This is a beginning of an “extensional definition,” that is, definition by naming many examples, of multiplication and multiplicative reasoning. I would like to thank members of Math-Teach forum (1, 2, 3) for a productive ongoing discussion!
See also: Family Multiplication Study.
Shirky: “The internet runs on love.”
Shirky’s message is summed up in the subtitle of his “Here comes everybody” book:
The power of organizing without organizations
Definition: social mathematics is mathematics organized primarily by network means, without organizations.
As I now realize, some of the examples in my Social Math: Where? slide show don’t strictly satisfy this definition. They exist because of organization-run events, like classes.
Some mathematical definitions seem ridiculous to the general public. Consider a set operation called Inclusion Map. Here is one silly-looking definition!
Definition: Inclusion Map
Given a subset B of a set A,
the injection f: B –> A
defined by f(b)=b
for every b that is a member of B.
This definition seems to describe a function that does not do anything whatsoever, in fancy terms. What is it for?!
March is the Disability Awareness Month, which I did not know until the good people in CVS announced their Caremark program and blogging contest. The way a society treats every member, in all the diversity of styles and abilities, is the reflection of its humanistic advancement.
Math is often used inhumanely. Many people see math as an abstract torture tool, because it repeatedly causes them mental anguish. No less frequently, math is used as a gatekeeper, a way to prevent large groups of people from access to careers or programs that often have nothing to do with the entrance test’s mathematics. This is not right, and we need to solve these problems.
I thought more people hate math than love math. However, Google search says otherwise! The phrase “love math” returns 449,000 hits and the phrase “hate math” returns 145,000 hits. So, about three times as many math love as math hate! More love than hate is good, but how does math compare to other human endeavors?
Love math = 449,000 Hate math = 145,000 Love/hate ratio = 3.09
Love physics = 42,400 Hate physics = 15,500 Love/hate ratio = 2.74
Fewer people express their emotions about physics, and also the emotions are slightly more even than math emotions. How about chemistry?
Love chemistry = 83,300 Hate chemistry = 14,800 Love/hate ratio = 5.63
Among those who expressed their feelings, chemistry has a stronger popularity ratio than math or physics.
However, sciences lag incredibly far behind some of the arts. Consider:
Love music = 14,000,000 Hate music = 268,000 Love/hate ratio = 52.24
About thirty times more people confessed love to music than love to math, while there are about the same number of math and music haters.
“Mathematics love” by *keng
This is a growing slide show with examples of social mathematics web projects. It goes with a study of children participation in social math. If you know more good examples, please comment. Click on the “menu” in the lower right corner of the presentation to embed it into your blog or site.
Trackbacks
Connectivism in Education ning: “How about creative writing? We were taught to write creatively even when we were young. So can we have creative Maths?”
Great Expectations blog: “An excellent collection of math-rich sites built around user-generated content,are found in the form of a slideshow presentation,compiled by Maria D of natural math blog.”
Bizmo Diaries blog: “If you think math is boring, maybe you’re not being “social” enough. Think of math as a contact sport — doesn’t have to mean rough, although when life gets that way, math can help sometimes (or call it computing).”
LETSI - learning, education, training and systems interoperability blog: “Social Mathematics. I mean, that’s just one of those areas that makes my head turn in ways I never thought it could turn. Maria’s got me pegged — even as a former math teacher, and a person who “sees the Matrix” with regularity ( // I nerd out when it comes to programming, logic and math), the picture in my head of social learning is largely driven by practices in social media — and they are almost entirely language/narrative-based scenarios.”
Mathematics 24×7 ning: “Earlier I was also under this impression that children cannot do or learn Math outside Math classroom, but after experimenting with them and with selected projects I really found it useful . On students network they ask queries, answer to assignments by uploading their presentations/files etc. I have seen a positive impact on students who are shy in asking problems in a class. I have used blog/wiki/podcast features in my Math class for not only teaching learning Math but also eradicating a phobia of learning the subject.”
Algebra is the study of patterns, structures and changes in them.
The language of algebra includes representations such as symbols, graphs, tables, and words that describe mathematical models of situations.
You can edit this map freely: it’s a wiki-map. Click on the MindMeister icon to edit. I have no idea what people will do with it.
Today, Katya (10) and I looked at this SAT problem:
The square of the result of adding 7x and y is equal to the result of subtracting the square roof of 4x from y.
Which of the following is an equation for the statement above?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Katya knew all the ideas involved, but it took us some half an hour to work through their names and symbols, connecting our private math language to the standard language of SAT mathematics. We drew some squares, messed with powers, joked about Ancient Greeks saying everything in words, colored the text to help translate it and in general had a jolly good time. At the end, the very elated Katya said: “At first, this problem looked very scary and did not make any sense, but now I can quickly understand every part.” I replied with a reference to a “Babylon V” episode we watched a couple of days ago.
I need your help to research an urgent question: is math lagging behind other human endeavors on the social web? If you can, please distribute this to blogs, mailing lists and other forums.
The goal is to collect answers from at least two hundred parents or teachers of children who are active on the social web. Some examples of social web sites include: blogs, wikis, nings, email groups, multi-player online games, forums, Facebook, My Space, Twitter, Flickr, and Youtube. The purpose of this study is to investigate how much math can be found in the user-generated content on the web, that is, pictures, videos, texts, software and other entities created by children as they participate in the social sites. The social web has led to an explosion in authoring, empowering our children as never before. Does it empower them in mathematics as well? Let’s find out!
Copy and paste these questions to answer them:
To participate, post answers to the Natural Math blog post at:
http://www.naturalmath.com/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=88888917&p=88,
or email them to Dr. Maria Droujkova at droujkova@gmail.com,
or reply wherever you find these questions posted.
You can see study progress updates and some examples of social mathematics in comments at the study post on the Natural Math blog.
Thank you in advance!
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