A benefit of working with teachers and schools across the country is that you run into some really talented folks. In that spirit, this blog entry is written by a guest author, Lisa Carpenter Richardson, an Algebra and Math Models teacher from Clear Brook High School in Clear Creek Independent School District. Clear Brook HS is in Houston, Texas. There is a lot of discussion about the intersection between Computer Science and Mathematics as disciplines. I’ll write more about that in a future blog entry because I think it’s a discussion worth having. I definitely have some thoughts that I’d […]
Sunday Morning Fractions
I really do enjoy cooking. Sometimes, it’s a therapeutic form of stress relief. Sometimes, I like to cook seasonal dishes — the first chill of autumn is exciting. Not only because it indicates that Texas summer has lost its death grip on us but also because I can get out my gumbo pot. Fractions in the Kitchen? Get out. Recently, on a weekend morning I was making a breakfast pie (recipe here, because I’m not a mean cook). It’s one of my go-to recipes for an easy, delicious, homecooked breakfast meal. I’ve made this for years and gotten it down […]
Legislative Update – May 2017
The 140 days of the 85th Texas Legislature draw to a close at the end of May. And as with teachers and students at the end of the school year, it’s crunch time. Lots of education bills were filed, many relating to mathematics education. Here are the three that I’m watching this week. There are many other important bills, some relating to education, out there. But these are the ones I think have the most potential to affect Texas mathematics education. I’ll update this blog entry as the session moves. Current time stamp is at the top, and I’ll make […]
Curve Fitting with Flood Data
The Backstory I’m a Houston boy. I was born there and grew up there. My family lives there. I lived there long enough to know that it’s a subtropical environment that, periodically, gets a deluge of rain. Some of the storms have names like Claudette, Allison, or Ike. Most of them do not, like the storm that sat over western and northwestern portions of the Houston area on April 17, 2016. Overnight on Sunday, large portions of Southeast Texas received as much as 20 inches of rain in a few hours. On Monday morning, many people woke up with water […]
Using Real World Data – Histograms
Every now and again, you’re watching the news or reading the newspaper, and then all of a sudden – bam! Math slaps you upside the head. Histograms or some other strange phenomena appear right out of nowhere. And usually, when you least expect it. Suddenly, real world data are being used to make a point in the media. And if you’re a math teacher, you immediately seize on the data and think about how you can turn it around with your kids. Math in a Burrito On a discussion forum, I ran across a post that linked to this article in […]
