[Edu-sig] K12 Open Minds Reminder - Sessions announced!

[kirby urner]

Thanks for writing Gintautas, and so wonderful to hear from Vilnius,
such a beautiful city...

I'm  making some headway with this Python Briefing component, here's
some cut and paste from the shell:

>>> from pysqlite2 import dbapi2 as sqlite
>>> con = sqlite.connect("gnugeom")
>>> cur = con.cursor()
>>> results  = cur.execute("select greekname, volume from Polyhedra")
>>> results.fetchall()
[(u'Tetrahedron', 1), (u'Hexahedron', 3), (u'Octahedron', 4),
(u'Rhombic Dodecahedron', 6), (u'Cuboctahedron', 20)]

The related Vectors and Facets tables contain the details for
populating Python string.Templates to give POV-Ray, X3D/VRML (and
other) output formats, per my talk in Vilnius last year:

http://www.4dsolutions.net/presentations/connectingthedots.pdf (3.2 MB
-- slides 24 - 27 especially).

My default volumes column may raise some eyebrows, as geometry
teachers aren't used to those wholesome whole volume numbers,
non-standard in K-12 textbooks -- but then they don't teach SQL
either, which is why this is called GnuMath i.e. it's not just the
usual stuff.

Here's my .sql for that Polyhedra table, pretty sparse at the moment
but sufficient for prototyping:

CREATE TABLE Polyhedra (
	greekname TEXT,
	shortname TEXT,
	vertices NUMERIC,
	edges NUMERIC,
	faces NUMERIC,
	volume NUMERIC);

INSERT INTO polyhedra VALUES ('Tetrahedron','tetra',4,6,4,1);
INSERT INTO polyhedra VALUES ('Hexahedron','cube',8,12,6,3);
INSERT INTO polyhedra VALUES ('Octahedron','octa',6,12,8,4);
INSERT INTO polyhedra VALUES ('Rhombic Dodecahedron','cell',14,24,12,6);
INSERT INTO polyhedra VALUES ('Cuboctahedron','cubocta',12,24,14,20);

A mini-course outline wherein this segment might fit, as a hands on activity:

Tetrahedron
24 A Modules
  angles and edges
  plane net
More Polyhedra
  vertices, edges, faces (OFF files)
  V + F = E + 2 (Euler)
A & B Modules

Just to translate a little:  an A module is 1/24th of a regular
tetrahedron as defined by its center of volume, a face center,
mid-edge, and vertex.  12 left handed and 12 right handed build the
shape.  As and Bs together build all the shapes in our table, plus 2
As and 1 B build the MITE, a minimum space-filling shape (irregular
tetrahedral).  Again, this is not especially familiar nomenclature in
today's high schools, which my company 4dsolutions exploits as a
marketing advantage (we're not just doing what everyone else is
doing).  http://www.grunch.net/synergetics/modules.html

Kirby


On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 10:41 AM, Gintautas Miliauskas <gintas at akl.lt> wrote:
> Hello,
>
>> If you find anyone pounding the podium about SQL pre-college, hooked
>> with Venn Diagrams etc., maybe put them in touch with me?  Even better
>> if they're using Python for hands-on, with SQLite or whatever.
>
> FWIW, I am planning a lesson or two on SQL (presented in contrast to
> Python standard objects/lists/loops) for 12th grade pupils.  The
> material probably will not be useful for anyone else though -- it's in
> Lithuanian.
>
> I would be very interested in a set of exercises, solutions to which
> would preferably not be trivially findable on the web.  Any visual help
> (diagrams, etc.) would save time too.  Those things do take some time to
> prepare.
>
> Best regards,
> --
> Gintautas Miliauskas
> Vilnius Lyceum
>
>