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 […]
Quadratic Functions and Projectile Motion
Throwing Your Weight Around No, dear, you cannot change -16 to -12 in the quadratic equation because it factors more nicely. –Disgruntled Curriculum Specialist, Could Be Your ISD Ever feel like every quadratic equation has an x-squared term with a coefficient of -16 or -4.9? -16 factors nicely but -4.9 certainly doesn’t. Projectile motion is a great context and is highly relevant both to students and to a variety of careers and situations. Coefficients of -16 and -4.9 are directly related to Earth’s gravity, so it’s hard to change those values so that the curve makes a prettier graph or so […]
Foundation Math or Endorsement Math?
If you’re confused about the new mathematics graduation options for the HB5 Foundation diploma and endorsement program, you’re not alone. Many school administrators and counselors are still trying to wrap their heads around the possibilities and create meaningful graduation pathways for their students. A little bit of background With 4×4, the former Recommended High School Plan (RHSP), math graduation requirements were much simpler. Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 for all, and then a 4th math choice with Algebra 2 as a prerequisite. Except for the Math Models conundrum, all was well with the world and counselors could very easily keep […]
