“Just try it on!”
July 14, 2017Spanglish is one of those movies that grows on you. A coming to America story filled with themes that move us: a dedicated and resourceful woman, a dysfunctional but caring family, a highly successful artist, and of course love. It has many scenes that touch us deeply. One of those,… Continue
9 Reasons for Using Spreadsheets in Schools
July 22, 2021Spreadsheets are equity platforms available to all students at no cost. They can give every student a fresh start in math. Spreadsheets from Microsoft, Google, and Apple are ubiquitous, easy to use, powerful, and part of a suite with common, familiar, supported interfaces. Spreadsheets are the tools students will use… Continue
Function Machines
June 29, 2016I do not know who, when, or where this iconic mathematical representation was developed. It is, however, one of the most powerful and ubiquitous of all mathematical images, and I think the most important. It is taught to 2nd graders and used by STEAM professionals. It is called a function… Continue
Functional Thinking
April 11, 2017We call our problem solving process, functional thinking. When we apply functional thinking to problem solving in the digital age, we find that a few fundamental models give us the tools to creatively solve quantitative problems. Think of functions as LEGOs, add columns using new rules, use outputs as new… Continue
Math as a Laboratory Science
April 17, 2018Math is not only the last letter in STEM or STEAM, it is the only one that we do not picture as experimental. We don’t imagine students learning science without doing experiments. We don’t imagine them learning technology without writing code, or learning engineering without building models, or learning art… Continue
The Tour
November 20, 2017Take this tour of functional thinking applied to the key concepts of mathematics. Visualize and experience the power of the spreadsheet to unify and simplify math. Start with a parameter table, use rules to build function tables and models, then graph, analyze, and iterate the models to ask What if…… Continue
What if?
September 11, 2015My favorite question is, “Why?” (And my favorite answer is, “Because.”) But not far behind is the question, “What if?” Read about us on my friend Patrick Vennebush’s great website. Continue
What if…
March 16, 2016“Rather than ask why our students fail to measure up, this film asks us to reconsider the greater purpose of education. What if our education system valued personal growth over test scores? Put inquiry over mimicry? Encouraged passion over rankings? What if we decided that the higher aim of school… Continue