Aug
14
3 minute read

Never put off till to-morrow what you can do day after to-morrow just as well.—B. F   “Mark Twain falsely attributing a quote to Benjamin Franklin” Its that time of year again when I start to think about logistics and planning.  Unlike last year, this time feels like a known quantity.   As a result of experience there are a few things I want to changes.

Advertising:

  • Utilize the facebook page and PTSA newsletter.
  • Get a blurb in the school newspaper if it publishes early enough.
  • Get one of last year’s kids to make a morning announcement on the PA.
  • Reach out to the Alg2 teacher.  (This is the biggest stretch since I don’t know him.)

My expectation is I’ll keep most of the kids who were there last year and didn’t graduate and I’ll find a new crop of sixth graders.  But because of the odd demographics I’m not sure about 8th graders. So that’s my motivation for trying to sync up with Alg2 teacher and see if he would hand out a flyer for me or nudge some students.   Male / Female balance was decent last year but could be better. But I’d really have to engage all the teachers to actively do something about that. I’m going to wait until the first responses come back to decide whether I need to be active here.

New ideas:

  • I’m going to put up a self study spreadsheet for AMC8 per the request of a few kids. I’ll track and see if anyone is participating.  What can I do to optimize usage?
  • Procuring permission to photograph.  I want to create photos for my talk later this fall. So for the first time, I’m going to ask permission to take them.
  • Being explicit about pre-Algebra vs. Algebra when advertising. My idea is to say we may use algebra/geometry from time to time but its ok to join as long as you’re curious and willing to ask questions.

Gathering Ideas:

I spend the summer just recording whatever looks interesting for use later on.  It looks very reactive when you jot it down at first but six months later I really like looking back.

graph war - graphwar.com   Can this be adapted back to paper?

fractals (The kids asked for more on this theme at the end of last year)

logs (This is just me)

graph coloring quanta article. https://t.co/sHm2Xz8ZJN

Q8 group experiment: /2018/05/20/tangles-and-symmetry.html

PCMI problem sets projects.ias.edu/pcmi/hstp/problemsets.html

String Art / Parabolas

NRICH: Haga’s Theorem https://plus.maths.org/content/folding-numbers

Tantons video on geom series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q39pDPoL0no

Cool egyptian fraction / infinite geom sequence metaphor

Balanced Ternary: Robjlow chalkdust issue 6 article  (http://chalkdustmagazine.com/read/issue-06/)

Several units organized around math history. Maybe the Euclid Algorithm with direct pieces of the Elements would work.

https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/primary-historical-sources-in-the-classroom-discrete-mathematics-and-computer-science#Projects

Collatz conjecture:  Harris’s visualization is really cool.    Another one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJDz4kQqTV4&app=desktop abd there is a numberphile video

Revisit cutting mobius strips plus gluing mobius strips to get a klein bottle

Could we do parts of this? http://chalkdustmagazine.com/blog/many-quadratics-factorise/

Choose an integer bigger than all the coefficients, and evaluate. so, for example, p(9)=26260. Then tweet x and p(x). I’ll then guess your polynomial. via Colin Wright. Greedy Algorithm works and its unique because of the second constraint.

Proof that sqrt(2)^sqrt(2) = 2

graceful labelling of graphs:

https://t.co/jxO2w7Zgbm https://t.co/Mtvg5LEQCt

Several different art/math project ideas “Curves of Pursuit” https://www.artfulmaths.com/mathematical-art-lessons.html

Rubiks cube: is this the year to do it? Its about $8 a cube and I bet a bunch of kids already own one.

A golden ratio/pentagram art idea (although we covered this partly last year) http://mathhombre.blogspot.com/2018/08/golden-triangles.html

Euclidean Algorithm: Need some problems around it - also a candidate for a talk on Euclid

Potato Paradox: You have 100kg of potatoes, which are 99% water by weight. You let them dehydrate until they’re 98% water. How much do they weigh now?”

Math4Love’s Hindu in School columns: https://mathforlove.com/2018/08/a-mathematician-at-play-11-unfair-numbers/

I’m also in preliminary discussions with Richard Rusczyk at Art of Problem Solving. If all the stars align he may give a talk at the school when he’s out here this fall.

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