Math Links for Week Ending Dec. 30th, 2016

Recently @mathletepearce posted a blog about conceptually looking at multiplication. This week he looks at fractions. And although he says "This post is by no means the “fractions rulebook”" this post gives a good overview of representing fractions all the way to dividing with fractions. He's got a lot of visuals on the way. Check it out.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://tapintoteenminds.com/progression-of-fractions/

Do you need to give real examples of how the way you ask questions on a survey can become biased by using Leading Questions then listen to this More or Less episode on how a poorly conducted survey in India likely gave unreliable results. The clip from the Yes Prime Minister that shows how by using leading questions you can get opposite results for the same question.
Curriculum Tags: MBF3C, MDM4U
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04jz6sr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA

With all the talk of how many celebrity deaths there were this year, speculation is that it was a bad year. It was bad for celebrities, for sure, but it wasn't the worse. Here's all the data.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/30/entertainment/worst-year-celebrity-deaths-trnd/

People have often written about manipulatives in the secondary classroom and so I wasn't surprised when @HTheijsmeijer posted hers. The thing that caught my eye was the statement "I did well in math through high school because I like rules". IE no manipulatives were needed. I would go further to say that many of us who became math teachers learned despite the teaching methods that were used because we liked math, were teacher pleasers etc etc. So with many of the new initiatives it is sometimes hard to convince teachers that anything new is needed (the old "if it worked for me....." idea). So posts where teachers are honest with how they feel on their journey always give me hope that we can progress.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://byodasap.blogspot.ca/2016/12/manipulatives-in-secondary-math.html

Though this is fairly old it is none the less informative on how we think about probability and randomness. It is part series from Scientific American and gives some insight as to why we are so bad at understanding probability. The first article talks about cognitive bias and it goes from there. Thanks to @Esping_Math for this one.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-our-brains-do-not-intuitively-grasp-probabilities/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-randomness-rules-our-world/

If you haven't read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime", you should. It's story told from the perspective of a boy with autism and it has mathematics infused throughout. From the chapters numbered with only primes to the appendix with mathematical proofs in it. Now it is a play and @Standupmaths has seen it and gone behind the scenes to show all the math that goes into making the show.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hsZm1BD_j8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shQnyNlgmkc

In keeping with many of my recent posts, here is another one of those "friendly" algebraic problems. Though it might not be appropriate for our math classes (due the the beer and the fact that we don't teach integration in Ontario anymore) but it is still pretty friendly. Thanks to @Robin_Grondin for this one.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/robin_grondin/status/813846676775571456

Did you see this one? @davidpetro314 pic.twitter.com/YXcSKxxquN

— Robin Grondin (@robin_grondin) December 27, 2016

Definitely some sobering thoughts during the holidays
Curriculum Tags: MCV4U
https://www.facebook.com/pornscience/photos/a.145146232329411.1073741828.139938556183512/695710823939613/?type=3&theater

OK so now the memes are coming out about "friendly" algebra. Now even Drake is in on it. Thanks to @Esping_math for this one
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.facebook.com/mathslovers/photos/a.216147991759481.57080.207201309320816/1451190178255250/?type=3&theater

And even when people try to correct Internet math, they get it wrong (as the comments confirm, it should have a constant). Thanks to @Esping_Math for this one too.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.facebook.com/PiMathAddicts/photos/a.318224865041690.1073741828.318220011708842/563649603832547/?type=3&theater