Chebucto Regional Softball Club

The whole idea of the lesson, which I'm very passionate about is making irrational numbers like root two and root three seem... real. Both as "real numbers" but also as ... real numbers, physical distances that make as much sense as 4 cm or 1/3 of an inch.

@BlotchedEmerald

Can you use a compass to make a square?

In fact I will take these to school and make it THEIR problem. I have a whole box of materials and notes for possible future lessons, and if I put them all in one place I'll be more likely to get them written up and ready to go so other teachers might use them.

I've told the other math teachers about how we should do this and they sort of nod along but I suspect they have no idea what I'm talking about.

But if I show them a ruler with root two on it it'll be clear enough I think.

THIS is why cleaning is so difficult. I bought these blank ruler-sized pieces of wood six years ago. I have an idea for a lesson where students use a compass to create a ruler, including irrational numbers, such as square root of two I should write the lesson up and make the sample ruler **or** throw these away. I will write myself a note about this and put them in the “soon trash” box. I need to be ruthless!

@Wyatt_H_Knott @VirginiaHolloway

yeah I know but it's not always "just like a battery"

I understand smoothing capacitors. But when they are used for timing? I'm a bit mystified by that. I get it takes time to charge and discharge but ... why does it discharge? why do they sometimes discharge before fully charged?

Why are some polar and some non-polar? How is that even possible?

@VirginiaHolloway

I think that can happen for you. And someday I'll really understand capacitors and be able to predict what they do in a circuit rather than guessing and just building it to see what happens.

@Richard_Littler

I'm so proud of him. He's doing such a great job being loud. LOL

@TheOtterDragon

When teaching I encounter students in mathematics who give up very quickly. This isn't because they are terrible or lazy, they have simply learned that trying over and over to understand math isn't very productive and have had very few moment of success.

It's rational not to waste your energy if that's happened.

But, it's my task to start dissolving that sense of not belonging. "this isn't for people like me"

That's how I felt about the cordwood puzzle.

@datarama @TheOtterDragon

To the extent that it might exist I think people place too much stock in it and allow it to limit themselves and worse try to use it to limit others.

But everyday we have the opportunity to grow new talent if we want to.

@TheOtterDragon

I don't think it's really possible to learn without feeling like you don't get it at all for a time.

But, with enough positive experiences finding the way through that feeling the sense that a problem is "too much" becomes exciting rather than making you just want to give up.

It's also important to know that sometimes it might take years to get there. Which is why finding this puzzle easy was so exciting for me. I didn't really feel like I'd learned much ... but I have.

@TheOtterDragon

And I think it's really important that it isn't about "talent" ... it's about persistence and time.

It is important to not just try the same thing over and over, but chipping away iteratively at a topic that *seems* opaque will make it yield. If you see that another person could do it? It's possible to do. And you can do it too if you want to.

@TheOtterDragon

Sometimes things that made you feel frustrated and like you are in over your head, like you don't even belong working on something so advanced can later make you feel smart.

I think teaching young people this is the most important thing school can do.

But, with time, with more practice and exposure to simpler problems they can become something you master.

I worry that some people never find this confidence in their education.

@mina

Nice!

Let me know how it goes.

@mina

For a first kit something like this will be less upsetting:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806563908696.html

Slowly you learn how to control the heat in the iron, the names of the parts, how to read the board and circuits etc.

This thing almost made me cry 8 years ago. LOL.

If you want to try the puzzle there are still a few of them here:

Cordwood Puzzle Too

The second in the series of Boldport's Cordwood Puzzles, an old method of PCB assembly with through-hole components sandwiched between PCB layers. A little slice of history!

(shop.pimoroni.com)

What is something that once seemed advanced and impossible to you that later became easy?

Isn't that feeling the best high in the world?

I used to think that this thing was so advanced and complicated and that only super experts would understand it at all.

I even thought it was sort of mean that Boldport made it so hard!

Now I'm like "this is baby stuff"

This has happened with mathematics for me many times. But only a few times with electronics. I'm totally self-taught in electronics. My knowledge is hard won, my students get to learn these things much faster with my help.

But, that's what I love about teaching.

When I was first learning electronics I bought a bunch of kits from Boldport. Including the "cordwood puzzle" and when it came I was so despondent. It's pair of PCBs and parts and YOU need to puzzle out how to put them together.

I remember thinking that I'd never be able to work it out. Just putting a kit together correctly and having it work was my limit.

I put the puzzle away, forgot about it.

I found it today ... guess what?

It's SO EASY.

Nice to be old and learn new tricks isn't it?

WHY isn't there a more huge blue sky research fund into gall wasps?

They can control plants and make them grow things for them.

They control plants better than human gardeners.