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Math conferences aren't typically hotbeds of controversy. But add a Harvard-trained civil rights philosopher, a notorious Weather Underground fugitive, and a clutch of young, idealistic math teachers, and you have a banner-waving radical math convention—not to mention a formula for backlash. Creating Balance in an Unjust World, slated for April 27 through 29 in Brooklyn, is fronted by hotshot lefty math icons Bob Moses—founder of the Algebra Project, a math program for inner-city and rural students—and Bank Street College of Education adjunct professor Cathy Wilkerson, who's fortunately not teaching chemistry. (In 1970, Wilkerson and a pack of fellow Weather Underground...

The rules of algebraic functions do not vary from nation to nation or from state to state. In Indiana and eight other states, the test to measure students’ comprehension of those rules will no longer vary. Yes, it’s a step toward national academic standards. And yes, it makes sense for Indiana students to demonstrate understanding of mathematical concepts that are the same in Bangalore and Bluffton, Newark and New Haven. Indiana is among the first nine states that will participate in end-of-course testing for.......................

The Math Genius Who Gave Us Sudoku By AMY ELLIS NUTT   Leonhard Euler's math discoveries extend to astronomy, ballistics, optics, music theory, fluid dynamics, mapmaking, shipbuilding — and Sudoku.     In the spring of 1727, two weeks after the body of Isaac Newton was laid to rest in London's Westminster Abbey, an obscure 19-year-old mathematician by the name of Leonhard Euler left his home in Basel, Switzerland, to take up an academic position in St. Petersburg, Russia.When he died there in 1783 at the age of 76, Euler (pronounced "oiler'') had become the most prolific scientific writer in...

"UN Report Proves Canada Must Act Now On Climate Change," trumpeted the headline of a Liberal party press release on Friday, timed to correspond with the release of yet another alarmist UN summary on climate change. "Canada must act aggressively now to avert the destructive consequences of climate change," the Liberals insisted. "Canada must be ready for a carbon-constrained future," said party leader Stephane Dion. "Human beings can't continue to use the atmosphere as an unlimited and free dump ? It is within our power to prevent the worst of the effects of climate change." This, of course, marks the...

This is a story about love. About inscrutable complexity and remarkable simplicity, about the promise of forever. It is about obsession and devotion, and grand gestures and 4,000-word love letters. It is about a curious group of people with an almost religious zeal for a mind-numbing string of numbers. Actually one number, made up of a chain that is known — so far — to be more than one trillion digits long. They are the acolytes of the church of pi.....

More than 20,000 high school graduates annually enter the California State University system needing remedial work in English or math, according to the Annual Report on College Readiness presented today to the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach. The number of unprepared students entering CSU remained constant this academic year, not budging from previous levels. In fall 2006, 37 percent of entering freshmen were not proficient in mathematics, reflecting a decline of 1 percent from 2005. The report found that 45 percent were not proficient in English, the same level as the previous year. CSU officials say there...

Georgia’s State Superintendent of Schools, Kathy Cox, has imposed a dramatically changed high school math curriculum without properly reviewing it with teachers and parents. She is replacing the traditional structure (algebra I & II, geometry, Trig, Calculus with Math 1, Math 2, and Math 3). Her new mandate may be well intended–but the devil’s in the details. Problem #1: Forcing all students to be “average” There are currently four math tracks available to high school students. They vary in difficulty to accommodate a broad range of math abilities. Under Cox’s proposed change, freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will now only have...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Magnificently sophisticated geometric patterns in mediaeval Islamic architecture indicate their designers achieved a mathematical breakthrough 500 years earlier than Western scholars, scientists said on Thursday. By the 15th century, decorative tile patterns on these masterpieces of Islamic architecture reached such complexity that a small number boasted what seem to be "quasicrystalline" designs, Harvard University's Peter Lu and Princeton University's Paul Steinhardt wrote in the journal Science. Only in the 1970s did British mathematician and cosmologist Roger Penrose become the first to describe these geometric designs in the West. Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose...

"Reform math", sometimes called "fuzzy math" or "rainforest math",is taught in the vast majority of public schools even though it is a demonstrable failure. While those of us who follow k-12 education can tell you that these curricula cripple children and are a threat to our economy and national security, this brief, lucid video by an appalled mom who also has a local TV job makes the point very effectively by showing a small part of what the problem is. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI By the way, note that McDermott fails to point out that the even the alternative...

Math pop quiz stumps Randi BY ERIN EINHORN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Talk about a high-stakes test. The radio audience was live and the question for teachers union president Randi Weingarten involved sixth-grade math: "What's 1/3rd plus 1/4th?"... Mike Pesca, who was filling in for Lehrer, introduced the show's education topic by saying American college grads can't do basic math while high school grads in Canada and middle-schoolers in India have no trouble. After Weingarten stumbled, another guest quickly produced the correct answer: 7/12ths, leaving Weingarten to explain herself.

As it usually does, the fall season brought another shower of blue-ribbon reports about the sorry state of American education. You could hear the cluck-clucking and tut-tutting from one coast to the other. But two reports in particular caught my eye, one for what it didn't say and one for what it did, boldly. Strangest of all, both reports came out of sectors of the education establishment that are not accustomed to self-criticism. The first was the work of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which issued a paper calling for "more coherence (in) the very diverse mathematics curricula...

AUSTRALIA'S ability to win contracts for drug research trials, logistics and other high-tech causes is at risk due to a looming shortage of mathematicians, a new report has warned. An Australian Academy of Science review released today says underinvestment in maths and statistics is jeopardising the competitiveness of Australian industry and could see Australia become a low-end provider.

It appears Verizon is unable to tell the difference between 1 dollar and 1 cent. This is a hilarious clip of a customer service request where a person is repeatedly quoted .002 cents then billed .002 dollars. No one at verizon can figure out that .002 cents is not .002 dollars. audio clip enjoy the laugh.

A watchdog committee at Westminster has said the Goverment isn`t tackling the underperformance of Protestant pupils urgently enough. The committee has sent the Department of Education an end of term report. It grades the department on what it has done to lift exam results in loyalist areas. The verdict: could do a lot better. GCSE Maths: Appalling performance; literacy and numeracy: progress manifestly unsatisfactory. In fact the latter criticism applies across Northern Ireland. The Public Accounts Committe reports that one in five pupils leaves school here without being able to read and write properly. But though concerned with the broad...

Hyperbolic space is an unimaginable concept, unless you're a Latvian mathematician who's handy with needle and yarn. ___ On a Thursday night in Ithaca, New York, Daina Taimina, an ebullient blond mathematician at Cornell University, sits at her kitchen table with her husband, David Henderson, a Cornell professor of geometry. In front of her sits a big Chinese bowl filled with crinkled forms made of gray, blue, red, and purple yarn. Reaching into the bowl, Taimina pulls out a woozy multicolored surface, the likes of which would have delighted Dr. Seuss. "This is an octagon with a 45 degree angle...

The United States may be the world's biggest consumer of technology, but when it comes to churning out scientists and engineers, American schools and families are not generating enough interest, educators say. "We are behind the eight ball right now because other nations are competitive and pushing hard," said JoAnn DiGennaro, president of the Center for Excellence in Education, a McLean nonprofit that promotes science and technology education. Why aren't American students pursuing degrees in science and technology?

SEATTLE — For the second time in a generation, education officials are rethinking the teaching of math in American schools. The changes are being driven by students’ lagging performance on international tests and mathematicians’ warnings that more than a decade of so-called reform math — critics call it fuzzy math — has crippled students with its de-emphasizing of basic drills and memorization in favor of allowing children to find their own ways to solve problems.

WASHINGTON (AP) Kids who are turned off by math often say they don't enjoy it, they aren't good at it and they see little point in it. Who knew that could be a formula for success? The nations with the best scores have the least happy, least confident math students, says a study by the Brookings Institution's Brown Center on Education Policy. Countries reporting higher levels of enjoyment and confidence among math students don't do as well in the subject, the study suggests. The results for the United States hover around the middle of the pack, both in terms of...

Report: Happy Students Do Worse In MathPOSTED: 9:26 am EDT October 18, 2006 WASHINGTON -- Kids who are turned off by math often say they don't enjoy it, they aren't good at it and they see little point in it. Who knew that could be a formula for success? The nations with the best scores have the least happy, least confident math students, says a study by the Brookings Institution's Brown Center on Education Policy. Countries reporting higher levels of enjoyment and confidence among math students don't do as well in the subject, the study suggests. The results for the...

English and Math. The two staple subjects of our society. Look at the SAT. Half of the questions are verbal and the other half are math. When measuring a student’s college acceptance worthiness, admission offices place a large focus on how well students perform in these two subjects. Statistically, girls outperform boys in English, while boys outperform girls in Math. Seems fair enough; however, a closer look tells a different story. The National Assessment of Educational Progress provides statistics on female versus male performance in reading and math. By the time children reach the age of seventeen, girls outperform boys...