Showing posts with label Mathematicians. Show all posts

Books That Are About Maths, But Not About Teaching It

In the spirit of getting straight to the point without providing my entire life history, please click below for a list of books that are about maths, but not about teaching it. Read beyond the link if you'd like a bit of context.

Click here to see the list of Books that Are About Maths, But Not About Teaching It

The list has been put together at The StoryGraph^[2]: it can be browsed without creating an account and it can be searched, sorted and filtered, which I thought would be helpful as there are over 160 books.

Do Maths Teachers Think They're Mathematicians?

A topic that pops up time and time again in an online community of maths communicators that I am a member of is who gets to call themselves a mathematician?^[1] Something I've wondered for a while is how maths teachers see themselves: Do they feel comfortable referring to themselves as a "mathematician"? Do they want to be included in that set?

Tokikom. Anboto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I did the only thing that can be done in such situations: I employed that most rigorous of statistical tools, the Twitter poll.

Green's Windmill & Science Centre: Museum Review

It's not immediately obvious where Green's Windmill and Science Centre is in relation to the signposted car park, which is shared with a nursery school. It might seem strange that an entire windmill can hide behind a small school, but it took a bit of wandering before realising that there's a path to the side of the school. Once on this path the windmill came into view, the flaking paint of its white dome hinting at its age and modern usage.

George Green's windmill, a four-storey brick tower with a white dome, stands against a backdrop of fluffy white clouds floating in a blue sky on a sunny day. The sails, sticking out from behind the tour from our point of view, are bare having been stripped for maintainance. At the base of the tower is a wall covered by greenery, and in front of this is a rubbish bin on the edge of a grassy area. There is a path leading towards the viewer, and another leading off to the left. The paths join at a gap in the wall to the left of the base of the windmill, which leads into the site.

Green's Windmill & Science Centre by T. Briggs is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

It's one of those small local museums that's run by love rather than money, an observation supported by the Green's Windmill Trust plea for donations of time, money or skills to help in its mission to keep the sails turning and promote the reputation of George Green. The trust began as a small band of enthusiasts aiming to preserve a piece of local heritage, becoming a registered charity in 2012.