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Tuesday, March 13, 2012
News about this year's teacher winners
There was a nice article in the Somerville News about the Healey School teacher grant winners.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Mathematics Teacher Grant Winners Announced
The Somerville Mathematics Fund is pleased to announce the winners of their 2012 grants to teachers who are working on providing the students in Somerville with exciting, challenging and creative mathematics in their classrooms. This year through the generosity of John Bullock they were able to fund a wonderful set of grants.
If you know any of these wonderful teachers, be sure to congratulate them on a job well-done.
• Annette Fiore Bassett at Winter Hill Community School for “K-2 & 3-5 Family Mathematics Nights”
• Laura Bonnell at East Somerville Community School at Edgerly for “3rd grade Success Day”
• Alison Walton at Healey School for “Mathematics Materials for classroom & Take-home”
• Linda Wiegenfeld at East Somerville Community School at Edgerly for “2 – 4 Family Mathematics Night"
The Somerville Mathematics Fund, an affiliate of the national scholarship organization Dollars for Scholars, was chartered in 2000 to celebrate and encourage achievement in mathematics in the city of Somerville, Massachusetts. Over eleven years, the math fund has awarded $55,835 in teacher grants in the city of Somerville.
The Somerville Mathematics Fund is an all-volunteer organization and is able to fund these teacher grants and scholarships based solely on the generosity of their supporters. You can donate online by going to Community Room thanks to Eastern Bank.
In early April, the fund will be seeking applications from students who reside in Somerville for college mathematics scholarships. Copies of the scholarship application form is available at www.somervillemathematicsfund.org For more information, to volunteer or to make a tax-deductible contribution, please contact Erica Voolich (666-0666 or mathfund@gmail.com).
If you know any of these wonderful teachers, be sure to congratulate them on a job well-done.
• Annette Fiore Bassett at Winter Hill Community School for “K-2 & 3-5 Family Mathematics Nights”
• Laura Bonnell at East Somerville Community School at Edgerly for “3rd grade Success Day”
• Sally
Brith at Next Wave for “Pre-Algebra Curriculum Materials”
• Frances
Carino at Winter Hill Community School (4th) for “Math Games”
• Margaret
Clapham & Kate Briggs at Healey School (3rd, 4th) for
“Think Tank and Figure It Materials”
• Adriane
Cruz-Cioppa at Argenziano School (2nd SEIP) for “Resource Activity
Center”
• Kristy
Desilets at Unidos, East Somerville Community School at Cummings for “Think
Tank and Math Games”
• Donna
Driscoll at Argenziano School (SEIP, Unidos) for “K-2, 3-5 Bilingual Family Mathematics Nights”
• Benjamin
Hehn at Kennedy School (5th) for “Calculators and Mathematical
Posters”
• Cathy
Hughes at Kennedy School (1st) for “Math Materials to send home and
to differentiate in class”
• Eileen
MacDonnell at Healey School (3rd) for “Math Game and Literature”
• Charlene
O’Neill at Winter Hill Community School (4th) for “Math Games”
• Roxanne
Scrima at Kennedy (K) for “Materials for parent/child activities”
• Zachary
Shufran at Winter Hill Community School (3rd-8th, ELL) “Mathematics Magazines”
• Sharon
Sotiros at Kennedy (K) for “Materials for parent/child activities”
• Kathryn
Sousa at Argenziano School (1st, SEIP) for “Mathematics Activities
for Small Groups”
• Celia Taylor at Healey School for
“K-2 Family Mathematics Night”• Alison Walton at Healey School for “Mathematics Materials for classroom & Take-home”
• Linda Wiegenfeld at East Somerville Community School at Edgerly for “2 – 4 Family Mathematics Night"
The Somerville Mathematics Fund, an affiliate of the national scholarship organization Dollars for Scholars, was chartered in 2000 to celebrate and encourage achievement in mathematics in the city of Somerville, Massachusetts. Over eleven years, the math fund has awarded $55,835 in teacher grants in the city of Somerville.
The Somerville Mathematics Fund is an all-volunteer organization and is able to fund these teacher grants and scholarships based solely on the generosity of their supporters. You can donate online by going to Community Room thanks to Eastern Bank.
In early April, the fund will be seeking applications from students who reside in Somerville for college mathematics scholarships. Copies of the scholarship application form is available at www.somervillemathematicsfund.org For more information, to volunteer or to make a tax-deductible contribution, please contact Erica Voolich (666-0666 or mathfund@gmail.com).
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Teacher Grants Available from The Somerville Mathematics Fund
The Somerville Mathematics Fund is looking for teachers in Somerville who are interested in applying for a mathematics grant. The Fund will be offering grants up to $500 for K - 12 teachers of Somerville students for exciting projects to improve or enrich mathematics instruction in the classroom or in an after-school program. The teacher applicant should be teaching in a public, parochial, or charter school located in Somerville. The postmark application deadline for these grants is 14 January 2012. The application form is available on-line at the Somerville Mathematics Fund's website
In the past eleven years, The Somerville Mathematics Fund has awarded one hundred four teacher grants totaling $47,921 for wonderful teacher-designed mathematics projects and activities. Past winners are eligible to apply for another grant.
In the past eleven years, The Somerville Mathematics Fund has awarded one hundred four teacher grants totaling $47,921 for wonderful teacher-designed mathematics projects and activities. Past winners are eligible to apply for another grant.
The Somerville Mathematics Fund, an affiliate of the national scholarship organization Dollars for Scholars, was chartered in 2000 to celebrate and encourage achievement in mathematics in the city of Somerville, Massachusetts. Next April, they will be awarding college scholarships to outstanding mathematics students from Somerville. For more information, to volunteer or to make a much needed tax-deductible contribution, please contact Erica Voolich (617-666-0666, or mathfund@gmail.com)
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Explanations for Math "Gender Gap"
AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY NEWS RELEASE
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE ON DECEMBER 12, 2011, 3 p.m. E.S.T.
Major New Study Examines Explanations for Math "Gender Gap"
December 5, 2011
Providence, RI---"I'm too pretty to do math." This slogan appeared on a t-shirt marketed this year to girls. After outraged objections, the shirt was pulled from stores, but is still available for sale on the internet---and its familiar message continues to echo: It's boys, not girls, who excel in math. Was the outrage over the shirt knee-jerk political correctness? Is it perhaps time just to accept the fact that boys are better at math than girls?
Not unless you ignore the data. A major new study appearing in the January 2012 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society
(http://www.ams.org/notices) marshals a plethora of evidence showing that many of the hypotheses put forth to account for the so-called "gender gap" in mathematics performance fail to hold up. The article, "Debunking Myths about Gender and Mathematics Performance" by Jonathan Kane and Janet Mertz, takes a scientific, fact-based look at a subject that too often is obscured by prejudice and simplistic explanations.
To start with, Kane and Mertz note that, by several measures, girls actually DO perform as well as boys in mathematics. In many countries, there is no gender gap in mathematics performance at either the average or very high level. In other countries, notably the United States, the gap has greatly narrowed in recent decades. For example, some U.S. test score data show that girls have reached parity with boys in mathematics, even at the high school level, where a significant gap existed forty years ago. Another piece of evidence is found among U.S. students who are highly gifted in mathematics, namely, those who score700 or higher on the quantitative section of the SAT prior to age 13. In the 1970s, the ratio of boys to girls in this group was 13:1; today it is 3:1. Likewise, the percentage of U.S. Ph.D.s in the mathematical sciences awarded to women has risen from 5% to 30% over the past half century. If biology were destiny and boys had a "math gene" that girls lack, such large differences would not be found over time or between countries.
Nevertheless, other measures continue to show a significant gender gap in mathematics performance. Various hypotheses have been advanced to explain why this gap occurs. Kane and Mertz analyzed international data on mathematics performance to test these hypotheses. One is the "greater male variability hypothesis", famously reiterated in 2005 by Lawrence Summers when he was president of Harvard University. This hypothesis proposes that variability in intellectual abilities is intrinsically greater among males---hence, in mathematics, boys predominate among those who excel, as well as among those who do poorly.
To test this hypothesis, Kane and Mertz calculated "variance ratios" for dozens of countries from throughout the world. These ratios compare variability in boys' math performance to variability in girls' math performance. For example, using test scores from the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Kane and Mertz found that the variance ratio for Taiwanese eighth graders was 1.31, indicating that there was quite a bit more variability in math scores among boys than among girls. However, in Morocco, the ratio was 1.00, indicating the amount of variability observed in the two groups was identical. In Tunisia, this ratio was 0.91, indicating there was somewhat more variability in math scores among girls than among boys. In the U.S., this ratio was 1.08, a very small difference from one that cannot explain why there are so few women among the tenured mathematics faculty at the top U.S. research universities.
If the "greater male variability hypothesis" were true, boys’ math scores should show greater variance than girls’ math scores in all countries; one should also not see such big, reproducible differences from country to country. Therefore, Kane and Mertz conclude that this hypothesis does not hold up. Kane and Mertz suggest that there are sociocultural factors that differ among countries; some of these factors, such as different educational experiences and patterns of school attendance, lead to country-specific differences in boys’ variances and girls’ variances and, thus, their variance ratios.
Kane and Mertz took the same kind of data-driven approach to examine some additional hypotheses for explaining the gender gap, such as the "single-gender classroom hypothesis" and the "Muslim culture hypothesis", both of which have been proposed in recent years by folks including Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame. Again, Kane and Mertz found that the data do not support these hypotheses. Rather, they observed no consistent relationship between the gender gap and either co-educational schooling or most of the country’s inhabitants being Muslim.
They also examined the "gap due to inequity hypothesis", which proposes that the gender gap in math performance is due to social and cultural inequities between males and females. To examine this hypothesis, they used an international gender gap index that compares the genders in terms of income, education, health, and political participation. Relating these indices to math scores, they concluded that math achievement for both boys and girls tends to be higher in countries where gender equity is better. In addition, in wealthier countries, women's participation and salary in the paid labor force was the main factor linked to higher math scores for students of both genders. "We found that boys as well as girls tend to do better in math when raised in countries where females have better equality, and that's both new and important," says Kane. "It makes sense that when women are well educated and earn a good income, the math scores of their children of both genders benefit."
Mertz adds, "Many folks believe gender equity is a win-lose zero-sum game: If females are given more, males end up with less. Our results indicate that, at least for math achievement, gender equity is a win-win situation."
The article by Kane and Mertz will appear on the Notices web site on December 12, 2011.
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE ON DECEMBER 12, 2011, 3 p.m. E.S.T.
Major New Study Examines Explanations for Math "Gender Gap"
December 5, 2011
Providence, RI---"I'm too pretty to do math." This slogan appeared on a t-shirt marketed this year to girls. After outraged objections, the shirt was pulled from stores, but is still available for sale on the internet---and its familiar message continues to echo: It's boys, not girls, who excel in math. Was the outrage over the shirt knee-jerk political correctness? Is it perhaps time just to accept the fact that boys are better at math than girls?
Not unless you ignore the data. A major new study appearing in the January 2012 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society
(http://www.ams.org/notices) marshals a plethora of evidence showing that many of the hypotheses put forth to account for the so-called "gender gap" in mathematics performance fail to hold up. The article, "Debunking Myths about Gender and Mathematics Performance" by Jonathan Kane and Janet Mertz, takes a scientific, fact-based look at a subject that too often is obscured by prejudice and simplistic explanations.
To start with, Kane and Mertz note that, by several measures, girls actually DO perform as well as boys in mathematics. In many countries, there is no gender gap in mathematics performance at either the average or very high level. In other countries, notably the United States, the gap has greatly narrowed in recent decades. For example, some U.S. test score data show that girls have reached parity with boys in mathematics, even at the high school level, where a significant gap existed forty years ago. Another piece of evidence is found among U.S. students who are highly gifted in mathematics, namely, those who score700 or higher on the quantitative section of the SAT prior to age 13. In the 1970s, the ratio of boys to girls in this group was 13:1; today it is 3:1. Likewise, the percentage of U.S. Ph.D.s in the mathematical sciences awarded to women has risen from 5% to 30% over the past half century. If biology were destiny and boys had a "math gene" that girls lack, such large differences would not be found over time or between countries.
Nevertheless, other measures continue to show a significant gender gap in mathematics performance. Various hypotheses have been advanced to explain why this gap occurs. Kane and Mertz analyzed international data on mathematics performance to test these hypotheses. One is the "greater male variability hypothesis", famously reiterated in 2005 by Lawrence Summers when he was president of Harvard University. This hypothesis proposes that variability in intellectual abilities is intrinsically greater among males---hence, in mathematics, boys predominate among those who excel, as well as among those who do poorly.
To test this hypothesis, Kane and Mertz calculated "variance ratios" for dozens of countries from throughout the world. These ratios compare variability in boys' math performance to variability in girls' math performance. For example, using test scores from the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Kane and Mertz found that the variance ratio for Taiwanese eighth graders was 1.31, indicating that there was quite a bit more variability in math scores among boys than among girls. However, in Morocco, the ratio was 1.00, indicating the amount of variability observed in the two groups was identical. In Tunisia, this ratio was 0.91, indicating there was somewhat more variability in math scores among girls than among boys. In the U.S., this ratio was 1.08, a very small difference from one that cannot explain why there are so few women among the tenured mathematics faculty at the top U.S. research universities.
If the "greater male variability hypothesis" were true, boys’ math scores should show greater variance than girls’ math scores in all countries; one should also not see such big, reproducible differences from country to country. Therefore, Kane and Mertz conclude that this hypothesis does not hold up. Kane and Mertz suggest that there are sociocultural factors that differ among countries; some of these factors, such as different educational experiences and patterns of school attendance, lead to country-specific differences in boys’ variances and girls’ variances and, thus, their variance ratios.
Kane and Mertz took the same kind of data-driven approach to examine some additional hypotheses for explaining the gender gap, such as the "single-gender classroom hypothesis" and the "Muslim culture hypothesis", both of which have been proposed in recent years by folks including Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame. Again, Kane and Mertz found that the data do not support these hypotheses. Rather, they observed no consistent relationship between the gender gap and either co-educational schooling or most of the country’s inhabitants being Muslim.
They also examined the "gap due to inequity hypothesis", which proposes that the gender gap in math performance is due to social and cultural inequities between males and females. To examine this hypothesis, they used an international gender gap index that compares the genders in terms of income, education, health, and political participation. Relating these indices to math scores, they concluded that math achievement for both boys and girls tends to be higher in countries where gender equity is better. In addition, in wealthier countries, women's participation and salary in the paid labor force was the main factor linked to higher math scores for students of both genders. "We found that boys as well as girls tend to do better in math when raised in countries where females have better equality, and that's both new and important," says Kane. "It makes sense that when women are well educated and earn a good income, the math scores of their children of both genders benefit."
Mertz adds, "Many folks believe gender equity is a win-lose zero-sum game: If females are given more, males end up with less. Our results indicate that, at least for math achievement, gender equity is a win-win situation."
The article by Kane and Mertz will appear on the Notices web site on December 12, 2011.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Jammin' in the Junkyard -- the 7th annual Scrapheap Showdown
The 7th annual Scrapheap Showdown was a BIG success. You can read about it here.
The students rose to the challenge. They didn't know until they arrived that they were going to build musical instruments. They did a wonderful job. Their instruments needed to play a diatonic scale and a simple tune in the key of C from a given list of melodies. They earned more points buy building different kinds of instruments (string, percussion, wind) and by automation the playing of the melody.
Mother Nature cooperated and didn't dump large amounts of snow in Somerville and Medford -- Thank you!
Tufts University was a wonderful host -- Thank you!
The design team who spent months designing and testing the challenge, and then collected and hauled the junk to Tufts were fabulous -- Thank you!
Our sponsors and donors who made the event and prizes possible were great -- Thank you!
If you'd like to see the pictures from each of the teams, check out the links below:
Sticks of Doom
The students rose to the challenge. They didn't know until they arrived that they were going to build musical instruments. They did a wonderful job. Their instruments needed to play a diatonic scale and a simple tune in the key of C from a given list of melodies. They earned more points buy building different kinds of instruments (string, percussion, wind) and by automation the playing of the melody.
Mother Nature cooperated and didn't dump large amounts of snow in Somerville and Medford -- Thank you!
Tufts University was a wonderful host -- Thank you!
The design team who spent months designing and testing the challenge, and then collected and hauled the junk to Tufts were fabulous -- Thank you!
Our sponsors and donors who made the event and prizes possible were great -- Thank you!
If you'd like to see the pictures from each of the teams, check out the links below:
Sticks of Doom
Monday, October 24, 2011
Implementation of the Common Core
Earlier this month, I attended the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS) on Teaching Teachers in the Era of the Common Core. Parts of the presentations are available on their conference website.
We all need to think about what we can do to help to grow the mathematical learning community that will help our students become the learners we would like them to be. There were some interesting speakers. Sybilla Beckmann, Aaron Orsick and others had some wonderful thoughts today about not only growing professional leaning communities pre-k to 20 and above around mathematics learning but growing teachers as professionals.
It is clear we need to think well-beyond our own classroom and to think about how we can reach out and help others, collaborate with others, learn from others, ... the vision many folks mentioned were thinking well-beyond pre-k to 20 to include math educators and mathematicians. In some communities, there is already collaboration between different grade levels (or levels of experience) of teachers and/or college professors of mathematics. Collaboration between teachers and the mathematical community -- each have something to learn from the other. Is this something we can be doing here in Somerville?
Friday, October 7, 2011
The Somerville Mathematics Fund is looking for students to compete in the 7th annual Scrapheap Showdown
The Somerville Mathematics fund is repeating its successful creative problem-solving competition. Head down to the Tufts University Cousens Gym, 161 College Ave. on October 30th, 2010 from 12:00 to 5:30 for a their sixth annual Scrapheap Showdown. Teams of three students who raise $75 or more in total donations can compete for prizes by solving a creative engineering problem using salvage materials provided the afternoon of the competition. The competition is open to teams of students who are all residents of Somerville and who have NOT graduated from high school. Gather your teams now! The preregistration deadline is Thursday, October 20th.
For more information and registration materials, please visit: http://www.somervillemathematicsfund.org or contact Erica Voolich at voolich@gmail.com
If you are unable to attend, please consider making a tax deductible donation to sponsor the event or to sponsor a team.
The award-winning Somerville Mathematics Fund was chartered in September 2000 to celebrate and encourage achievement in mathematics in the city of Somerville, Massachusetts. In May 2011, they were named the outstanding Dollars for Scholars chapter in New England.
The Somerville Mathematics Fund provides renewable mathematics scholarships to Somerville students (private or public school graduates) who have demonstrated outstanding mathematics achievement. In addition, The Somerville Mathematics Fund offers grants to K-12 teachers of Somerville students for projects to improve or enrich mathematics instruction in the classroom or in after-school programs. As of June, The Somerville Mathematics Fund has awarded a total of $160,000 in four-year mathematics scholarships to forty-one students and $47,921 in teacher grants to support one hundred four teachers’ projects and fifteen emergency grants to ESCS teachers after the devasting fire. If you would like to learn more, volunteer, or make a tax deductible contribution please visit www.somervillemathematicsfund.org or write to Erica Voolich at voolich@gmail.com.
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