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Monthly Archives: September 2020

Replacing

I have had many people say to me over the years, “But algebra is easy: just tell them to do the same thing to both sides!” This is wrong in several ways, not least of which is the word “easy”. The particular way it’s wrong that I want to talk about today is the idea […]

Posted in How people learn (or don't), Thoughts about maths thinking | Tagged , |

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Questions with a morally wrong answer

I think asking students questions is an important part of my job of helping students succeed. Good questions can help me see where they are in their journey so I can choose how to guide them to the next step, or can help to make clear the skills they already have that will help them […]

Posted in Being a good teacher, How people learn (or don't) | Tagged , |

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Changing the goal of the Numbers game

I conscripted the game Numbers and Letters seven years ago to help promote the Maths Learning Centre and the Writing Centre at university events like O’Week and Open Day. Ever since then, it has always bothered me how free and easy participation in the Letters game is, while the Numbers game is much less so. […]

Posted in One Hundred Factorial, Other MLC stuff, Thoughts about maths thinking | Tagged , |

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Number Neighbourhoods

This blog post is about a game I invented in February 2020, the third in a suite of Battleships-style games. (The previous two are Which Number Where and Digit Disguises.)
NUMBER NEIGHBOURHOODS: A game of analytic deduction
Players:

This game is for two players, or two teams.

Setting up:

Each player/team choose six different numbers between 0 and 10 (not including 0 […]

Posted in Isn't maths cool?, One Hundred Factorial, Thoughts about maths thinking | Tagged |

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