First Blog

Proposition .  Students should learn to solve problems in multiple ways.  Can this be so or are we asking yet again our students learn even more than what is needed? The short answer is "yes." Let me explain.  First, the math teaching community has embraced, I think correctly, the idea of multiple representations.  This means looking at data and functions in multiple ways graphs, tables, formulas, and the like.  In fact, I've written on this. See http://disted6.math.tamu.edu/newsletter/newsletters_new.htm#current_issue for the three articles. Second and more generally, the more facets of the same thing a person is familiar with, the better is his knowledge of it. When it comes to problem solving, the same rule applies.  If a person can solve a problem in two or more different ways, this is an indicator of their understanding of the problem and techniques to solve it.  If they can solve it in only one way, this is an indicator that they have a single method in their mind. 

June 13, 2012 Climate Change Of course there is climate change.   The climate is always changing.   Actually, what would it mean to say the climate is not changing? So, when people talk of climate change they are implying “man made global warming,” a term that has been tarnished of late, not to mention a couple of record cold winters in various parts of the world also of late.    For climate change, there is lots of evidence.   Ice packs are receding, sea levels are rising, and temperatures are up in the last century.   Researchers use even finer measures that look back centuries using data from ice cores, tree rings, and corals. Moreover, they use indices of volcanism, solar variability, changes in GHGs (Greenhouse Gases), and tropospheric aerosols.   Then, they build models based on all this showing that standard deviations are terrifically small for the nine centuries prior to the 20 th   where the changes took place.   They conclude that “most of the warming must be du