PISA leans toward Vietnam
Vietnam and mathematics education I’m in Vietnam on holidays and enjoying the beautiful scenery and delicious food. I’ve been to Thailand, Cambodia, and China, and I would say Vietnam possesses elements of all these cultures, and of course, has its own unique identity forged over millennia of civilization. The pervasive traffic reminds me of India. By western standards, Vietnam…
Looking back at 2016
The year that was 2016 was a wild, tumultuous year for many of us, and there no exception with the blog. I’ve had close to 40,000 views this year, which is up considerably from 2015 with its 2,500 views. Yes, there are much bigger blogs, but I’m thrilled with the response. For my final blog of 2016,…
Our networked world
More than numbers Numbers are one way we measure the world. From the negative temperatures on a thermometer, to our bank account balances precise to the nearest cent, or to the number of followers we have on Twitter, we use numbers routinely in our everyday lives. Our early education reflects the importance of numbers, and…
Interview with a mathematician: Ingrid Daubechies
Ingrid Daubechies is the James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. Her doctoral work was in physics, focusing on the mathematics of quantum mechanics. She is best known for her discovery of compactly supported continuous wavelets, now called Daubechies wavelets. Her work has found broad application to signal and image processing,…