1. Math is NOT a Four Letter Word November 12, 2005 David Rock drock@umassd.edu The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

2. The Straight Line of Wonder Mem Fox 1997

3. Dinner Party Why is it acceptable to be “BAD” in math? Is it acceptable to be “BAD” in other subjects as well? Perception can really become reality. MATH has become a “BAD” word.

4. Is MATH a Four Letter Word? Examine four letter words that impact teaching and learning mathematics. How can we change perception? What can you do to help?

5. NCLB No Child Left Behind? Is this a “Good” or “Bad” word? Where does Florida stack up against the rest of the country on math testing?

6. NAEP National Assessment of Educational Progress The NAEP assessments provide current information for the nation and include students from both public and private schools at grades 4, 8, and 12. Results from NAEP long-term trend assessments of mathematics proficiency indicate that the scores of 9- and 13-year-old students were higher in 2004 than in 1973. For White, Black, and Hispanic 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds, average mathematics scale scores were higher in 2004 than in 1973. The 2003 main NAEP assessment of states found that mathematics proficiency varied widely among public school eighth-graders in the 53 participating jurisdictions. Overall, 67 percent of these eighth-grade students performed at or above the Basic level in mathematics, and 27 percent performed at or above the Proficient level. Mississippi and the District of Columbia had significantly fewer than 50 percent of students performing at least at the Basic level in math. Where does Florida rank compared to the US?

7. NAEP Results Grade 8 Florida Rank 62% scored Basic or above (37 th ) 23% scored Proficient or above. (36 th ) 4% scored Advanced. (29 th ) Massachusetts Rank 38% scored Proficient or above. (2 nd ) Mississippi Rank 12% scored Proficient or above. (49 th ) US average 67% scored Basic or above. 27% scored Proficient or above. 5% scored Advanced.

8. NAEP Results Grade 4 Florida Rank 31% scored Proficient or above. (26 th ) Massachusetts Rank 41% scored Proficient or above. (3 rd ) Mississippi Rank 17% scored Proficient or above. (48 th ) US average 31% scored Proficient or above. (36 th )

9. A is for Axis Coordinate plane (Rene Descartes 1596 – 1650) x-axis – horizontal axis y-axis – vertical axis Real Axis Imaginary Axis What is the plural of Axis? Axes

10. B is for Beta Second letter in the Greek Alphabet Nickname of Eratosthenes (ca 276 - 194 BC) Native of Cyrene Correctly measured the diameter of the Earth to within a few hundred miles Known for his Sieve which is used to find prime numbers less than a given number.

11. Sieve of Eratosthenes 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

12. Cube a rectangular solid in which each face is a square and each edge is of the same length a regular polyhedron one of the Platonic Solids Platonic solids were a tribute to Plato who used them as metaphors type of root such as 64 = 4 3 Ice What is the name of this polyhedron? hexahedron

13. Deci or Deca Metric prefixes Deci means one tenth Deca means ten Deca is also spelled Deka Decimeter is abbreviated dm Decameter is abbreviated dam In case you were wondering, a dam is a little less than 11 yds By the way, when was the last time you used these metric units of measure?

14. Even a number divisible by two 2, 4, 6, 8, … balanced number of elements in two sets point at which you have paid off your debts to another teacher By the way Cosine is an even function because Cos(45) = Cos(-45)

15. Flip A move of a figure over a line of reflection Also called a reflection where size and shape of the figure remain the same. Summersault Dive Coin toss

16. Giga Gigabyte (GB) Really BIG!! Computer Lingo One Kilobyte KB = 2 10 (1024) about a thousand Bytes One Megabyte MB = 2 20 (1,048,576) about a million Bytes One Gigabyte GB = 2 30 about a billion Bytes What comes next? Terabyte = 2 40 about a trillion Bytes

17. Half In the 1920s, the term sawbuck became popular. The Roman numeral X resembles the ends of a sawhorse. Therefore a ten dollar bill was called a sawbuck. A twenty dollar bill was called a doublesaw. A five dollar bill was called: a half-saw. By the way, what is 10 divided by a half?

18. Inch A customary unit of length in the US. How many centimeters are in one inch? 12 inches in one foot 36 inches in one yard One inch is about one knuckle By the way, is every other country metric?

19. Just Why do I have to do my homework? Just because I said so Why do you multiply by the reciprocal when dividing fractions? Just because it works What is 2 the first prime number and not one? Just because that is the way it is.

20. Kite Quadrilateral in which there are two pair of consecutive congruent sides Are all kites rhombi? Are all rhombi kites? Is Kite really a term used in geometry?

21. Line Set of all points that form a straight path extending indefinitely in two directions Line Graph Line Segment Line of reflection Line of symmetry Intersecting, parallel, and perpendicular Line of sight End of the Line: the point at which a teacher’s nerves are fried By the way, is notebook paper lined paper or line segmented paper?

22. Mean Measure of Central tendency Also know as average Arithmetic mean: the sum of all values divided by the number of values Did you know about Geometric Mean: the square root of the product of two numbers. The Geometric mean of 4 and 9 is the square root of 36 or 6. Usually lumped with MODE and median. Also the demeanor of most math teachers

23. Null None Nothing Empty set Answer when dividing by zero Hypothesis (H 0 ) Null angle or zero angle The answer to a math problem when you do not know the answer (null set)

24. Odds The reason why the first math books were written Chance of winning the lottery is NONE! Odds 54,000,000 to one Reason to burn your money Opposite of evens If one bird is called a goose, what is a group of geese called? If One math teacher is ODD, then a group of math teachers would be called ODDS

25. Plus Addition Symbol for addition Positive Opposite of negative Better than a B, a B+ More than What does infinity plus one equal?

26. Counting vs Whole The counting numbers consist of what numbers? The whole numbers consist of what numbers? Which set has more elements, counting numbers or whole numbers? What is infinity plus one?

27. Quad Prefix for FOUR quadrant quadrangle quadrilateral quadrivium: four of the seven liberal arts in the Middle ages (Geometry, Astronomy, Arithmetic, and Music). The trivium comprised of dialectics, grammar, and rhetoric. Why is x 2 + 6x + 8 = 0 called a quadratic equation?

28. Root Solution One solution to a quadratic equation Square, cube, and n th root Did you know The Egyptians knew how to calculate square roots 4000 years ago? Part of a tree but not STEM just ROOT Arab writers thought of a square number as growing out of a root!

29. Sign or Sine Plus Minus Operation Positive Negative Trigonometric ratio Opposite over hypotenuse Billboard Signature

30. Term Part of an expression 3x - 4 Part of an equation 2x 2 + 6x + 9 = 0 Part of a school year Length of a punishment Vocabulary

31. Unit one first place circle fraction ½, ¼ number price measurement rate

32. Venn Venn Diagrams name after Englishman John Venn (1834 – 1923)

33. Word Problems A man walks into a hardware store and buys: 1 for $1 20 for $2 300 for $3 What is the man buying?

34. X-ray At least I came up with a four letter word!

35. Yard Unit of measure 36 inches 3 feet almost a meter The land surrounding your house

36. ZERO The first whole number. That number you are not supposed to divide by…. Identity element of addition: 3 + 0 = 3 Amount of tolerance we should have for math illiteracy.

37. Cute Little Bookworm There is a three-volume set of books sitting on a shelf. The front and back covers of the books are each one-eighth inch thick. The page section inside each book spans exactly two inches. A cute little bookworm starts eating at page one of volume one and eats, in a straight line, through to the last page of volume three. How far will the little worm travel?

38. Card Tricks are Fun Pick a card and concentrate on that card!

39. It’s Magic! I threw out your card!

40. Web Address www.faculty.umassd.edu/david.rock Visit Seminar Materials E-mail: drockd@umassd.edudrockd@umassd.edu Seminar Materials

41. UMASS Math Contests www.umassd.edu/mathcontest Elementary Brain Teaser For elementary and middle school students Problem of the Week For anyone looking for a tricky math puzzler

42. White House Math Challenge www.whitehouse.org/kids/math Elementary School Middle School High School Open Challenge for all