Engaging students: Multiplying binomials

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission again comes from my former student Perla Perez. Her topic, from Algebra: multiplying binomials.

B1. How can this topic be used in your students’ future courses in mathematics or science?

As students progress through different levels of math, they will continue to utilize tools, such as multiplication of binomials. When I give students the solutions to a quadratic function and ask them to find the equation, I expect for them to know how to multiply the binomials. For example: find the quadratic equation with the solution x=-2,2. The students are to set up as: (x+2)(x-2) and go forth. The students can also be given a quadratic equation, x²+6x+8 and are to find the solutions in representation (x+2)(x+4). In order to arrive at the answer, the students will have to factor the original equation. To check their work, they can just multiply the answer that they get. Multiplying the binomials is a more complex form of the distributive property. It’s a building block for more challenging math concepts. Multiplying binomials essentially does the opposite of factorization, which students will learn later on in their algebra class. Binomials are also used in sciences, such as physics, biology, and computer science, so it helps for students to have a strong foundation on this topic.

B2. How does this topic extend what your students should have learned in previous courses?

I’ve seen students panic when a new concept, equation, or definition is introduce. Before they begin thinking again that math is some sort of sorcery, showing them something familiar will help ease the students into a new topic that is an extension of what they previously learned. Students learn about distributive property in their pre-algebra course. In order for students to multiply binomials students need to understand distributive property. Distributive property is a building block that is needed for the multiplication of binomials. It works with singles terms being multiplied, where as binomial multiplication works with two. In a way it is like learning how to add single digits to double digits. In order to teach this, I would first reintroduce 4-5 problems they’ve seen in their previous class using distributive property with single terms such as 4(x+5). Once they begin to recognize and solve the problems, I will begin to introduce two terms rather than just one. When they compare their previous knowledge to this new idea they will see that it is not very different.

A1. What interesting (i.e., uncontrived) word problems using this topic can your students do now? (You may find resources such as http://www.spacemath.nasa.gov to be very helpful in this regard; feel free to suggest others.)

Students often find it difficult to understand why we use certain tools, such as the multiplication of binomials. Word problems are a good solution when introducing a new topic. There are many methods for multiplying binomials, such as the FOIL and the CLAW methods, and it is important that student learn them; however, students who struggle with the topic need new information to be presented in a different way. The website mathisfun.com has a great word problem for multiplying binomials.

I like this problem because it divides the topic into separate steps, making it easier for the student to understand what to do. With this particular word problem, the teacher can begin to see where the students are having difficulties. This allows the teacher to see what areas need to be revisited, such as order of operations, the multiplication of a negative or positive number etc. Word problems also help teachers evaluate the critical thinking skills of their students.

My References are:

https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/polynomials-multiplying.html

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter111/ch111c.html

Engaging students: Fitting data to a quadratic function

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission again comes from my former student Loc Nguyen. His topic, from Algebra: fitting data to a quadratic function.

A1. What interesting (i.e., uncontrived) word problems using this topic can your students do now?

To engage students on this topic, I will provide them the word problems in the real life so they can see the usefulness of quadratic regression in predictive purposes. The question to the problem is about the estimated numbers of AIDS cases that can be diagnosed in 2006. The data only show from 1999 to 2003. This will be students’ job to figure out the prediction. I will provide the instructions for this task and I will also walk them through the process of finding the best curve that fit the given data. The best fit to the curve will give us the estimation. Here is how the instruction looks like:

In the end, students will be able to acquire the parabola curve which fit the given data. By letting students work through the real life problems, they will be able to understand why mathematics is important and see how this concept is useful in their lives.

B2. How does this topic extend what your students should have learned in previous courses?

Before getting into this topic, the students should have eventually been familiar with the word “quadratic” such as quadratic function, quadratic equation. Students should have been taught when the curve concaves up or down. In the previous course, students would be given the quadratic functions and they would be asked to find the maxima, minima, or intercepts. Or they would be asked to solve the quadratic equation and find the roots. The universal properties of quadratic function never change. When students encountered the concept of quadratic regression, they would not be so overwhelmed with the topic. There is no new rule or properties. The process is just backward. The Instead of having the given function, in this case, students will have to find the function based on the given data so that the curve would fit the data. Their prior knowledge is really essential for this topic, and this would help them to understand the concept of quadratic regression easier.

C1. How has this topic appeared in pop culture (movies, TV, current music, video games, etc.)?

At the beginning of the class, I would like to show students the short video of football incident.

This incident was really interesting. The Titans punt went so high so that it hit the scoreboard in Cowboys stadium. Surprisingly, this was Cowboy’s new stadium. There were many questions about what was going on when the architecture built this stadium. It was supposed to be great. This incident revealed the errors in predicting the height of the scoreboard. The data they collected in past year may have been incorrect. I want to incorporate this incident into the concept of quadratic regression. I will pose several questions such as:

Was Titan football punter really that powerful? What was really wrong in this situation?

When the architectures built this stadium, did they ever think that the ball would reach the ceiling?

How come did the architectures fail to measure the height of the ceiling? Did they just assume the height of the stadium tall enough?

What was the path of the ball?

Students will eagerly respond to these questions, and I will slowly bring in the important of quadratic regression. I will then explain how quadratic regression helps us to predict the height based on collected data from past years.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4N3LEi5a1Q

http://www.algebralab.org/Word/Word.aspx?file=Algebra_QuadraticRegression.xml

Engaging students: Adding, subtracting, and multiplying matrices

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission again comes from my former student Joe Wood. His topic, from Algebra: adding, subtracting, and multiplying matrices.

A1. What interesting (i.e., uncontrived) word problems using this topic can your students do now?

One interesting real world problem for matrix operations can be found in Chapter 4.1.3 at http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/algebra2.html. The problem deals with astronomical photography. It starts by explaining the process by which NASA gets its images and relates the process of taking the pictures from blurry to clear using matrices. The problem goes as follows:

For a way to engage students who are not interested in astronomy, and to allow students to learn more on their own time of the uses, a homework assignment could be for them to find places other than NASA that this process could be used.

D1. What interesting things can you say about the people who contributed to the discovery and/or the development of this topic? (You might want to consult Math Through The Ages.)

“Nine Chapters of the Mathematical Art”, an ancient book that dates between 300 BC and AD 200, gives the first documented use of matrices. Even though matrices were used as early as 300 BC, the term “matrix” was not used until 1850 by James Joseph Sylvester. The term matrix actually comes from a Latin word meaning “womb”.

Below is a list published on the Harvard website of important matrix concepts and the years they were introduced.

200 BC: Han dynasty, coefficients are written on a counting board [6]

1545 Cardan: Cramer rule for 2×2 matrices. [6]

1683 Seki and Leibnitz independently first appearance of Determinants [6]

1750 Cramer (1704-1752) rule for solving systems of linear equations using determinants [8]

1764 Bezout rule to determine determinants

1772 Laplace expansion of determinants

1801 Gauss first introduces determinants [6]

1812 Cauchy multiplication formula of determinant. Independent of Binet

1812 Binet (1796-1856) discovered the rule det(AB) = det(A) det(B) [1]

1826 Cauchy Uses term “tableau” for a matrix [6]

1844 Grassman, geometry in n dimensions [14], (50 years ahead of its epoch [14 p. 204-205]

1850 Sylvester first use of term “matrix” (matrice=pregnant animal in old french or matrix=womb in latin as it generates determinants)

1858 Cayley matrix algebra [7] but still in 3 dimensions [14]

1888 Giuseppe Peano (1858-1932) axioms of abstract vector space [12]

B1. How can this topic be used in your students’ future courses in mathematics or science?

Matrices and matrix operations are used in many math classes from Algebra and Calculus, to Linear Algebra and beyond. So any student interested in studying any discipline of Engineering or mathematics should become very familiar with matrices since they are used in a wide variety of ways (one way is seen above). Matrices are also useful in other courses as well. In Chemistry, matrices can be used for balancing chemical equations. In Physics, matrices can be used to decompose forces. Even in ecology or biology classes, matrices can be crucial. A great example would be studying animal populations under given conditions.
One hope in giving so many brief examples is that a student who cares nothing about the topic of matrices would here about a topic they are interested in (say animals) and that would spark questions into how or why matrices are useful. And of course, when dealing with matrices, addition subtraction, and multiplication of matrices follows closely behind.

References:

“Common Topics Covered in Standard Algebra II Textbooks.” Space Math @ NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

Knill, Oliver. “When Was Matrix Multiplication Invented?” When Was Matrix Multiplication Invented? Harvard, 24 July 2014. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

Smoller, Laura. “The History of Matrices.” The History of Matrices. University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Apr. 2001. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 61): Taylor Swift

Let $S(t)$ be the proposition “We are in style at time $t$ ,” let $C(t)$ be the proposition “We crash down at time $t$ ,” and let $B(t)$ be the proposition “We come back at time $t$ .” Translate the logical statement

$\forall t (\lnot S(t)) \Rightarrow (\forall t(C(t) \Rightarrow \exists u>t(B(u)))$ .

The straightforward way of translating this into English is, “If we never go out of style, then whenever we crash down we come back at a later time. This approximately matches the second half of the chorus of one of Taylor Swift’s hit songs.

Context: This semester, I taught discrete mathematics for the first time. Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 60): Heartland

Let $L(x,t)$ be the proposition “ $x$ loves her at time $t$ .” Translate the logical statement

$\exists t<0(L(\hbox{I},t) \land \forall x \forall s < t (\lnot L(x,t)))$ ,

where $t = 0$ is now.

The clunky translation is “There was a time that I loved her, and nobody loved her before that time.” More succinctly, this is the title of the song that’s been played for countless father-daughter dances at wedding receptions since 2006. (I cannot tell a lie: I always turn into a sobbing and amorphous pile of mush whenever I hear this song.)

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 59): Taylor Swift

Let $T(x)$ be the proposition “You go talk to $x$ ,” and let $G(x)$ be the proposition “We are getting back together at time $t$ .” Translate the logical statement

$T(\hbox{your friends}) \land T(\hbox{my friends}) \land T(\hbox{me}) \land \forall t\ge 0 (\lnot G(t))$ ,

where time 0 is now.

Of course, this is the ending part of the chorus to “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 58): Taylor Swift

Let $Y(x)$ be the proposition “You are $x$ years old,” and let $L(x)$ be the proposition “ $x$ tell you that $x$ loves you,” and let $B(x)$ be the proposition “You believe $x$ .” Translate the logical statement

$(Y(15) \land \exists x(L(x))) \Rightarrow B(x)$ ,

where the domain is all people.

The straightforward way of translating this into English is, “If you are 15 years old and there exists someone who says that he/she loves you, then you believe him/her.” This approximately matches the chorus of one of Taylor Swift’s earliest hits.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 57): Frozen

Let $C(t)$ be the proposition “The cold bothers me at time $t$ .” Translate the logical statement

$\lnot(\exists t\le 0 (C(t)))$ ,

where the domain is all times and $t=0$ is now.

The straightforward way of translating this into English is, “It is false that there exists a time in the past that the cold bothered me.” Also, DeMorgan’s Laws could be applied:

$\forall t\le 0(\lnot C(t))$ ,

which can be read “For all times in the past, the cold did not bother me.” Of course, this is the closing line of the chorus of the signature tune from Frozen.

Of course, I can’t mention Frozen without mentioning its parodies; this is the best one that I’ve seen.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 56): The Byrds

Let $S(x,t)$ be the proposition “ $t$ is the season for $x$ .” Translate the logical statement

$\forall x \exists t (S(x,t))$ .

This pretty much matches the opening line of the 1960s hit song by The Byrds from Ecclesiastes 3.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 55): The Quiet Man

Let $L(x)$ be the proposition “ $x$ is a lock,” let $B(x)$ be the proposition “ $x$ is a bolt,” and let $H(x)$ be the proposition “ $x$ is in your own mercenary little heart.” Translate the logical statement

$\forall x ( (L(x) \lor B(x)) \Rightarrow H(x))$ ,

where the domain is all people.

The straightforward way of translating this into English is, “If it’s a lock or a bolt, then it’s in your own mercenary little heart.” With a little more emphasis, this is one of the great lines uttered by John Wayne in the 1952 film The Quiet Man (a wonderful movie which really needs to be digitized and restored to its original brilliance).