A sock came back from "the other side" Entry #97 19 Dec 2016 7:15 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments I had four pairs of compression socks per my doctor's suggestion so that circulation in my legs would be better. They are not cheap, but do they make me more comfortable as they keep down the swelling. Several months ago one of the socks went over to "the other...
"I don't ask questions any more . . . Entry #96 13 Dec 2016 12:49 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments . . . because I don't like the answers I get." That is what a woman of a certain age said to the receptionist at the doctor's office today while I was waiting in the waiting room. I got to thinking about what causes us "not to ask...
The real meaning of what we produce and do Entry #95 13 Dec 2016 2:02 am Brian Winkel 0 comments Tonight my wife and I attended a lecture performance on Dimitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 as a part of the “What Makes It Great” series offered by Rob Kapilow at the Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. We tend to shy away from twentieth century music because of it...
Issues of coverage raised all the time Entry #94 08 Dec 2016 12:03 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments We recently re-examined the 3" by 5" feedback cards we collected from attendees at our JMM 2016 SIMIODE Open House and we share them with our thoughts with you. Under the theme "Issues to Overcome" we found the following: How do you fit it in? What do you drop? Do...
Students generating examples Entry #93 02 Dec 2016 12:46 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments In the current (15 November 2016) posting of the MAA Teaching Tidbits Blog, Dana Ernst, Northern Arizona University, writes, “Who generates the examples?” Dana is suggesting that students can demonstrate their knowledge very well by creating examples and problems. He...
Let go and take risks Entry #92 02 Dec 2016 12:30 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments "Let go and take risks." Advice we give our students on occasion, advice our parents suggested to us (sometimes in frustration and with anxiety), and advice we need to take ourselves. As professors we are always doing just that, "professing." This is a kind of preaching...
PoincarĂ© and the Subconscious Entry #91 27 Nov 2016 6:06 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments This week I had reason to refer to Poincaré and the Subconscious. Of course, Henri Poincaré was one of the last polymaths who was good at all area of mathematics. He lived in the last half of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century. Poincaré believed in...
Life lessons from differential equations Entry #90 17 Nov 2016 4:45 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments John D. Cook, who maintains a rich blog on things mathematical at http://www.johndcook.com/blog on Solving Hard Problems with the motto “Singular Value Consulting” posted the following material on 23 July 2015. Life lessons from differential equations Ten life lessons from...
SIMIODE Needs Support Entry #89 14 Nov 2016 11:34 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments For several years now SIMIODE has been fully supported by one family with some help earlier this year from COMAP. We have now realized we need to broaden that base of support and so we have applied for and been grated 501(c)3 NonProfit Educational Organization status by the IRS. This permits us,...
Intellectual Mathematics - Now There's a Grabber Title Entry #88 12 Nov 2016 11:35 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments Intellectual Mathematics is a website written and run by Viktor Blåsjö of Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He has a keen sense of what should be important in teaching undergraduate mathematics. He has a Blog with very interesting ideas in convincing prose. There is...
Every great how needs a great why and not the other way. Entry #87 02 Nov 2016 9:20 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments In a TV advertisement for nicotine patch to help quit smoking there is the phrase, " Every great why needs a great how." We got to thinking in this world of flipping things, classrooms and pancakes, that it really should read "Every great how needs a great why." That is what...
Biking into Trees with SIMIODE T-shirt Entry #86 26 Oct 2016 2:59 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments We have news from SIMIODE member, Tim Pennings. He is the author of a way cool article, “Do dogs know calculus?” about his little dog Elvis which was published in the College Mathematics Journal in 2003 (34(3): 178-182). Here is the abstract, “In all calculus books...
SIAM Conference on Applied Mathematics Education Meeting Presentaitons Available Entry #85 20 Oct 2016 10:31 am Brian Winkel 0 comments The SIAM Conference on Applied Mathematics Education took place September 30 – October 2, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Presentations from select sessions at the SIAM Conference on Applied Mathematics Education (ED16) and the Conference on Mathematics of Planet Earth (MPE16) are now...
Applied Mathematics in MAA Journal Mathematics Magazine Entry #84 20 Oct 2016 10:14 am Brian Winkel 0 comments Mike Jones is the Editor of the MAA journal Mathematics Magazine. In a lunch conversation yesterday with Mike he noted that the magazine is looking for articles of an applied mathematics nature. While each of the five issues published in a year contain very rich and interesting mathematics the...
A Three-Fold Approach to the Heat Equation: Data, Modeling, Numerics Entry #83 13 Oct 2016 11:37 am Brian Winkel 0 comments James Puckett and Kimberly Spayd have authored a wonderful article in the current issue of PRIMUS with full citation: Spayd, K. and J. Puckett. 2016. A Three-Fold Approach to the Heat Equation: Data, Modeling, Numerics. PRIMUS. 26(10): 938-951. The abstract to begin says it all with respect to...
Math Insight - A Place To Be Entry #82 19 Sep 2016 12:58 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments Probably like many of you, we wander around the Internet looking for good things mathematically and pedagogically. Once in a while we stumble across a real gem and Math Insight is such a gem. The group describes itself this way, "The Math Insight web site contains both narrative pages...
What are the effects of mathematics education research - one study's results Entry #81 16 Sep 2016 12:43 pm Brian Winkel 1 comments Way back in March 2016 there appeared a very interesting article, “Can Math Education Research Improve the Teaching of Abstract Algebra,” in the Notices of the American Mathematics Society. Here is complete citation: Fukawa-Connelly, Tim, Estralla Johnson, and Rachel Keller....
In mathematics when you're right you know you're right. Entry #80 11 Sep 2016 11:45 am Brian Winkel 0 comments Adam Kirsch reviews Anthony Gottlieb's new book, The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy, published by Liveright/Norton in 2016 in the 5 September 2016 issue of The New Yorker. Kirsch says in his review, “Descartes described reality in terms of qualities that can be...
Checking out what is on the other side of the fence Entry #79 06 Sep 2016 8:28 am Brian Winkel 0 comments As I wander the internet looking for colleagues who are doing modeling in differential equations I stumble upon lots, I mean lots, of peripheral or related materials. One type of material is what I would call review material or prep materials for cognate courses. Often, these are notes on...
Mathematics grips the world through differential equations. Entry #78 05 Sep 2016 11:48 pm Brian Winkel 0 comments Andrew Gleason, that wonderful member of our mathematics community, who taught at Harvard for so many years and led the successful calculus reform effort there said, "Mathematics grips the world through differential equations." Dan Flath of Macalester College shared that in his rich...