Jon Oaks

Author: Jon Oaks

  • A Calculus Christmas

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    Jon Oaks
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    So, I was sick on Christmas and had to spend a majority of the day by myself so that I wouldn't contaminate my family.  That gave me a lot of time to think and surf the Internet.  And since I was feeling in the Christmas spirit, I started poking around Google for Christmas-Themed Calculus Activities.…

  • Mathematics on TV

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    I always get really excited when mathematics is shown on TV.  And I think these TV episodes may bring back some memories for some of you also. Home Improvement Part 1 Home Improvement Part 2 Full House

  • Using Stop Motion Animation in Math

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    So, I just couldn't help myself.  After posting this on Twitter earlier today: "I wonder how using stop motion animation could be used in a math class. I would love seeing some short videos on dev. math and calculus.", I decided to take a look around the web for what I could find out on…

  • Maps and Mathematics

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    Just a couple of ideas that I think are interesting ways to approach the idea of using Maps to teach Mathematics.  I really think that the Map Application is a good away to introduce ordered pairs because students have to find locations such as A1, B2, etc., where there is a distinct order.  If you…

  • Mathematics and Fashion Design

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    At IADT I teach a lot of Fashion Design students and I know that they need to be really good at math for all of the measuring that they have to do for their patterns and whatnot.  However, how to get them engaged in the part of math that isn’t as directly applicable is sometimes…

  • My Bamboo Pen and Touch

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    I'm really excited about my new Bamboo Pen and Touch.  I can tell you one thing:  My students were definitely jealous when I walked into the classroom yesterday and started setting up.  They saw how great it was and they all wanted to try it out and get it themselves — Especially when they realized…

  • Social Learning Environment

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    Today has been a terrific day for the most part.  It was final exam day, but instead of grading exams as the students turned them in (which I probably should have so that they would be done), I spent the day surfing the Internet for new ideas to use for next semester.  And here are…

  • Math Vocabulary Becomes Art

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    I was researching the best way to use maps to introduce the topic of ordered pairs to a beginning algebra class, when I stumbled upon something totally different, and totally unique:  A website called Wordle that takes text and turns it into JAVA created art.  I actually threw the RSS feed for this website into their…

  • Making Math Fun

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    I was having a discussion with someone today about making math more fun, and a few websites popped into my mind that I haven’t shared on here before.  Let me give you a quick rundown of what I think are a few unique resources (all free, of course): Exploring Space Science Mathematics (http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/MathDocs/spacemath.html) – This…

  • Math Comic Strips

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    One point this semester I wanted to have students create comic strips about math.  I tried creating one of my own one morning at 4 AM, but was unsuccessful.  My first attempt at a good one came just a few minutes ago, and I thought that I would post it here for inspiration of what…