Ted Talk: How to escape education’s death valley

If you have watched Changing Education Paradigms or Do Skills Creativity, then, you will surely love another lecture from Sir Ken Robinson.  This TED Talk discusses about the 3 principles crucial to the human mind to flourish and how the current system of education work against them. This talk is a must-watch for all teachers, educators, school administrators and policy makers.

For more talks by Sir Ken Robinson, visit his page on TEDTalk.

3 Rules to Spark Learning: A Must Watch for All Teachers

Ramsey Musallam, chemistry teacher from San Francisco, California, talks about 3 rules to spark learning: (1) curiosity comes first, (2) embrace the mess, (3) practice reflection. Even though he is a chemistry teacher, these rules are clearly applicable to all subjects especially mathematics. Curiosity is the reason why mathematical conjectures are made and theorems are proved. The “mess” is what every problem solver go through, it is the hidden face of cut-and-dried theorems we found in books. Reflection is important to teachers and students. They can reflect on how students think and develop strategies on how to elicit responses, while students can reflect on their practices in solving problems.

Watch Ramsey Musallam in one of the most fascinating 6-minute lectures about curiosity and learning.  » Read more

Ted Talk: Robert Lang on the Mathematics and Magic of Origami

In the previous post, I have shared to you sites about origami or paper folding.  Aside from these resources, I have also posted several examples of using it in the classroom. Several of these examples are introduction to the notion of proof, and getting the square root and cube root of a number. In addition, I have also shared a video using mathematics of origami to fold  gift wraps minimizing wastage.

Rober Lang: Origami Artist

But origami is a lot more than the things you have read above. Today, the art is already used as a model for airbags and telescope in space. There is even a research for  using it in devices that will be used in heart surgery.  » Read more

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