3-panel comic. (1) (A person with a picture of a spacecraft behind head.] PERSON 1: There are now three spacecraft headed to Europe: NASA’s *Europa Clipper*, which will investigate Europa’s subsurface ocean, (2) [Person is gesturing at a picture of a different spacecraft while talking to a person with a ponytail and a person with short hair.] PERSON 1: ESA’s *Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer*, which will study the topography and chemistry of Europa and the other moons, (3) [Person with a picture behind head of a Zamboni with a rocket launcher underneath] and the NHL’s *Zamboni Voyager*, which plans to resurface Europa. PERSON FROM OFF-PANEL: Oh no. PERSON 1: We tried to stop them, but the league is set on an expansion.

Europa Missions

xkcd.com/3234/

Logic puzzles, masquerading as quizzes, Self-Referential Quizzes look familiar at first glance but quickly reveal themselves as something different. A great non-routine challenge for students.
New to them? www.brainzilla.com/logic/self-r...
Challenge: www.brainzilla.com/logic/self-r...

I'm giving a workshop on Tuesday on Standardized Test Prep that focuses on Leveraging Problem Solving & Conceptual Understanding. It's going to be remote, join us!

drive.google.com/file/d/1jrsK...

The reality is seldom as good as the mystery.

This is a fantastic article. People, for pretty good reasons, seldom check their prior assumptions or break free from their entrenched beliefs. It turns out that educators are people too. It's so hard for educators to break free from emulating their own experience.

Put experiences first & vocabulary second.

Example: Don't tell students what slope is. Ask them to compare two lines with very different slopes. Let them struggle to describe, then say "That word you're searching for? Mathematicians call it slope."
Don't give them the vocabulary until they need it.

The fizzy failure of paper straws YouTube video by Hannah Fry

I love the environment but I hate paper straws! There are scientific reasons they stink. I don't use straws but if I have to I like metal or bamboo. www.youtube.com/shorts/JCRWC...

I don't really use this account much. Please find me on Facebook or LinkedIn. @phildituri on all platforms.

Irrefutable

We are at a pivotal moment in financial education with new mandates across the US. If you are part of the education community, or simply care about the financial futures of young people, please read this open letter authored by all of us at FiCycle. ficycle.org/open-letter/

Before the storm I helped a group of teachers "Make GroupWork the Norm." I had a lot of fun. This is just a reminder to all the teachers out there (especially those braving poor weather) to have FUN teaching today. If you're not having fun teaching, they definitely aren't having fun learning.

I love this one. Real life math.

Have you ever had two coupons you could use and thought about which would benefit you more? Here's a context to put students in a similar situation. When is it better to use the 10% off coupon and when is it better to get a free item?

robertkaplinsky.com/work/ch...

We've found more than 100 of these steel Roman dodecahedrons throughout Europe but no one knows what they were used for. They were fragile and unlikely to be tools. It looks like a game piece to me. I love stuff like this. www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a...

I've got 99 Problems but math teachers being awesome aint one. We had a good time at my workshop, "I Got 99 Problems: Teaching Problem Solving in Mathematics Classrooms." I'll be running it again on March 6th. Check out my other upcoming workshops here: url-shortener.me/82N6

As states and districts start to mandate personal finance we need to make sure they are making research-informed decisions. Math is finance and we shouldn't try to separate these topics if we are concerned with students real-life financial behavior after schooling. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks They want to know how much time is left in class ... but can't quite tell, one teacher says.

Any teacher can tell you that large numbers of students haven’t been able to read analog clocks for decades. At least 20 years in my personal experience. (Which is a shame because I like analog clock problems! Also life.)
gothamist.com/news/nyc-pho...

Funny Numbers

I welcome having another number that makes kids smile and adults roll their eyes. xkcd.com/3184/

Here's why the winter solstice is significant in cultures across the world The dead of winter, when the longest night of the year takes place, has traditionally been celebrated as a time of renewal and reverence.

As someone who loves the sun I've been very concerned as it continues to dip lower & lower in it's journey across the sky each day. I'm overjoyed it has stopped falling. /s (Happy Winter Solstice everyone! It is the most celebrated event of the year across all cultures.) www.pbs.org/newshour/sci...

70% of high school principals say ICE is taking a toll on their schools School responses to heightened fear in immigrant communities vary from staff training to creating plans in case federal agents come knocking.

Regardless of where you fall on the political divide, if you care about children or education you should find this concerning: ”70% of high school principals say ICE is taking a toll on their schools www.k12dive.com/news/UCLA-re...

Don’t deprofessionalize our jobs! Respect those who teach and heal our students and our communities. On Nov. 6, the Department of Education proposed a new framework of professional degree programs—one that strips advanced degrees for nurses, physician assistants, physical therapists, audiologists, ar...

By taking away professional designation from healthcare workers, higher ed faculty & public employees, this administration is making colleges more expensive & making worker shortages worse. Tell Congress to stop the disrespect of our workers!

Unit 3 Intro Video | FiCycle Math YouTube video by Financial Life Cycle Education Corp

I love that we have these new introduction videos for each of our units. It's my hope that they will help to frame a student's course of study for them in a format that feels familiar and easy. www.youtube.com/shorts/SZWoT...

Just like regular grades! The numbers don't mean much, and we just assume kids will figure out what it means. 4 is better than 3 right? Easy. /s

I'm presenting tomorrow at the AMTNJ Conference at Brookdale Community College in NJ. "Financial Life Cycle: Centering a Math Curriculum on Financial Applications," at 1pm. Come check it out if you're there! Or msg me if you want to chat about it. (The pic is from NCTM ATL a few weeks ago)

The Hidden Math of Ocean Waves Crashes Into View | Quanta Magazine The math of even the simplest ocean waves is notoriously uncooperative. A team of Italian mathematicians has made major advances toward understanding it.

I love when seemingly unpredictable, messy and complicated phenomenon can be modeled and described using mathematics. www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-m...

For the kids:

A brother and sister go trick or treating.
At the first 3 houses, they each get 7 pieces of candy.
At the next 2 houses, they each get 4 pieces.
Then a witch gives them 9 pieces to share.
How many pieces of candy do they have altogether at the end of the night?

Happy Halloween.

I didn’t realize it happened so close to the conference or I would’ve tried to go. Good on you for making it out.

When you get up at 5:30am & are on the train before sunrise the morning commute hits different. It’s oddly peaceful.

I was in Atlanta for NCTM last week.
I’m out in LI twice this week.
This weekend I fly to Oklahoma.
End the week in Palms Springs for CMC-South.

Let’s meet up in PS if you’re going

This reminds me of my degree from Yall University….