[Edu-sig] Update from Urner

[Kirby Urner]

                   An Update from Urner 
                       May 5, 2000


I've been continuing my web-based curriculum writing projects, 
which these days focus on the interface between traditional 
text book approaches and the newer technologies.[1]

For example, I've continued to explore the useful Python + 
Povray synergy, using Python to implement vector algebra in a 
way to drives a back-end ray tracer.  Both of these packages 
are freeware, as is my source code showing how one might 
accomplish this union.[2]

Part of my mission is to find ways to take advantage of the 
computer's ability to get us off the XY plane and into space.  
Polyhedral geometry is typically "back of the book" type stuff 
in high school these days, and kids rarely get to it.

That's unfortunate, from my point of view, because a lot of 
curriculum innovations that most excite me (e.g. the concentric 
hiearchy + sphere packing synergy) don't really become relevant 
unless we're already in a spatial/volumetric context.  

On the AMTE listserv I talked about "buckyballs as my canary 
in a mine shaft" test as to whether a curriculum is "in synch" 
enough with the real world.

Like, if K-12 math teachers aren't prepared to take advantage 
of buckyballs-in-the-news (e.g. on March 21 of this year, when 
NASA came out with its "buckyballs riding the dino-killer
asteroid" hypothesis/evidence -- a potentially very hot topic 
from kid viewpoint (NASA! dinos!)) then we're clearly not yet 
up to par when it comes to polyhedral geometry in the classroom.[3]

From my point of view, the hegemony of TI calculators in math
ed is in some ways more a part of the problem than part of 
the solution.  It's not that I have anything against calculators 
(although I always preferred HP's RPN calculators to the TIs), 
but I do consider them a somewhat artificial stopping point, 
a plataeu in the evolution of math education, not the final 
frontier.  

Calculators are useful because they're cheap and portable, but 
computers are omnipresent in the workplace and essential tools 
for just about all math-science professionals, practitioners of 
the other liberal arts as well.  We need to use them more 
effectively in math ed, I have no doubt about that.

Plus the story of computers, the timeline behind them, is a 
wonderful source of stories, presents opportunities for tying 
together artifacts and thought down through the ages -- kind of 
like Bucky does with maritime technology.  Plus we have some 
female superstars to celebrate along this time line:  e.g.
Ada Byron (first computer programmer) and Grace Hopper (inventor 
of the compiler).  On the Python edu-sig, we're looking for 
ways disspell whatever it is that dooms computers into 
seeming so exclusively like "guy things" (how do we lift the
curse?).

Given my "math teacher as storyteller model" (making the invisible 
visible, as Keith Devlin puts it), I can't see bleeping over 
the opportunity to make connections, to integrate content, 
which computers and computing devices represent (starting with 
the abacus and place value notation).

I regard numeracy and computer literacy as convergent goals.  
As PyGeo's author Arthur Siegel puts it:  "To me, it almost 
takes effort to keep programming out of a math curricula at 
this stage."[4]

My "buckyballs = canary in a mine shaft" equation was originally 
greeted with some derision on AMTE (that's a highly charged 
list, given it's a front lines in the math wars).

One California-based teacher in particular thought I was just 
talking about doing some pretty/fuzzy art projects, didn't 
realize I was into proving some hard facts about omnitri-
angulated polyhedra, or making use of Euler's Law and 
10 f^2 + 2 to connect chemistry to virology to micro/macro 
architecture and nanotech -- using the icosasphere bridge.[5]

This teacher (also initially derisive towards my choice of 
Python as a good learning language) later emailed some more 
positive feedback, but I made the mistake of thinking he 
intended those remarks to be public, and I had to apologize 
publicly for responding to him via the AMTE listserv.[6]  
Like I said, this is a highly charged list (a math wars 
front line).[7]

My curriculum writing is heavily subsidized by other jobs, 
which means I have to juggle my schedule quite a bit -- 
I've had to become pretty lean and mean (as a small 
business) in order to stay on task and above water.

Like, just this week I had to put 14 hours into rescuing 
the Fire Department, City of Vancouver Washington, which 
was drowning in unpurged incident reports -- the T1 pipes 
were clogged, users at a standstill.  Mission accomplished.

Plus I'm rewriting a parser to translate cath lab data, 
obtained at the point of care, into PATS format (PATS = 
Patient Analysis & Tracking System, a MUMPS-based product 
that talks to Windows through a VBX).  And the Oregon Food 
Bank is still on my case re some dino dBase I wrote for 
them years ago... (that's a complicated picture, with 
politics clouding the scenery).

So, back to my jobs.  Stay tuned for more curriculum 
writing as time/energy permits.

Note:  I think American Lit might be my next focus area, 
given my math-oriented approach is an uphill battle and 
not getting results quickly enough.  Students will likely 
get exposure to the concentric hierarchy in a more timely 
fashion if we pick up that New England Transcendentalist 
thread (Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller...).  Nevermind 
if it looks more like lit than like math -- we can always 
explain that philosophy is the interface between these 
two (has been for a long time).

Kirby Urner
Curriculum writer
Oregon Curriculum Network
http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/

Notes:

[1] Most recent curriclum writing is: "Computing with Curves"
    http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/catenary.html

[2] Vector algebra using Python + Povray
    http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/numeracy1.html
    also http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/oop.html for
    more background (including w/ other languages)

[3] http://mathforum.com/epigone/amte/kingchedwo

[4] http://www.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2000-May/000400.html

[5] http://mathforum.com/epigone/k12.ed.math/stitulveh
    note erratum:
    http://mathforum.com/epigone/k12.ed.math/dwayclingquul

[6] http://mathforum.com/epigone/amte/parsnyproi
    (see my Apr 14 reply to Greg Goodknight -- and this isn't 
    my only screw-up regarding private/public relations)

[7] http://mathforum.com/epigone/amte/gandphelskah
    http://mathforum.com/epigone/amte/chalskilwhee