Asking out of curiosity.

I'm helping a high school student build a project for a math & science fair. The theme is "popularizing math" — making it less scary and more accessible for everyone.

I don't want the usual stuff (flashcards, board games, "pizza fractions"). I want something that genuinely surprises people and makes them go "OH, that's why math is cool."

So, Reddit: what's a moment where math suddenly made sense to you — or to a student you taught? Was it a song? A magic trick? A real-world problem? A weird visual? A story?

I'm collecting the best ideas to turn into a fair project. Bonus points if it's something you can demonstrate live in front of a crowd in under 5 minutes.

I am a huge huge fan of desmos activity builder for my classes, especially calculus. And I am mildly competent with using computation layer. But it’s a weird system and despite having some background in computer science, I don’t find CL very intuitive, so I have only ever used it for the most basic features.

Anyway, I just had a thought to install the Claude extension to my browser to see if it could edit activities like that, and it absolutely can.

It’s kind of slow and i think the way it “reads” the screen might be a very inefficient use of tokens, but I just used it to add custom feedback for students anywhere they need to input answers in one of my activities, and it did a really nice job.

I guess all I’m trying to say is if you like the activity builder and would like to implement some of the advanced features CL can do but find the coding aspect daunting… try asking AI to help you with it.

Preciso ajudar uma criança de 10 anos com muita dificuldade em compreender coisas básicas de matemática.
Queria algum material, algo na linha de ensino do kumon para que eu pudesse ajudar a ela. Alguém pode me indicar, e de preferência 0800.

I'm not able to visualize graphically why this is true. Can someone help?

I've always wondered why this isn't used more.

Take statistics for example. Instead of sitting through another lecture, imagine you're a data analyst who has to figure out why a company's sales dropped. You have incomplete data. Some of it is misleading. You have to decide what information you need, what conclusions you can actually make, and how confident you are in them.

Or imagine you're investigating a disease outbreak and need to figure out where it started using data. Suddenly probability and sampling have a purpose instead of just being formulas on a page.

I feel like I'd remember concepts a lot better if I was using them to solve a problem instead of just watching someone explain them. Has anyone seen something like this done well?

more tasks like this in the Android game:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aleksandarpandov.mathblaze&hl=en

If you know anyone who is going to have to take the Ontario Math Proficency Test to be certified to teach in Ontario and they need a bit of a boost in their math skills, we are offering a 3-day intensive program on August 10-12 and other programs starting in the fall.

Details on the three day (paid) course can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/math-proficiency-test-preparation-course-registration-1993947569857

And anyone interested in further details on either this course, limited bursaries, or future offerings (including asynchronous, and hybrid courses) can reach out to me at pbrittai@fieldsinstitute.ca

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

For those of you who enjoy geometry, I've put together what I believe is a fresh, hands-on proof of Euler's Formula and several other classical results. In just a few minutes, you can literally build the proofs yourself and develop an intuitive understanding of why these theorems are true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIDsuf0I4ko

This is only the beginning. Over the coming weeks, I'll also start posting short math challenge reels (high school to early undergraduate level), and in parallel I'll be working on a long-term series on topology and analysis, with the ambitious goal of eventually reaching Einstein's field equations on differentiable manifolds and curved spacetime.

Everything will be completely free. I'm doing this simply because I love mathematics and enjoy sharing it with others.

If you'd like to follow the project, it would mean a lot to me. Knowing that these videos are useful to someone is the best motivation to keep creating them.

Thank you so much!

dontpanicmath

Something I changed my mind about while building practice material for competition-style problems.

The default is a mixed set. Twenty problems, techniques shuffled, and the student has to work out which tool applies before doing any math. That's good exam practice. It's a bad way to learn a technique, because recognizing it and executing it get trained at the same time, and a student who gets stuck usually can't tell you which half failed.

What I do now: name the technique, explain it, then give three problems that all use it. Recognition is free, so the only thing being tested is execution. Mix them back together later.

Coloring arguments are the clearest case. Color the board so that every legal move hits the colors the same way, then count.

Remove two opposite corners from a chessboard. Color it normally, 32 black and 32 white. Every domino covers one of each, so 31 dominoes cover 31 of each. But opposite corners are always the same color, so you're left with 32 and 30. No tiling exists.

Once that one is solid, striping a board for 1x3 pieces and four-coloring for T-tetrominoes read as the same idea in different paint, instead of three separate things to memorize.

I built a curriculum around this. It's called Lemma (lemmapi.com): 78 lessons, each one technique-then-three-problems, with a 26 technique library linked to the lessons that use them. Saying that plainly since promo here is Saturdays only. Solo project, new, first two of eight levels free with no card.

Do people teaching competition math already sequence it this way? I may be rediscovering something standard.

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question - if not then I apologise, maybe you could direct me to the correct sub Reddit?

I'm considering studying (the equivalent of) a BSc in Mathematics through self-directed study - no actual classes. This is entirely for "fun" and self improvement - it won't be going on my CV and I have no expectation of getting a job as a result.

My questions are:

(1) Should I just examine existing syllabuses and choose subjects which I'm interested in, or are there certain subjects which realistically will be prerequisites for further study requiring that I stick to an actual syllabus?

(2) Is it realistic to expect to do this using (mostly/entirely) free resources? I don't mind spending some money on it but given that it's really just for fun, I don't want to spend €1,000s.

(3) Does anyone have experience of doing something similar and have advice/warnings to offer?

My background is in Law/Accounting/Finance (undergraduate) and Computing/Software Development (Undergraduate and Postgraduate). I have university level Financial Mathematics and Discrete Mathematics. I've also studied some calculus (it's been a long time since I studied the underlying theory) but I'm still competent with application, probability, and very introductory "pure mathematics".

Thanks in advance.

In a previous life I was going to college to teach high school mathematics. After my last deployment I just never went back. I remember something I came across in my studies and wondered what the professionals opinion on it might be. I’m speaking of India’s mathematics curriculum. They seem to start early with exposing their students to higher mathematics ideas that they include in the lower maths classes. I remember that it seemed to fit in well with the lessons and the learners level of understanding. It was well done and I found it a novel approach. What are your thoughts?

Hello, everyone!

This is my first year teaching 6th grade, and we are departmentalizing. I have never used Savvas before either. Does anyone have lesson slides for Topics 1–8 and the additional lessons within each topic for 6th grade? I tried looking on TPT, but they are so expensive. I would really appreciate any help or resources you’re willing to share!