I consider popular mathematics writing to be a good thing. I even tried a little myself and would be keen to try more. I am not, however, an expert in this genre. I certainly read popular maths and science books as a teenager and I remember fondly, along with a couple of physics books and…
E-Learning in Mathematical Subjects
In 2005 I was asked to attend a meeting at Nottingham Trent University with some fellow PhD students. I explained my topic, e-learning in university mathematics, to one student who said, “oh, you should go and talk to Mike in Physics; he’s interested in that sort of thing”. When I found him, it turned out…
Paula Swisheer
Paula Swisheer: She literally got her art in my maths!
The sign on my office door
Recently, someone left my office at Newcastle University and a new person took their place, so we needed a new sign on our front door. I wanted to do something clever with it, but it needed to be instantly legible to lost supervisors trying to find their students. My first thought was that since there…
What is mathematics?
This morning on Twitter Tony Mann asked the question: “This morning’s class is “What is Mathematics?” Answers in a tweet please.” Answers were collected via the #MATH1103 hashtag. Some of the answers were what you might expect: patterns, abstraction, order. Stuart Ravn sent a series of tweets giving his views: Math is everything you can…
Shadow Pavilion by PLY Architecture
Shadow Pavilion by PLY Architecture:
Have you used maths in the news in school?
Later this year I am to give a session at a teachers conference on using maths in the news for enriching school maths lessons. In my session, I intend to go over some recent maths news. I would also like to give some real examples of teachers having used some news in class. Samuel Hansen…