MSM 641: Why We Don’t Let Mathematicians Rule the World
Summary:
Shawn and Troy share bad puns, tips for teaching tomorrow, collaboration, and more. Dave combines poetry and leaves.
Jokes:
When I was a kid we only had one video game and it was called adjusting the antenna.
They were like “bear with me” and they didn’t even have a bear with them.
At the boxing match, the dad got into the popcorn line and the line for hot dogs, but he wanted to stay out of the punchline.
The shovel was a ground-breaking invention.
Cottage cheese isn’t technically cheese.
- It’s just a curd to me.
Did you hear about the two thieves who stole a calendar?
- They each got six months.
What’s E.T. short for?
- He’s only got little legs.
The other day I was listening to a song about superglue,
- it’s been stuck in my head ever since.
Cosmetic surgery used to be such a taboo subject.
Now you can talk about Botox and nobody raises an eyebrow.
Nobody has seen the Zamboni driver. I’m sure he’ll resurface eventually.
What’s a panda bear ghost’s favorite food?
- bam-booooooo
The historic moment when humans and germs sign into law the “Five Second Rule”.
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
K12Science Podcast: Fall Colors
I was recently reading the September-October 2024 issue of Science and Children, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.
In this issue, I read the “Poetry of Science” section, written by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. She wrote an article entitled: “Changes in the Leaves.” Included in the article was a poem entitled, “Saving the Best for Last,” written by David L. Harrison.
Leaves change color in the fall because the amounts of chemical pigments inside the leaves change. The intensity and timing of fall colors can be affected by weather, both in fall and earlier in the growing season.
http://k12science.net/fall-colors/
Reports from the Front Lines
- Collaboration
- Tour Guide Video
- An “Unboxing Video” of items from their region
- Do a video of a tour
- Exchange item
- Course Update
- Book Study
The Social Web
Oxford University Press is celebrating 20 years of its Word of the Year. My favourite has to be ‘omnishambles’, from The Thick of It. Unsurprisingly, it remains in regular use and has taken on a life of its own. @OxUniPress https://corp.oup.com/word-of-the-ye
Word of the day is ‘hibernacle’ (18th century): a place to which an animal/human can retreat entirely for the winter months.
The Leaf Blower Hover Car is a science demonstration at this middle school. …I wonder if this can scale with 4-8 Leaf Blowers floating down the street? Be a good 13 minute ride?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846595367988773043
Words for the Weekend
FIPLV – Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes
Invitation to join the BarCamp “AI for language education” on Zoom on 5 November 2024 from 5-7 pm (Central European Standard Time: GMT+1)
The ECML project “AI for language education” (2024-27) explores effective and ethical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology in language education for both learners and teachers. It investigates how AI tools can help teachers plan lessons, design materials, and conduct formative assessment in order to enable learners to utilise AI responsibly for higher-quality, autonomous language learning.
The BarCamp “AI for language education” will provide an opportunity for experts and practitioners to share and learn in an informal, open environment.
If you would like to participate online, please register here:
https://forms.gle/yHrkvxXumdhApsES7
Deadline for registration: 20 October 2024
Resources:
GSM-Symbolic: Understanding the Limitations of Mathematical Reasoning in Large Language Models
https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/gsm-symbolic
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2410.05229
People think they already know everything they need to make decisions
The Article Referenced:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0310216
How To Use Native-Land.ca
There are a number of ways to use this website.
You can use it directly above by entering your address, or by mousing or clicking around on the map to see the relevant territories in a location.
Once you click, a number of links will appear with different nation names. By clicking on those links, you will be taken to a page specifically about that nation, language, or treaty, where you can view some sources, give feedback, and learn a little more. We are always trying to expand our resources on these pages.
You can also export the map to a printable image file, turn map labels on or off to see non-Indigenous borders and towns, and select or search from a dropdown of territories, treaties, and languages.
BBC Ten Pieces
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/articles/zv2gqp3
Launched in 2014, the BBC’s Ten Pieces is an ambitious initiative for school pupils, which aims to open up the world of classical music using ten pieces of music as a spring-board for learning.
Browser Clock
AXIS The Culture Translator
Slang of the Week: “Just Put The Fries In The Bag.”
Imagine you’re running behind and you just want to grab a quick bite to eat, but the person taking your order seems to want to hear your life story, share theirs, and get the input of the person in line behind you. In a moment of frustration, you might tell the worker, “Just put the fries in the bag.” For teens, this phrase applies to much more than chatty fast-food workers: a teacher telling a story, a friend overexplaining their date, or really anything they see as wasting their time. Whatever the circumstance, the idea remains the same—it’s a way to say, “Quit yapping and get on with it.”
Paranoid Android
What it is: At Tesla’s “We, Robot” event, Elon Musk unveiled the prototype for a domestic robot called Optimus that he projects will eventually be available for less than $30,000.
Why people are nervous: Musk himself has warned that the rollout of AI could lead to “civilization destruction,” and yet like so many in the tech space, he still seems intent on ushering it into our world. The sci-fi trope is that unleashing AI leads to the end of humanity. Yet Musk blithely bills these droids as “your own personal R2D2/C3PO,” promising that they’ll teach, babysit, walk dogs, mow lawns, get groceries, be your friend, serve drinks—“whatever you can think of, it will do.” The full technology is still in development (the robots in the showcase were being controlled remotely) but still, it’s a glimpse of what the world could look like in our lifetimes.
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