Is There Room for More Critical Thinking in Math Education?

October 21, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 32 Comments

At the 2011 Secular Student Alliance conference, I gave a talk about the need for more critical thinking in math education. The video of the talk is finally available so I wanted to share that with you. (Plus, I’m at a math conference this weekend and it seemed like the perfect time to post it.)

Hopefully, it won’t scare you away even if you hate the subject!

(Spoiler: If you’re coming to Skepticon IV next month and you want to be surprised, don’t watch this! I’ll be giving a version of this talk there.)

I owe a lot to Dan Meyer, who’s influenced a lot of my thinking on this subject. I got a number of the examples in the talk from his website. It’s a must-read for any math teacher.

Filed Under: Education, General, Math 32 Comments

Answer to That Crazy Math Problem…

October 16, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 37 Comments

Some of you wanted to know how to solve the math problem I posted yesterday.

Here’s my worked out solution!

Hope it makes sense :)

Filed Under: Education, General, Math 37 Comments

The Craziest Problem I’ve Had My Students Solve This Year…

October 14, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 123 Comments

***Update***: The solution is posted here.

…

I don’t post nearly enough about teaching high school math (my day job) on this page. And since I’m giving more public talks about education these days, might as well write about it here, too :)

Last month, after some of my honors’ students learned about composite functions, I put together this extra credit problem (PDF). Because I’m evil.

No cheating. Can you solve it? :)

If you do, please don’t put your solution in the comments! (But feel free to leave the Secret Word there.)

And then stand in awe of all the sophomores and juniors who did it pretty soon after it was assigned…

Filed Under: Education, General, Math 123 Comments

I’m Going to South Carolina… to Talk About Math!

September 28, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 5 Comments

I’ll be speaking at the University of South Carolina (in Columbia) on Sunday night, October 9th! (When you’re a teacher in the middle of the school year, this is how you make the most of your long weekends.)

And the topic is… not atheism! Nope. We’re gonna talk about math. (Don’t run away! I promise it’ll be interesting.) Believe it or not, there’s a connection between the two worlds.

Hemant Mehta… will be visiting USC and giving an excellent talk concerning the need for MORE critical thinking in public schools, especially in math classrooms!

I appreciate how they know it’s already going to be excellent :) If you need more information regarding time and room number, it’s all here.

Thanks to the Pastafarians at USC for putting this whole thing together!

Filed Under: Education, General, Math, Secular Student Alliance 5 Comments

The Best Young Math Problem Solver in the World Is a Girl

August 10, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 52 Comments

Remember how awesome it was that the top three finishers at the Google Science Fair were all girls? They got some well-deserved attention for that.

Here’s a story that probably won’t get as much press, but it’s just as impressive considering how few women go into mathematics.

At the 2011 International Mathematical Olympiad, 18-year-old Lisa Sauermann not only obtained a perfect score — giving her sole possession of first place — her gold medal performance put her atop the IMO Hall of Fame.

In other words, she’s the best problem solver in the more-than-50-year history of the competition. And she’s a she.

In case you’re curious, these are three of the six problems she had to solve in this year’s tournament…

(Please don’t ask me to explain them…)

Speaking of women in math, you’ve all seen Vi Hart‘s latest video, right? Excellent.

(via Tanya Khovanova)

Filed Under: General, Math 52 Comments
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