David Kaiser, a physicist and professor of the history of science at MIT,… Continue

As Lynn Steen said, mathematics is the study of patterns, the “science of patterns”. We focus and want students to focus on patterns, on seeing… Continue

Take this tour of functional thinking applied to the key concepts of mathematics. Visualize and experience the power of the spreadsheet to unify and simplify… Continue

This graph appeared on one of my favorite websites – Statista. Given the “breaking news” of the day, that the President wants to impose new… Continue

The Parker Solar Probe was launched yesterday to study the sun. Sixty years ago, Eugene Parker launched my scientific career. A young physics research scientist… Continue

Today, I attended an ancient ceremony. It is called “Hooding”. An elaborate and beautiful hood is given to students who have completed their scholarship and… Continue

Three years ago I read a wonderful book by Keith Devlin called The Man of Numbers. It told the story of Leonardo of Pisa who was… Continue

Each summer, as schools get ready for a new school year, the question returns, “Should we be teaching algebra to our children?” it seems to… Continue

“Rather than ask why our students fail to measure up, this film asks us to reconsider the greater purpose of education. What if our education… Continue

Mastering the quadratic formula has long been the culmination of the high school algebra courses, the capstone of “Algebra I and Algebra 2”. We endeavor… Continue