MathPrint on the TI-84

UPDATE 1/11/11: The release notes for the new TI-84 OS 2.55MP are now posted on a TI website. Also OS2.53MP info is posted there too. In case you didn't update in the past year, you can now enjoy 'wizards' for many of the statistics capabilities AND MathPrint. After trying out MathPrint, if you decide you really missed all the parentheses you got with square roots and the carat for exponents, or if you don't like the scrolling left/right lines as much as you enjoyed wrapping, you can always change modes to Classic. This way you will still enjoy the benefit of fraction math and scrolling history that the new operating systems give you.

It has been awhile since I've written a post here. It has been a busy year with teaching, family, and a big project. My wife has kept up recording the interesting family events.

For the first time in all my years of teaching, this semester I have a TA. Billy is a great teaching assistant. For the benefit of teachers and students who still use the TI-84 Plus (he and I enjoy the TI-Nspire CAS handheld and software) he has grabbed a bunch of screen shots for the new operating system using TI-Connect . Several wildly popular features that have been native to the TI-Nspire for the past 3 years, have now made their way on to the 84. On the TI-89 that I used to teach calculus with, there was what was referred to as "Pretty Print" on the output. You would enter an expression with weird syntax and many parentheses, but you could check that you entered what you wanted once you were finished.










The new operating system OS 2.53 MP [update: On January 10, 2011 OS2.55MP came out] brings the feature of MathPrint (TM) to the 84. Students will make fewer mistakes on homework and those important end-of-the-year exams, because what they enter looks like what is in the textbook or their homework paper. Students tend to enter calculations one step at a time and then they don't know where they went wrong. If they want to do a complicated calculation they would do well to enter it on their handheld technology - whether it be a TI-84 or Nspire - the way that it looks on their paper. Another new feature is, instead of pressing 2nd ENTER to review the last 10 entries, they can now arrow up around 30 entries. If they press enter on the selected number or calculation, this will be copied down so it can be edited or reused.The above screen shows some calculations that my students have done in the past. The first is to find the acceleration of a penny that is 18 cm from the center of a record that is spinning at 33 1/3 rpm. Notice that this is highlighted. If I press enter, then I could easily change it to be 45 rpm, or I could change it to a penny that is closer in (since vinyl albums actually have a radius a bit smaller than 18cm) . I love that the square root radically (pun intended) goes over everything that it is supposed to. The second calculation shows the amount of time it takes if I take that penny and drop it off the roof of our school 5.2 m above the ground. It is easy enough to change it and see how long it would take, ignoring air resistance, if this was dropped from the top of the Burj Dubai (828m), or we could change the 9.8m/s^2 to the acceleration of gravity on another planet.

Calculus teachers will particularly enjoy MathPrint because they won't need to spend the time teaching an unusual syntax like d(e^3x,x,5). Derivative at a point uses Leibniz's notation and the 'such that' vertical bar followed by the point for the derivative to be numerically evaluated. The definite integral is another example of MathPrint making the entering of a calculation more intuitive. Here are a series of screen shots that demonstrate an effective way to find the intersection, area between curves, and volume by rotation. Notice that MathPrint is supported in Y=.




















Besides using the shortcut, of which there is a reminder every time the 84 is turned on, many of the features can be accessed through the MATH button, or MATH then NUM. If for some reason users preferred the classic view, there is now a second screen under MODE were MathPrint can be unselected. Also note that if mixed fractions are preferred they can be chosen. (Hey, fractions are now supported in the tables, lists, matrices, and window zoom.) I like that there is a central location for Stat Diagnostics to be turned on and another way to get to the Graph Screen Formatting.

All of the current apps (that I know of) are unaffected and still work except for Catalog Help. Be sure to download and install this using TI-Connect. The new OS 2.53MP is available under downloads at education.ti.com.

Teachers will want to put these on their TI-84 SmartView emulator so that what they do in front of the class matches what the students see. This is done by pressing File>Load File ... (as show on the left) then just find the OS (pay attention to where you save what you download). You don't want to throw away those silver cables. These come in handy for using the CBR with the 84 SmartView. However you won't need it to update the OS when using the TI-84 faceplate on the TI-Nspire. Updating the Nspire will automatically update the 84 mode.

These pleasant new features are not available on the TI-83. Again, to update the TI-Nspire that is in 84 mode, all you need to do is update the TI-Nspire (which leads us to believe that a new Nspire OS will be coming soon).

Stay tuned for all the impressive new features for the TI-Nspire & TI-Nspire CAS that make that device even more intuitive for new users. Current users will enjoy how their requests have been listened to in many ways. These educational tools really have continued to improve to meet the needs to teachers and students.

Lord, may how we teach and the tools we use
be filled with a beauty of design
that reflects the Creator of the universe
and the image of Him in whom we've been made (Gen 5:1).
May we use technology more effectively for the improved education of students.

TI-Nspire Peripherals

What peripheral would you most like to use with your TI-Nspire?

There are many data collection devices that can be used with the TI-Nspire. I've enjoyed teaching with the CBR2 motion detector, Go! Temp with the USB to mini-USB converter, and many probes that can be plugged into the Easy Link. Many of these are pictured below, including Vernier's dual force range sensor, infrared thermometer, charge sensor, hand dynamometer, sound intensity meter, light intensity sensor, voltage probe, and force plate.

You plug in any sensor and it automatically detects and quickly sets up the graph with appropriate scale and labeled graph. These data collection peripherals are so much more intuitive to use with the TI-Nspire than the TI-83/84. You can learn more about using these probes with the lastest operating system (OS 1.7) at a Physics Nspire Summer Workshop. Physical science teachers would also be interested in these 1.5-day and 3-day workshops. See this link for details about the Indy site.

In the past I've used the TI-Keyboard with the TI-89 or 83/84 to take notes. It was easy to use the Notefolio and convert those files to Word documents. Others have used keyboards with TI-Navigators for the 84 to illicit more robust open responses from students. It is interesting how much some students can write when they have a keyboard.

I've also heard of a speaker being able to plug into a TI-83/84 or 85/86 and you can play songs or use the 83 as a piano, but I haven't tried it myself. I did try to plug a USB keyboard into the TI-Nspire using a USB to mini-USB converter. Let me save you the time, don't do it. You'll need to reset the handheld (remove a battery) because next time you plug something that was designed to work with the Nspire, it won't recognize it. Resetting solves this issue.

There are many variations of what would be nice to have and why they would be useful, either now or in the future. There was a great conversation about this going on at the Nspire Google Group. One person said they would like a keyboard, another a mouse, and another idea was a touchpad. While it could be possible to have a keyboard with a touchpad and a mouse that attaches to the side of the keyboard, can you pick your favorite?

I thought I would try running a poll for a week or so to see if anyone would like to participate in a non-scientific data collection effort. I figured maybe more people would voice their choice if there was anonymity and speed in voting.

Quick Poll: Which TI-Nspire handheld peripheral would you most like to have? (A) mouse, (B) keyboard, (C) touchpad

You can easily submit your vote in the right sidebar that is at the top of this page. [NOTE: This is not sponsored by TI and these add-ons do NOT currently exist, despite how well the picture at the top may have deceived you.]

UPDATE: At the close of the poll, it was a tie with a touchpad mouse getting among the top votes. Nspire users will be pleased to know that they can now (March 2010) get a TI-Nspire Touchpad to replace their old Clickpad. Here is one vendor teachers may be interested in.

Coordinates

The other day when I was at work my son was 'standing' on my bed, slipped and sprained his neck. He visited the doctor with his head at quite an angle, or relative to his right shoulder, his head made an acute angle. See Monica's blog for more details. (My wife is a great storyteller.)

His neck is getting better. Notice how it is nearly orthogonal in the picture to the left. He is wearing his helmet that he just accessorized with a 'laser' and Wall-E pictures. (No, he had not been bicycling, but he is all about safety.)

An enjoyable coordinate system that I encountered again the other day was the chess board. It was Saturday morning and I took all the kids to Chick-fil-a. The little ones ran around the play area (even the cricked neck boy) and my 11 year old daughter and I played chess. Actually, her older sister and her were teaming up against me. It was a relief when my wife showed up and and took our 12 year old with her to the store. We were able to finish a nice long game in peace. I ended up not loosing any pieces, but she played a well protected game which is why it lasted so long.

That evening, after putting the younger ones down to bed, I fulfilled my promise to play with just my oldest daughter.

There are other interesting coordinate systems. I recently made a "Polar Graphing Friend" for the TI-Nspire. It even includes graph 'paper' that teachers can instruct students to move r to a particular (theta, r) and show them to be sure they got it.

Also there is a page were you trace out the graph in 15 degree increments. This PolarFriend is available as a download on the TI-Nspire Google Group.

Graphing Hearts

A conversation of the TI-Nspire Google Group occurred today about graphing implicit functions. The expression entered for the graph to the left demonstrates another reason to "go CAS." With the TI-Nspire CAS you can easily graph implicit relations, especially conics. CAS has its advantages. (When using this 'zeros method', remember the ",y)" at the end.)

I was impressed with using the zeros feature to graph this. On my TI-Nspire Calculus website I have a file where hearts are graphed from functions with radicals and inverse trig functions. There are also 2 kinds of polar hearts, a parametric, and an implicit heart graph plotted using a different method than the lovely 'zeros method' shown on the left. I made a pdf of the heart graphs for the enjoyment of all.
(Update: See what graphing a heart in 3D looks like on the 3.0 operating system of the TI-Nspire CX. This works on the numeric or CAS Nspire.)

Romans 13:8 "Let no debt remain outstanding,
except the continuing debt to love one another,
for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law."

Snow Days

God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding.
He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.'
So that all men he has made may know his work,
he stops every man from his labor. - Job 37:5-7 NIV

So we had one of the biggest snow falls since the blizzard of 1978. This provided for two days off school. It worked out great for my daughter's birthday. She loves basketball. The water for our washing machine tends to not work when it gets too cold out, so we went to school and did a few loads while we played basketball in the gym. There is a nice sledding hill near the parking lot, so we had a great time with that as well.

Tip for playing in the snow:
- If you don't have great snow boots, tie plastic grocery sacks around your feet after you put your socks on. Hey, "reduce, reuse, and recycle" right. It also makes it easy to get the little kiddies feet into the shoe.
- Similarly, the reason kids can't stay out and play in the snow for as long as they would like is because of their extremities freezing. So use the plastic sacks as a layer for the gloves. When we can't find gloves that fit (or even when we can), I have the little ones use socks. First one sock, then the dry guarantee of the sack, then another sock. This avoids the other problem of the glove being too short. Snow on the wrist is not enjoyable.
- Dress in layers. Most of the kids have snow pants. But I just use a couple of layers. I also were layers of shirts instead of a big coat. If I get too warm, I can take off a layer. If that outer layer gets too wet, I can take it off before putting on my coat and driving home.
- Get a toboggan. At our school's annual auction a couple of years ago we invested in a nice lightweight wooden toboggan. This thing cannot be beat for distance and speed down a hill. It is always so satisfying to slide into undisturbed snow - boldly going where no one has gone before. (This heavier toboggan looks like it could really take some abuse and is built to last. Maybe we could get that to take the grandkids sledding.)

"By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast.
He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning.
They turn around and around by his guidance,
to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world.
Whether for correction or for his land
or for love, he causes it to happen.
Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God.
Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
Do you know the balancings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge" Job 37:10-16 ESV

My friend Heidi from Ohio sent me this tns file for the TI-Nspire. She has used something like this in the past with her geometry students when talking about rotational symmetry and the beauty of mathematics in the world. She also sent me this video where you can see the entire blue TI-Nspire. If you want the "snowflake" tns file, I posted it on the TI-Nspire Google Group with other tns program files and on my TI-Nspire site. You can get a 30-day free trial of TI-Nspire CAS and play too. What do you think? Cool, eh?

Storage and traveling with TI-Nspire

The question has arisen, "How do you easily store the TI-Nspire in your classroom?"

I remember my grandfather and my dad saying, "A place for everything, and everything in its place." While I don't always live up to this standard, I think it is a wonderful idea. In fact, 1 Corinthians 14:40 similarly says, "Let all things be done properly and in order."

So earlier this semester I described to my wife what I was looking for. Using some of her superpowers, for under $10, she picked up a shoe organizer at Target for me. It is made of a nice canvas-type material with mesh pockets.

It holds 24 TI-Nspire's and I can look over and easily see if one is missing at the end of the period. Each student is assigned a number that corresponds to their book number. Some classes it is their book number minus 20 or some other number.

If you click on the above picture you may notice that I did not start with the number 1. Our school has a cart with 25 laptops in it. Students' TI-Nspire number corresponds with their computer number. The numbers of the laptops began with 11. I can see some value in having all the numbers be double digits. For example, no one will write a number in front of a 4 to make it seem like you have two number 24s. By the way, for reasons I can't go into right now, if I had to choose between laptop computers for my math and science students or TI-Nspire handheld technology, I would opt that each student have a TI-Nspire CAS.

As you can see, each student has a protractor and a ruler in their pocket too.

For traveling to give training with the TI-Nspire, a friend gave me a Top Rhino suitcase on wheels as pictured above. If you click that picture it will link you to a store that sells them. The model I have has special compartments for the blue TI-Nspire's 84 faceplate. It is like getting two different devices for the price of one. However, I prefer the computer algebra system capabilites of the TI-Nspire CAS for its scaffolding and exploring possibilities. (Check out the links at the bottom of this website for more info on CAS.)

There are other alternatives for storing and traveling with the TI-Nspire. It would be great to hear more about what you have tried. Okay, I'll share one more that I have enjoyed... The TI-Nspire Carry Case has captured the attention of several of my students. This canvas material is well constructed with a place for a business card (or other identifier) and a pocket that can be used for the TI-84 faceplate. I jokingly told some students the only thing I can think of that would make it any better would be if we were to sew a loop so it could sported around on a belt. Batman would definitely want this.

Box and Whisker on the TI-Nspire

I had some friends wonder about doing multiple box and whisker plots on the same screen.
So I put together the following to help explain the process. I figured others would be interested in how to do 'bnw' on the same screen with the same scale, so here is a description of what I did and what you see happening in the image to the left.

Last semester, my first 4 periods took a test. Like most of my multiple choice tests, students can score 110 out of 100. Our school has a pretty tough grading scale and some multiple choice questions can be tricky. Fourth period is an AP class that already receives a weighted grade, so they didn't get the blessing of 10 possible bonus points on their AP-like test.

I don't teach box and whisker graphs in any of my math classes, but I do use them for myself and for students to get a picture of how they are doing compared to their classmates. It enables you to quickly see things like what were the top 25% scores, or 3rd quartile, and what the median or middle score is. By moving the mouse around on this TI-Nspire Data & Statistics page, the top score, Q3, median, Q1, and lowest score appear. Q3 and Q1 stand for 3rd and 1st quartile.

If you click one of the sections, you see the data points appear. You can see that I added a movable line to show where the 100 point mark was. This can be done on the handheld by pressing MENU>Analyze>Add Movable Line.

The key to graphing anything on a Data & Statistics page is that the information in the list and spreadsheet needs to have a title. In other words, a variable needs to be assigned to the data. For multiple box and whisker plots with the same scale, use categorical data. I put the period in the first column and listed the grades in the class in the second column.

There is a nice shortcut to entering the same thing in multiple cells in this spreadsheet that behaves extremely similar to and Excel spreadsheet. On the handheld press CTRL+(Click), that is CTRL and the circle in the middle of the Navpad. There are more details about this shortcut in the "Tips & Tricks" section of the Spring 2008 Nspiring Times (page 14). Past issues can be found on the bottom of this page of the tinspire.com website.

These box plots can be graphed vertically or horizontally as seen on the last picture in this article. It is fun to watch the data move when the variable is changed by clicking on it. This is shown in a short video here.

Graphing a Picture

Beauty, creativity, mathematics.

I would say that beauty is part of what we were created to display.
"Your people shall all be righteous ... the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might display my beauty." (Isaiah 60:21 ESV)

Several years ago I attended a T-cubed Regional Conference in St. Louis where a teacher, Pam Burke, gave a presentation called "Picture This!" (ppt) about a 'Graphing Art' project. She talked about how she would only give an assignment or project that had maximum educational value for the time spent. Her handout contained impressive examples of pictures students created with their TI-83 or TI-84. I modified this 'Math Art with TI' activity to serve as our final activity in my Exploring Math & Science with TI-Nspire CAS J-term.
The freshmen in the class probably hadn't done much beyond graphing linear functions, but I introduced, briefly explained and required at least 5 of the following different types of graphs:

• linear (even inequalities)
  
• quadratic
  
• absolute value
• square root
• cubic
• cube root
• reciprocal
• greatest integer
• exponential
  
• logarithmic
• sine
• cosine
• tangent
• semicircle
• polar

Using transformations of the functions and equations, many of them created something that reflected their personality. The above picture was done by our school's top golf star. (Speaking of golf and the TI-Nspire, there is a mini golf course algebra activity at this link.)

Students learned how to limit the domain. They asked great questions and had an exciting time exploring. I had the students write out all the functions they had on their screen and I quickly collected their Nspire file using connectivity software.

The TI-Nspire was such a superior learning tool for this activity compared to the TI-84 for several reasons

1. The TI-Nspire has better resolution - more pixels
2. The TI-Nspire is much faster. You don't have to wait anywhere near as long for the device to generate the picture. Along with this, I remember students doing this project with the 84 and by the time a modification was graphed they forget what change they made. With the TI_Nspire, the graph and function entry is on the same screen. When you scroll through the function, the corresponding graph is highlighted. (See the above video.)
   
3. Teachers who don't have their students use a program on the TI-84 are limited to around 10 functions. There really isn't a limit on the TI-Nspire. It goes from f1(x) to f99(x). You can also use g(x), h(x), etc. You can backspace over the = and replace it with a greater than or less than symbol to do an inequality.
   
4. With the TI-Nspire you can even graph polar on the same screen as functions.
5. Again, unless doing this project as a program on the 83/84, you are locking up your resources. Students can't use their graphing calculator for anything else while working on the project. With the TI-Nspire you save the file and open up a new document if, for example, the science teacher wants students to do something with their handheld.
   
6. Limiting the domain is much more intuitive with the TI-Nspire. Using a piecewise function template looks like the mathematics in textbooks. Whereas, multiplying or dividing the expression by a quantity including Boolean operators, may be mathematically educational, but fairly novel.
7. Collecting their 'program' or screen shots is so much easier with the TI-Nspire. Any of the connectivity options work faster and better than what was used with the TI-84. If you want to get it from their handheld to yours, you don't need to go through 2nd Link-Receive-Waiting-Send. (I made up a handout called Managing your TI-83/84 to help students remember this process.) On the TI-Nspire, just connect the two handhelds and the one who wants to send something clicks Tools and Send and you have it. The Computer Link Software is quick and intuitive. The TI Connect-to-Class Teacher Software steps this up to enable mass distributing and retrieving files from students' handheld. Additionally, at this link it is announced that coming soon is a means of sending, collecting, and automatically grading wirelessly. It is called the TI-Nspire Navigator. This TI-Nspire TI-Navigator will be available Spring/Summer of 2009 in the UK according to this site.
   
8. Since the purpose is investigating transformation, the TI-Nspire is impressively designed to dynamically facilitate this. E.g. graph f1(x)=x^2. Press ESC to escape off the function entry line so you can move the mouse to the graph. You can grab the graph in two ways: one will change the spread and the other will adjust the vertex, all while showing the effects of the equation.
9. TI-Nspire CAS came in handy to at least one student. He wanted to use a hyperbola for the golf tee. He used CAS to confirm his algebraic manipulation in solving for y.
   
10. Animation. (See the above video or another experiment in transformations - the US Flag.)

FYI, information about the TI-Nspire Summer Workshop that will be held out our school has been posted. I'm looking forward to that fun-filled week.

J-term TI-Nspire in the Snow

Actually, the class that I'm teaching is called Exploring Math & Science with TI technology (especially the TI-Nspire CAS). J-term is a nice way to get back into the swing of school after the break. There are 3 hour morning and afternoon classes that students can take. Most of the upperclassman intern for the two weeks. I limited the class size since I knew I would have a diverse group. I have about 3 freshman, 5 sophomores, and a junior who are taking algebra 1, geometry, alg 2, trig & pre-calc. TImath.com has been a great resource to give some exceptional differentiated instruction.

We have used some of the resources I put together back when I did the Physics of Toys J-term. (Check out our science of toys booklet. I need to edit it and fix the typos.)
So far we have investigated the terminal velocity of various sized bubbles, the distance a toy car goes when pulled back a certain distances, logistic curves from temperature data. We have also discussed diffraction, thin film interference, impulse-momentum, air resistance and other physics concepts.

More pictures of the good times with bubbles, snow, and data collection and analysis with TI-Nspire can be seen on this album.









After starting with the TI-Nspire CAS Primer, the students have done geometry investigations and SAT practice reviews. Next we'll do more with CBR motion detectors. I was particularly impressed with one student's unique depiction of his Fahrenheit and Celsius data today (see below). For other interesting graphs I've seen, check out this.

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”
Proverbs 25:2 (NIV)

Live as children of the King - explore and search out matters.

New Year & Leap Second Costume Party

We had a number our children's friends come for an evening of good times with games, geography, missiology, sociology, physics, food, and fun. See pictures from the party.

They arrived by 6p.m. EST to celebrate the New Year in Madrid, Rome, Paris, Budapest, Geneva. They were dress up in costumes that represented people groups from anywhere in the world including China, Romanian Gypsies, England, non-specific island nations, France, Spain, Mexico, and Russia.

A highlight of the party occurred at 6:59:59 EST or 11:59:59 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time. We watched the atomic clock blink 59 seconds twice.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081226/sc_space/2009toarrivenotasecondtoosoon

Food.................................... Game/Activity
cheese fondu ....................... Paper Tower competition (15 min, 8 1/2 x 11" paper, 20cm tape)
w/ apples, bread, etc. ........ Playdough sculpture

Fish & chips ......................... Jump rope
...............................(to leap into the new year with the leap second)
................................................ Pendulum competition
....................(washers & string to make pendulum with 2 sec period)
Laffy Taffy ........................... Jokes in British or some other accent
............................................... Watched Standard Deviants
. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . ."Russian Around Europe"

Smoothies ............................. Limbo
(planned but didn't get made)
Popcorn ................................ Make popcorn lei
................................................ Popcorn catching competition with a partner

Chips & Salsa ....................... Bubble Bowling (see page 335 of The Original Girls Handy Book)
'Fried' ice cream .................. Earth Toss with inflatable globes

We also had Mission Moments using Operation World were we read and prayed for various nations.

On the hour, the kids enjoyed counting down and blowing horns that I got from Kipp Brothers Toys. Everyone had left by 10:30, the time for Newfoundland's New Year. If you think having a half hour time zone is interesting, I found on a countdown clock site that there are a few places on a 15 min time zone - Chatham Island (part of New Zealand) and Kathmandu, Nepal.

Psalm 90: 12 Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom

Tracing with the TI-Nspire

Option A: Point On
Option B: Trace

If you are a TI-Nspire user, which method do you use/prefer for tracing? What advantages do you find for each?

The video also gives a glimpse of the new Trace Setting > Enable CALC Menu feature that is available with OS 1.6. Use the up and down arrows to make the region of investigation larger and smaller.

Updated 12/22/08:
When I first began using the TI-Nspire with the 1.1 operating system, I liked and recommended the Point On method. Yes it does show maximum, minimum, and zero when you grab and move the point. The coordinates are displayed and can be changed by double clicking on the x- or y-value. Selecting the y-value is a feature that is easier and more intuitive to do on the Nspire than on any previous handheld. Generally, when I create a document to be sent to students, if I want them to be ready to move a point around to explore the values and see the max, min, & zero, it will appear that it was created with Point On.

Updated 1/1/09
Reasons I would recommend the more versatile Trace method:
- Arrow up to trace multiple functions at the same time
- Type in an x-value and it will automatically go there
- Press enter and it will drop that point (essentially performing a 'Point On')
- Default Trace automatically finds points of interest as you move it along. But you can turn this feature off. (You can't do that for Point On.) When you save that file, it saves the trace setting too.
- You can move the point at discrete increments if you set it to that using Trace Settings.
- With OS 1.6 you now have even more features that can be enabled with trace, including finding the point of infection, max, min, zero, and intersection. This enabled 'CALC menu' will look in the domain you provide for the point of interest.

Physicist's perspective of Santa

I'm currently giving final exams.

I shared a scientific perspective of Santa with my students this week.
There are some funny lines in there. Enjoy.

It is an understatement to say that my five year old son is NOT a fan of Santa.
His latest response about what he wants to be when he grows up is an astronaut, an inventor, and he is going to try to be a Math Hero. I love that guy.

Superhero of Math

I've always wanted to be a superhero. Now my dream has come true.
I just received word that I won the Math Hero Award. da-ta-da-daa

My family surprised me when I got home from work. There are some funny video clips of this on my wife's blog.

The purpose of the award, with its $2500 and $2500 matching grant for the school, is to "reward and celebrate teachers and tutors for promoting math achievement to students in a fun and challenging learning environment. "
(The picture to the right is me presenting the check to Principal Brian Hudson.)

This Thanksgiving my family and school have even more to be thankful about. I'm grateful for Raytheon and the work they are doing to promote STEM initiatives. I found a video that explains some of their motivation for having this award.

Raytheon has a great website for encouraging mathematics for the middle grades, MathMovesU.com

If you know another Math Hero, nominate them next year.

Now if I can just get a cape like my kiddies were wearing when we visited the Children's Museum. I searched the internet to no avail.

Pie Chart - Thanksgiving

My 11 year old daughter is making a Thanksgiving Newspaper. To fill an empty spot on the paper she came up with the idea of polling the family on what their favorite pie is. Since we have 9 people in the family I gave her a tip on dividing a circle 9 ways to make a pie chart. She came back a little later and reported the results. I was interested that the first 4 digits of pi were represented 3.14159..
My 12 year old recently received a TI-Nspire CAS for her birthday. She was delighted to see how easy it was to make a pie chart on the Nspire. She loved the dynamic nature of the Data & Statistics application, i.e. the moving dots are really cool.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, our family's annual Thanksgiving letter is available on my wife's blog.

If you are interested, several years ago I did a study of every time the word "thanks", "gratitude" and its variations were used in the Bible. I called this study Biblical Thanksgiving, and it can be found here.

So what is your favorite pie to have for Thanksgiving?
If you looked at the Biblical Thanksgiving study, which verse or observation did you particularly like?

Scripture is integral to our math and science class

The Bible and mathematics & science compliment each other well. At the ACSI convention I had the pleasure of speaking to a little over 30 people who were interested in the topic of Biblical integration in the classroom or a Christian worldview of math and science. I had presented the paper at the ACMS (Association of Christian in the Mathematical Sciences) last summer. So I presented a similar powerpoint to this group. These are available on my Mr. Bird website under 'Student Presentations.'

If I had another opportunity to give a similar talk I know of several things I'd do to improve, including providing a handout and taking more time to prepare for the particular time constraint. Hopefully by that time I would make more progress on a little book I've been working on called "Christ-centered Mathematics: Daily Math Devotionals." In a book format I would be able to better cite sources and give a fuller explanation than the tri-fold Topical Mathematical Memory Verses permits.

Books that I would recommend:

• John Byl "The Divine Challenge on Matter, Mind, Math, and Meaning"
• John Byl "God and Cosmos: A Christian View of Time, Space, and the Universe"
• James Nickel "Mathematics: Is God Silent"
• "Foundations of Christian Scholarship: Essays in the Van Til Perspective" especially chapter 9 "A Biblical View of Mathematics" by Vern S. Poythress... *** I just discovered that this and other articles by Vern Poythress are available online. I have some reading to do, like "Creation & Mathematics; or what does God have to do with Numbers?"
  
• "Truth and the Transcendent" by Dr. Zimmerman

Also consider

• Mathematics in a Postmodern Age - Here is a review about it on MAA website.
• Also while finding links for this list I came across another interesting article about the goal of mathematics education.

To answer the question asked in the comment below, I'd recommend looking at especially the first lesson of the Kuyers Maths project. It gives the quotes and allows the students to think through the implication.

ACSI trip

Thursday & Friday was fall break. I didn't know how all the details of this weekend (that began on Thursday) would work out, but I'd say God worked it out wonderfully.

Thursday morning: I played golf for the first time in about 15 year at the Covenant Classic. (I had actually played varsity golf in high school, but when you need to pay to play, I found other things to do. Disc golf anyone?) It was a beautiful morning in the 40s. I played with Tim Walters and his son. He runs Team Sports, a great place to get shirts and such for your sports team, and he used to teach math with me at Covenant Christian High School. I had a wonderful time playing at an impressive course, Heartland Crossing Golf Links.

I got back home a little before the family got back from their time at home school group. My wife is teaching a science course inspired by Rough Science. We headed up to South Bend around 1:30 were I was to speak at the ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) Teacher Conference.

Thursday afternoon: On the way up we saw a sign for Grissom Air Museum in Peru, IN. Since we got there 15 minutes before it was to close we just visited the gift shop and looked at the airplanes through the fence. I was reminded of another Indiana air museum we had visited in the past which inspired the name for this blog. We would have loved more time, but we headed back up the road. The kiddies were starting to get hungry and we saw a sign for Amish Acres in Nappanee, IN.

After eating one of the best meals in my life, and looking around for a while, I understood better what I had read about Amish Acres being one of the top 100 places to visit in your life. Before departing we played a ring game that was outside near the parking lot. It was a great physics game, in that you use the conservation of energy to pull back a metal ring on a long string, release it so that it has a near zero translational velocity near the hook affixed to the wood post. It took several tries, but some of us got the hang of it.


Friday morning: I left around 6:30 with one of our school administrators to the convention. I'll write more about the "Six ways, yea seven, that Scripture is integral to our math and science classes" paper that I presented later. I praise God that the speaker before me allowed me to use his projector. When we were about 3 hours from home I realized that this conference probably wouldn't supply such things. We also realized that we had left one of our pieces of luggage at home. So everyone got to get a new toothbrush and only some of the kids had their swim suits. The little ones enjoyed swimming with Mrs. Kurtz, Covenant's freshman English, since Mom and Dad didn't have their suits. Yes, several teachers from my school stayed at the Country Inn and Suites with lovely Read & Return program that we got to enjoy on our trip to Florida.

While I was gone, my wife took the children to the some Kids Health Works Museum, which was actually a block from the Century convention center. They said that it was similar to the one they had gone to in Nashville last summer (If you want a laugh, you've got to read that story on my wife's blog), but only one level instead of six.



After seeing everything there was to see there, they went to the South Bend Chocolate Factory (Again, my wife has some nice stories about that adventure.).

Friday afternoon: My session was from 11:45-12:35. The conference was over about that time, so I went out to wait on the corner for my family to find me. A little after 1p.m. the big white van pulls up with a load of happy faces who had chocolate and other confectionery samples for lunch.
On our way out of town we stopped by Potato Creek State Park. We were disappointed that the Nature Center was closed, but the Meadow Maze was a delight. Notice the seven year-old still wearing the hair net from the chocolate tour. A nearby playground made the 5 & 7 year-old think they were in Brown County State Park. Last weekend we had gone on our first ever family camping-in-tents adventure. This church camp out ended with two of our children throwing up. But overall it was such a great time, that if my wife didn't have to work all day Saturday and our oldest daughter wasn't taking a Safe Sitter class (she is looking for jobs if anyone needs an experienced and trained sitter), I had hoped to camp out at Potato Creek State Park so that we could spend part of the day there on Saturday to work on earning a patch/pin with the new Connect, Discover, Explore program that our Department of Natural Resources has started.

On Saturday we went to the Hendrick County Fairgrounds to enjoy a BBQ dinner and listen to Governor Daniels. The kids had a great time and my wife didn't have to worry about dinner. As I was driving the family to church I heard my 5 year-old boy and 7 year-old daughter talking about the coming election in the back of the van. One said, "John McCain." The other replied, "I like old people. I like John McCain." Then at lunch they were talking, and the boy said, "What's that other guy's name?" The girl replied, "Barack." "Oh yeah, I hope Barack Obama only gets 5 votes, and John McCain gets one hundred thousand million." I'm not sure were they learned even who is running for president. On the drive home from church this evening my wife asked him where he had learned about John McCain and the kindergartener said, "I heard about it on the TV and radio." I think one of his older sisters had been trying to explain what's going on. He went on to give the kindergarten commentary of "I'm scared if Barack Obama becomes president. He kills babies. John McCain likes babies. I hope John McCain wins."