Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101111/18090811826/dailydirt-arithmetic-is-third-r.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101111/18090811826/dailydirt-arithmetic-is-third-r.shtml

A study of German math students suggests that parental pressure and good grades don't provide lasting incentives for kids to learn math skills. It seems obvious that the motivation behind learning would affect how well a student learns, but the conclusion could have some interesting effects on education policy and how to most effectively teach children. [url]

Equations Squared is an online math game that assesses a player's skills as he/she plays -- awarding points for more complex mathematical understanding. The story of how this game was created is interesting, and the game won the grand prize in the ETS Math Assessment Game Challenge. [url]

Math textbooks are created by a publishing industry which doesn't necessarily care about the quality of education. There are a lot of problems in the US education system, but there may be some creative destruction in store for the textbook industry. [url]

Adding a nonsensical math equation to your writing can give it a bit more authority. a^n+b^n=c^n QED [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101111/18090811826 Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101022/04202511540/dailydirt-help-mathophobic.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101022/04202511540/dailydirt-help-mathophobic.shtml

Some people experience physical pain when presented with difficult math problems, but it's not doing the math itself that hurts -- it's the anticipation of doing the math. Fortunately, math anxiety can be overcome with various techniques, just like other phobias. [url]

Correlation isn't causation, folks, but a small study showed that 20 people did better at some math problems while smelling rosemary oil. These researchers should probably sniff some of their aromatherapy oils while doing the statistical analysis of this work.... [url]

Math ability can be predicted by fMRI scans that measure the strength of communication between the left and right hemispheres in the brain. If there is a causal link, impaired math abilities could be improved with training tasks aimed at coordinating brain activity. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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