Natural Blogarithms

I went out on a limb today.  During my talk that I presented at the ICTCM 2010 conference in Chicago, instead of using a more traditional media supplement to my talk (such as overhead, powerpoint or PDFs), I used Prezi.  Some of you may have heard of it, but most of you probably haven’t.

I discovered it the same way I discover most emerging technologies.  I was listening to TWIT and heard them refer to a tool that they assumed everyone had heard about and everyone was using.  So, as a joiner, I had to run out at play with it.  It certainly was intriguing but a bit flashy for me.  It ranked up there with animations and sound affects in Powerpoint (proper use is rarely or never).

What is Prezi? 

At it’s simplest, it is a zooming presentation editor.  Instead of emphasis on components of your presentation being controlled by slides or by bulleted lists, you emphasize with size and zooming.  There is a good video explanation at prezi.com.

I’m still not sold on it but the attendees of my talk seemed to enjoy it.  One thing I really enjoyed is that is was easy to use and it certainly served as a great “canvas” to map out my talk before I even knew how I was going to structure it.

I have embedded the presentation below if you would like to take a look.  If you can’t see it, visit http://prezi.com/h44djwbxp0ul/

Title of Talk: Developing Online Video Lectures for Online and Hybrid Algebra Courses

Short Description: An approach to deploy a comprehensive lecture video series for Intermediate and College Algebra is presented. This specific approach utilizing tablet technology combined with software for screen recording and for journaling was designed to obtain small video size for relatively low bandwidth online access.

The Prezi:

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading a book that had been recommend in an article I was reading at the MAA website (Mathematical Association of America).  The book was called “The Housekeeper and the Professor” by Yoko Ogawa.

I highly recommend this book as a quick read.  It’s a heartwarming tale that wraps a love of mathematics and a touch of number theory into its narrative.

In this story, an  interesting malady has befallen one of the main characters, referred to throughout as the “professor”.  The story is told by a housekeeper who has come into the employ of the professor through his sister-in-law.  We learn very early on that the professor was involved in a car accident that left him with the ability to only remember that last 80 minutes.

If you’ve seen “50 First Dates” starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler then you’re familiar with this condition, at least as a premise for an interesting tale, and you’re familiar with “10 second Tom”.  To deal with his illness, the professor has taken to pinning important information to his clothing such as the condition that plagues him, the identity of the new housekeeper and her son, and many other day-to-day items.

What is most interesting about the book is how the author ties the professor’s love of numbers and mathematics into his interactions with people he never remembers having met.  The charming tale is built on the ability of the professor to continue his work as a mathematician by solving puzzles published in mathematics journals and how he interacts with the housekeeper and her young son through a common love of Japanese baseball.

Again, I would highly recommend this book for anyone with the even smallest love for mathematics or, perhaps, a mathematician. The only complaint that I have for this book is one that only makes it better for many of the readers of this blog.  The mathematics while intriguing and well explained doesn’t get too deep.  I’m no number theorist but this book inspires me to learn more about the field because the topics dealt with in this book left me wanting more.

Thank you Twitter! 

More specifically, I’m grateful to one of the co-chairs of the ICTCM conference for watching twitter and seeing my lament that I would not be able to attend the conference this year because I didn’t have the travel funds.

On February 11th, I posted:

Still trying to decide if ICTCM is in the cards for me this year. I’m short a couple hundred on travel funds. Bummer.

On February 15th, I received a reply from the co-chair of the conference:

@SplineGuy D option for ICTCM: volunteer 4 hrs get $100 off reg fee, or 8 hrs for free reg. interested, send me DM w email add. I’m co-chair

After a few back-and-forths, I was registered for the conference with fees paid and an accepted abstract for a short talk. I’m very excited to be going. As I said last time I attended ICTCM, I belong at ICTCM!

On Thursday, I’m flying out from Lubbock before 6 AM and arriving in Chicago mid-morning.  That’s a little early for check-in but I’m okay with that.  I’ll nap in their lobby if I have to.  I’m heading back home on Saturday evening.  I’m also looking forward to a tweetup in the hotel lobby on Friday evening around 8:00 PM.  Any tweeps that will be around should come on by. (#ICTCM)

My short talk for ICTCM this year will take place on Friday, March 12 at 10:30 AM.  The short description and abstract that were submitted and accepted are below:

Short Description:

An approach to deploy a comprehensive lecture video series for Intermediate and College Algebra is presented. This specific approach utilizing tablet technology combined with software for screen recording and for journaling was designed to obtain small video size for relatively low bandwidth online access.

Abstract:

In this paper, an approach to deploy a comprehensive lecture video series for Intermediate and College Algebra is presented. The tools employed include Camtastia Studio® for screen recording, video editing and encoding, as well as Microsoft OneNote® with a Wacom Graphire® Tablet for screen writing and lecture note development. An alternative approach providing similar results that uses freeware and open-source software is also described. Extensive testing was done in order to optimize the video encoding, keeping the size of the videos at a minimum. These videos were launched as part of two online algebra courses at Wayland. These techniques have also served to facilitate the development of hybrid courses and to supplement traditional courses. This approach can be easily adapted to most mathematics courses and in the days of “Snowpocalypse” and the H1N1 pandemic, it can serve as a backup when traditional course content may need to be provided online.

As part of the group project that was assigned in my Differential Equations course, students were required to write a project report.  I just wanted to post quickly today that I am significantly impressed with the performance of these students on the assignment provided. 

In preparation for the writing portion of the project, I required the students to read a short essay by Dr. Kevin P. Lee at Purdue University.  I spent almost an entire class going over such important principles as:

• Follow the basic rules of grammar, including the use of expressions and equations.
• Use symbolic notation appropriately.
• Organize your paper.
• Define all variables and formulas.
• Make sure that the paper is readable aloud.
• Use appropriate figures that effectively explain the mathematics.

As I was giving this lecture, I began to realize that I missed out on this kind of instruction at an undergraduate level.  In fact, most of my experience in mathematical writing came only through experience both from reading many, many papers but also from getting my work critiqued by fellow grad students and my graduate instructors.  There was never a time that I was given such specific instructions such as the use of “=” in an equation as a verb.  Or that the paper should be readable aloud even with all the mathematical expressions.

I think I even commented out loud during my lecture that I was jealous of them getting to see this as an undergraduate.  I have assigned writing in many of my classes over the years, particularly in Math Models (a projects course at Wayland).  However, I’ve never spent this much time on instruction on how to write. We also covered the use of the new equation editor available in Word® 2007.  I’m convinced now that it has been worth they time.

In addition to the increased focus on writing in class, I also decided on some effective motivation for the groups.  I made it clear that I didn’t believe that they could produce a quality paper on the first try, since for most of them, this will their first attempt at a mathematics paper. (Can you say reverse psychology?)  I told them I would expect to completely butcher their paper and hand it back for them do over (and over and over, until they got it right). 

However, as a proper incentive I also told them that in the extremely unlikely scenario that one of the groups turns in a “perfect” paper, they could receive a free pass on one of the courses exams.  In other words, they would be allowed to drop the lowest exam grade for the semester.

Honestly, I didn’t expect to have to give out the award, but after a first read on each of their reports, at least one group has a reasonable chance.  I did give them a checklist (provided at the end of Dr. Lee’s essay with a couple of modifications) and I’ll be checking very closely.  Once I’ve finished graded, I intend on posting their papers here on my blog to see what you guys think.

About three weeks ago, I splurged and ordered myself a Kindle 2.  I had bounced back and forth between wanting one and not but finally convinced myself that it was time to add another gadget to my repertoire.  And let me say, I love it!!  To alleviate any guilt over spending that kind of cash on another gadget, I replaced my personal laptop with it and I haven’t regretted that decision for even a minute.

Here’s a short summary of what I’m using it for these days.

1. Reading Books. 
   Duh! I know.  Who would’ve of thought that an ebook reader would work so well for reading books?  I’ve been impressed with just how easy it is on the eyes.  The font size is easily adjustable and there are times when I fill the page with tiny text and times when it is more comfortable on the eyes to have a large print. 

   The first book I read was “A Study In Scarlet” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, first of his Sherlock Holmes novels.  As a huge fan of House (the medical drama on Fox starring Hugh Laurie), I have been intrigued by the incredible similarities between the characters of House/Holmes and Wilson/Watson.  Plus, with the new Sherlock Holmes flick at the movies, I felt it was time to brush up. 

   The best thing about starting with these books is that they are all free!There are a huge number of public domain classics that you can put on your kindle for free and with the Whispernet service included in the Kindle, you don’t even have to plug it into the computer.

   For the record, I have actually purchased two books so far for the Kindle.  The first was “The Complete User’s Guide To the Amazing Amazon Kindle 2: Tips, Tricks, & Links To Unlock Cool Features & Save You Hundreds on Kindle Content (#1 Guide to the Kindle US & Global)” by  Stephen Windwalker.  The second was a Bible (which I’ll go into in more detail later).

2. Lecture Notes. 
   I’ve begun using the Kindle for my lecture notes in all of my courses that I teach.  This was the deciding factor when wavering on whether to buy the Kindle or not.  I was fortunate enough to have a friendly neighbor lend me their Kindle so I could test out the PDF rendering.  Scanning my hand written and occasionally typed up lecture notes is a breeze with the copier at my office.  Once converted to pdf, I just move the files over via USB and the Kindle 2 natively renders the pdf.  As long as I’m careful to scan with the darkness turned all the way up, they are perfectly readable.  It’s extremely convenient to only have to bring my thin little gadget to class in lieu of the 1.5” binder.  Plus, it remembers where I left off.
3. Daily Bible Reading
   Thanks to a free but awesome piece of software called Calibre, I have a daily bible reading downloaded from BibleGateway.com.  I’ve not missed a day since I bought the Kindle.  I’m well into Exodus and wrapping up Matthew.
4. News
   Using the same software, I can also have a USA today news feed prepared daily for my Kindle.  You can subscribe to newspapers and magazines through the Kindle store at Amazon, but cheapskate that I am, I have found a nearly as good solution for free.  Calibre has recipes built-in for several news sources including NYT, WSJ, USA Today and many, many more.  I do have to manually plug in my Kindle each morning to move these “subscriptions” over but the minor inconvenience easily outweighs the cost of these subscriptions on Amazon, in my opinion.
5. Bible
   At first, I did not plan on putting the Bible on the Kindle.  However, the fact that I saw a friend using one in church combined with the fact that you can highlight and insert notes into the Kindle for any book convinced me to give it a try. I did some reading of reviews and found that the NASB by the Lockman Foundation is probably the best choice.  They were smart enough to include the book name with each chapter heading so that you can quickly look up a passage by just typing in the book name and chapter into the built-in search tool on the Kindle.
6. Samples
   Just about every book in the Kindle Store at Amazon has a sample that you can have sent directly to your Kindle.  You can ready a chapter or two and see if the book is really something you are interested in.  You can shop for these books right on the Kindle or through the Amazon website.  When you click to send a sample, it shows up on the device within a matter of seconds.
7. Checking Email/Facebook/Twitter
   The Whispernet service which delivers the books to the device is actually a data network just like I use on my Blackberry, only it’s free!!  I can log into my gmail, facebook, twitter, etc. and check all my stuff out from anywhere I have access to the the mobile network.  I’m pretty sure AT&T provides the service so if my Blackberry works, so does the Kindle.  It’s not a great browser and it’s relatively slow, but it’s still everywhere accessible and occasionally that comes in handy.

I’m aware that Apple’s probably about to announce the next big thing with its “iTablet” and I’m sure it will make a big impact on the world of ebook readers. And yet, I can’t imagine an Apple device that’s going to appeal to me in any way. I can guarantee it will be out of my price range.  I can guarantee that once I had it in my hands, I would be wishing it could run my windows stuff natively and that I could figure out how to get it to do what I want.  I’m not saying that Apple does things worse (or better) than Microsoft, but that I know how to do what I need to do and I don’t have the patience or the mental fortitude to balance my life between the Windows world at the office and an Apple world at home. 

Of course, the Kindle is not a device that runs Windows stuff natively but its niche doesn’t require it to.  If the iTable/iSlate or whatever it is going to be called, comes out and is basically an enhanced color ebook reader with awesome battery life and is in the neighborhood of $250 – $300, I will be totally bummed and will probably admit to having made a mistake in buying the Kindle.  Fortunately, that scenario is extremely doubtful.

In the end, I’m going to be very happy with my gadgetry for a good long while (at least 3 months, I’m sure).

Stumbled across an interesting little post about 5 ways that you can lie with your graphs.  Actually, a better lesson to take from the post is “5 ways other people lie with their graphs and now you can call them on it.”

The post was on Talking Squid, entitled “Five Easy Lies”: Two of the most common ones I’ve seen in talks are below:

• Choose your cutoffs
   

“The trend shows no increase for the last [n] days/months/years.”

Don’t mention the previous [20 n] data points.

• Talk about the trend of the trend
  
  

“Sure the graph is going up for now, but the rate of increase is going down.”

If this fails, talk about the rate of increase of the rate of increase. Keep on differentiating until you find a curve that matches your needs. If all else fails, try logarithms.

Read the rest…

The last comment reminds me of Mar’s Law that stumbled upon a couple of days ago:

Everything is linear if plotted log-log with a fat magic marker.

From an article by Mary Ann Bragg which appeared on CapeCodeOnline and was also printed in this month’s College Mathematics Journal:

TRURO — Voters narrowly approved one of four zoning amendments late Tuesday night at the annual town meeting. But town officials were still looking at the exact vote count on that article yesterday.

In a vote of 136 to 70, voters passed a new time limit on how quickly a cottage colony, cabin colony, motel or hotel can be converted to condominiums. The new limit requires that those properties be in operation for three years before being converted to condominiums.

The idea behind the zoning amendment is to slow the pace of condominium development in Truro and preserve more affordable accommodations for tourists, according to citizens proposing the warrant article.

Currently Truro does not allow condominiums complexes to be built outright in its zoning bylaws. Instead, property owners must build a cottage colony, cabins, motel or hotel first and then covert it to condominiums through a special permit.

The exact count of the vote — 136 to 70 —had town officials hitting their calculators yesterday. The zoning measure needed a two-thirds vote to pass. A calculation by town accountant Trudy Brazil indicated that 136 votes are two-thirds of 206 total votes, said Town Clerk Cynthia Slade.

But is it?  Is 136 a sufficient number of votes to be considered two-thirds of the total 206 votes?  Let’s check:

If you use the fact that and then proceed to multiply 206 by 0.66 you get 135.96.  There were 136 votes in favor which is  more than 135.96 so that means it passes, right?  If you think so, then you’d be WRONG!!! 

The main problem is the rounding.  In fact, or using repeated decimal notation, .  When you round, you are actually creating an error that, in this case, makes a pretty significant difference.

Think of it another way, lets compare 136 / 206 to 2 / 3.  First, just do it by decimal approximation:

My calculator cannot exactly represent either of these fractions but its accurate to 12 decimal places and I can clearly see that 136/206 < 2/3 so the vote should not pass.

Do you remember another way you can compare fractions?  Find a common denominator and convert each fraction, then compare. 

So, here we see that, again,

This second method of checking is even better than the first because there are no approximations involved.  We’ve confirmed, absolutely, that 136 votes out of a total of 206 does NOT constitute two-thirds.

Fortunately, a good citizen made an anonymous call in Truro, MA, to clear this up.  What perplexes me is that they decided they needed to let the State Attorney General’s office decide on the correct count. The mathematical explanation wasn’t good enough. Can you say quantitative illiteracy?

Read the entire story here.

I’ve not studied much of the history of mathematics but occasionally I read from a few books I have on my shelf on the subject.  When my mind is bogged down and I am unmotivated on my current projects, I pick up, say, Makers of Mathematics, by Stuart Hollingdale.

Today, I flipped open to the chapter on Leonhard Euler (one of my mathematical heroes) and learned (or re-learned) a few interesting facts about the man.

• Entered the University to study theology and Hebrew but his mathematical abilities attracted the attention of Johann Bernoulli who gave him a private lesson once a week.  He received his master’s at 17.
• His father greatly desired him to pursue his theological ambition’s but was convinced by Bernoulli that his son was destined to be a great mathematician.  Leonhard Euler remained a devout Calvinist all his life.
• At the age of 26, Euler took on the leading mathematical position at St. Petersburg Academy
• He and his wife had 13 children, only 5 of whom survived to adulthood.
• He lost sight in his right eye fairly early in his career, probably due to overwork.
• He spent 25 years at Berlin Academy and then returned to St. Petersburg at the age of 59 about which time he lost sight in his other eye.  The blindness didn’t stop him.  In fact, he completed a comprehensive analysis on the theory of the Moon’s motion.  All the complicated analysis was done entirely in his head.
• In 1771, his house burned down.  In 1776, his wife passed away.  He died in 1783 at the age of 76 still active to the end.
• All told, he published more than 500 books and papers during his lifetime, while a further 400 appeared post-humously.  It has been computed that his publications during his working life averaged about 800 pages a year.

For the record, the correct pronunciation of Euler is “oiler” not “yuler”.  That’s a minor pet peeve of mine.  It ranks right up there with folks that write my name as Scoot instead of Scott.   

Learn more about Leonhard Euler.

This week I was given the privilege of leading our campus Environmental Stewardship Bible Study.  Currently the study is walking through various sections of the Bible in order to provide a scriptural foundation for concepts in environmental stewardship.  It was my good pleasure to lead a study on Psalms.  While the actual Bible Study was driven by some excellent discussion, much of the material in the study below I was unable to get to.  This outline has been posted in our Blackboard classroom for the Bible study but I also post it here for those folks that have been following my previous postings on creation care.

Here are the two primary sources for the study (in addition to the Psalms themselves)

How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth (2^nd Ed.), by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart (Zondervan, 1993)

Out of the Depths (3^rd Ed.), by Bernhard W. Anderson with Steven Bishop (Westminster John Knox Press, 2000)

Study Outline – Download PDF

In several lengthy discussions that I’ve had with friends and colleagues over my new interest in environmental stewardship, inevitably we begin discussing the stereotypes of environmental activists.  Being raised in West Texas my whole life, I haven’t really encountered very many individuals that would be classified as environmental activists, but I’ve certainly heard my fair share of disparaging political epithets: hippy, environmentalist wacko, tree hugger, ecoterrorist, econazi, etc.

If you have a personal conviction to care for God’s creation and feel that abuse to the environment is tantamount to desecrating a temple of God then you may be offended by such terms.  I wouldn’t blame you.  But there is also the very real concern that environmental activism might be concomitant with the deification of nature.  Some of the people I talk to have reminded me that the much of the theology of popular environmentalism comes from humanism, paganism and pantheism

As a friend stated on the last blog entry,

It’s too bad that over the last 2-3 decades, environmentalism has been appropriated by a mainly leftist political crowd and propped up as a kind of secular religion. Environmentalism is for everybody, and conservatives have a lot to bring to the table on this issue. Christians too.

I believe it is possible to respect God’s creation in the same way that we respect other temples of God without deifying them and treating them as a god, outright.  We are called to sanctify the church, the altar of God, and even our own bodies.

So, instead of beginning with the love of nature and its beauty as a motivation of environmental stewardship, I think the best place to begin is in Scripture.  After all, the love of the outdoors has not come naturally to the “indoorsman” city-boy that I am.  If I do end up an environmental activist (yikes, that still scares me) it will be as one who moved from environmental indifference to environmental concern as a result of my faith and not as one who started out concerned about the environment and added my faith to the reasons for that concern.

By the way, I am still deliberately avoiding any statement or position on the many hot-button environmental issues such as climate change, over-population, deforestation, etc.  My reasoning goes back to the fact that the starting place for creation care is the stewardship of God’s world out of respect and honor for Him. Concern for nature and the world God created seems to be one of our responsibilities as God’s children with or without a crisis on our hands.

Below are several passages that I’ve begun meditating upon that deal with humanity’s relationship to creation and creation’s relationship to God. Please note that relating any of these passages to environmentalism can only be done in an honest and accurate interpretation of Scripture.  The most basic of principles that I hold to when interpreting scripture is that a passage cannot be made to say something that was not intended by the original author.  It must fit into the context in which it is given as well as in its genre.  The application of Scripture to our lives must flow out of the original meaning to the original audience.

The following were collected and compiled by the Evangelical Environmental Network and Creation Care Magazine.  You can download the original document from the Evangelical Environmental Network. These will serve as a devotional guide for the next few entries on environmental stewardship.

Jesus Christ’s Relationship to All of Creation: Creator, Sustainer, Reconciler, Consummator, true Imago Dei, Heir of all things, Lord

• Colossians 1:15–20
• John 1:1–3
• Hebrews 1:2–3
• I Corinthians 8:6b
• Ephesians 1:10

Creation Declares the Glory of God

• Psalm 19:1-4
• Psalm 96:1, 11-12
• Romans 1:20-23
• Revelation 4:11

The Old Testament Proclaims God as Creator

• Psalm 104
• Genesis 1 and 2:1-4
• Isaiah 40:12, 26
• Isaiah 42:5-7

The Earth is the Lord’s

• Colossians 1:16b
• Hebrews 1:2
• I Corinthians 10:26
• Psalm 24:1
• Leviticus 25:23
• Deuteronomy 10:14
• I Chronicles 29:11-12
• Nehemiah 9:6
• Isaiah 66:1-2

Christian Love and Justice

• Colossians 1:20
• II Corinthians 5:14-21
• Philippians 2:4-8
• Luke 4:18-19
• John 13:34
• I John 4:7-8
• Matthew 25:34-45
• Luke 6:31
• Micah 6:1-4, 7-8
• Jeremiah 22:3
• Psalm 72:1, 12-14a
• Matthew 22:37-40

God Provide for and Desire’s Sufficiency and Contentment for the Rest of Creation

• Psalm 104:10-30
• Genesis 1:20-25
• Genesis 6:19-21
• Genesis 9:8-17
• Exodus 23:12
• Leviticus 25:1-7
• Job 38:39-41
• Job 39:5-8

The Interrelationship Between Humanity and the Rest of Creation

• Psalm 65:1, 9-13
• Psalm 104:13-15, 21-24
• Genesis 1:24-31; 2:1
• Genesis 2:7-9a, 15, 19-20a
• II Chronicles 7:13-14

The Rest of Creation Harmed by Humanity’s Sin

• Genesis 3:17
• Isaiah 24:5-6
• Hosea 4:1-3
• Jeremiah 4:18-28
• Revelation 11:18

God’s Future Kingdom: a New Creation

• Romans 8:19-23
• Isaiah 11:1-9
• Isaiah 35:1-2, 6
• Isaiah 55:12-13
• Isaiah 65:17-23
• Revelation 21:1, 5