The Beauty of Mathematics

Within Truman State University there are many different departments.  One of them is called the Truman Institute, and one of their goals is to find or create fun and innovative learning opportunities that do not fall into the mainstream college experience.

Although new, the Truman Institute now oversees the 26 year-old program called the Joseph Baldwin Academy (or JBA) for Eminent Young Scholars.  This program is for students all over the country in 7th, 8th, or 9th grade.  It is definitely geared for high achieving students who may not be getting enough of a challenge in their classroom at home.  To learn more, visit the JBA website.   

I first taught JBA in the summer of 2010, when I taught "How to Lie with Statistics."  Since it was my first time teaching JBA I made the rooky mistake of not preparing nearly enough material.  These students gobbled up statistics as a hound dog sniffs and gobbles up any scrap of food within reach.  My first two days worth of material was gone in less than a day.

I took several years off from that experience.  In 2013, I was ready to tackle it again.  This time, instead of teaching a course in statistics, which is what I solely teach each semester, I thought I would develop a class in mathematics, something I haven't taught since the 07-08 school year.

I titled it "The Beauty of Mathematics: Elementary Problems in Quantity, Structure, and Space."  This time around I knew what to expect.  Even knowing what to expect, I still assumed I didn't and prepared 1.5 times the material I thought I would need on a given day.  It worked, and I had one of the better experiences of my life. 

Each JBA course (there were 11 during the June 8-28 session and 9 during the July 6-26 session) meets with their students for almost 6 hours a day.  My class met from 9-noon and then again after lunch from 1:15-4pm for five days a week, and then from 9-11:30am on Saturdays.  In total, we are with the students over 90 hours for three weeks.

This may seem like too much.  I agree.  How can students be engaged with mathematics for almost 6 hours a day and not burn out?  The answer is that they cannot.  Maybe other courses are different, but I feel my students would have got the same from my course (and had a similar experience) if I had them for only 3 hours a day.  In my opinion, the students would enjoy having two classes instead of one, and it would be a tremendous relief for the professors who would only have to prep for half the day.  Still, 3 hours is a long time to keep students in the classroom.

I kept to a pretty basic formula for my class.  To begin each morning session, students would wake up their brains by taking 3 minutes to find as many sets as they could (there were six total) of the 12 SET cards (see the Daily SET for instructions and to play). This game caught on quickly among the students and I do not doubt they have all asked their parents for their own game.

The morning would then be broken up by lectures and working together on worksheets.  First they would see it done a few times on the board and then work on their own problems independently or in groups.  Several activities forced students to work together and share insight.  A few students spoke up and admitted that this was a good thing for them, since they had not felt the need to do it in their classes at home.

In the afternoon, I would always open up with a mathematical card trick that I would perform a few times before handing out directions on how to perform the trick themselves.  I would also have them write out how they thought the trick worked.  Thanks to the Card Trick Teacher for the many great tricks I showed them. 

The rest of the afternoon would follow the similar morning schedule of a brief lecture followed by a worksheet to develop and test their skills.  Both the morning and afternoon sessions would be broken up with a few 10 minute breaks.  Each session may have had a computer lab element to it, or perhaps a viewing of one of the many shows that Marcus du Sutoy created, including The Story of Mathematics, The Music of the Primes, and The Code.

On the first Saturday, I took students downtown to Kirksville's Farmer's Market.  There, they were able to explore both the market and what downtown had to offer.  Many students found an ice cream shop to their favor.  On the second Saturday, I took students for a long hike behind AT Still's Thompson Campus Center.  They have over a mile of wooded trails along which is an obstacle course of several challenges.  

During our last week together, I decided that we should do something fun and create our own little version of a Harlem Shake video.  The students and preceptors both were amazing participants.  Even though it was only three weeks, when you spend so much time together, it is hard not to get attached.  There were a few students in my class who impacted me deeply, and I them.



The experience was very rewarding albeit exhausting.  It has sparked my interest in the history of mathematics and statistics.  Since JBA, I have picked up several books from the library that I am working my way through.  I have finished Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh and am close to finished with The Lady Tasting Tea by David Salsburg.

I left a few minutes at the end of our last day of class together for students to share their thoughts and feelings of their experience with The Beauty of Mathematics.  A few of them shared how it was the best class they had ever had, not without choking up a little.  They weren't alone.  I choked up right along with them.  

May in the Bay

Erin's friend Cara and her husband Mike recently had a baby girl whom they named Harper almost 4 months ago.  Erin has been itching to get out there and see her "niece" since she was born.  We made it happen last week and made our way to San Francisco (Richmond, mostly) from Wednesday evening through Sunday morning May 22-26.  

Harper living the active baby lifestyle

When we arrived at the Oakland airport, Mike, Cara, and Harper were all waiting to take us down to the In-N-Out Burger.  Although we don't go every time we go out west, we almost do.  If you are wondering why, it is because "those are good burgers, Walter." 

"Some Burgers, some beers, a few laughs..."

On Thursday morning Cara and I went to pick up coffee for everyone at Peets (yummy).  Once we got those down, we decided on some pastries from La Farine Bakery.  Following some great early morning conversation, Cara took us to Enterprise so we could pick up our little, white, four-door, Toyota Yaris for the weekend.  The Yaris provided a lovely drive over the Bay Bridge and up to Santa Rosa where we stopped at Russian River Brewing Company where we spent over two hours.

Erin and I ordered a sampler and the Nu Deal with added garlic from the pub menu. They had an amazing selection of IPAs including one brewed with 100% Simcoe hops called "Row 2, Hill 56."  Their Blind Pig IPA and Pliny the Elder were also fantastic.  Of their wild ales, I found Supplication to be my favorite followed closely by Consecration and Sanctification.  With a BeerAdvocate rating of 98, Russian River is considered a "World-Class" brewery.

To kill some time before dinner and to let our lunch and noonday beers settle, we checked into our hotel in Healdsburg.  Erin wouldn't let me take a nap, so we headed to downtown Healdsburg to get a coffee first at  Flying Goat Coffee.  Erin ordered an Aztec Mocha which was spicy and delicious.

We decided to try some wine, so we stopped in at the Hawley Tasting Room & Gallery.  John Hawley has come to Kirksville a time or two to do wine tastings at the country club.  Since we had tasted and enjoyed Hawley wine before, we thought we would stop in to their location in Healdsburg to say hello.

Hawley Tasting Room & Gallery

An FFA parade was about to roll through town to kick off the Memorial Day weekend, so we got ourselves some very coveted seats right inside the open windows of Windsor Vineyards Tasting Room.  We were able to see most of the parade from there while having a flight of wine and then selecting a bottle of Carignane to enjoy.  

By the time we made it to Bear Republic we were both warm and fuzzy all over.  We ordered a sampler and the Mega Roasted Garlic, which was described as "Gilroy Elephant garlic, roasted in olive oil, white wine and herbs. Served with brie, green apples, roasted red peppers and crostini."  We get really pumped about our food.  I can't remember what I got as a main course.  I barely touched it.  Back at the hotel, I almost passed out while it was still light out.  Maybe I was still suffering from jet lag.

On Friday, I slept all the way back to Mike and Cara's while Erin drove.  They took us to Viks for lunch which served South Indian food.  I had some Masala Dosa, and Erin ordered Aloo Tikki Cholle and Samosa Cholle.  If this place was in Kirksville, it is possible it could survive on Erin's and my business alone.

After lunch, Mike took over some babysitting duties (thanks, Mike) and Cara joined Erin and me to go sailing in the Bay.  We met Erin's aunt and uncle (Mary Jo and Jim) at their condo in Point Richmond.  They were taking us with them for their first sailing outing of the year.  None of us had been sailing before, so I went to school.  I learned a lot and could see myself easily getting into something like this.

Even though we had some beers on the sailboat, sailing did make us ravenous.  We said our thank yous and good byes (a postcard will also be sent their way: Thanks Mary Jo and Jim) and headed back to pick up Mike and Harper to go to dinner.  They took us to Talevera Cafe in Berkeley.  I had Lamb Barbecoa and Erin had Mole Guajillo.  If you can't tell, it made us very happy.

Mmmmmmm..... Foooooooood.

Saturday morning found us traveling down to the Ferry Building and the farmer's market.  I picked up some post cards to send out and enjoyed a veggie spring roll.  We found some beer to drink that afternoon (Rodenbach Grand Cru and Sculpin IPA).  After taking these great photos next to the Ferry Building, we walked to Tony's Pizza Napoletana. 

Tony's opened at noon, and we got there a little before.  We found a line going down the block in anticipation of it opening.  Yes, it was that good.  Cara ordered her favorite fries to share, the Lillet Blanc Fries which had smoked pancetta, honey, and parmigiano.  We also ordered a small Margherita Pizza (wood fired at 900 degrees) and a large New Yorker (coal fired at 1000 degrees).  I had a pint of 90 Minute Dogfish Head IPA to go along with this taste bud orgy.  

Cara and the Lillet Blanc Fries

Mike teaching Harper all about Tony's

Margharita and the New Yorker (with 90 Minute IPA)

Erin and I found it funny that Mike and Cara didn't think we would finish all of the pizza.  Indeed, we consumed it all.  There was nothing left.  This is the Shaw way.  We walked back to the car and were going to spend some time at The Trappist, but Harper got us kicked out.  So, we went back to Mike and Cara's for the drinking of the Grand Cru and Sculpin IPA.  

This was so fucking good. 

I'm not sure how this was possible, but we got hungry again.  To enjoy Sichuan Fusion in the best way possible requires a large table with the rotating table server in the center.  Thus, Mike invited their most excellent neighbors Kyle and Brandy to join us.  We dined Indiana Jones style.  I can't tell you what we ordered exactly, but when going from one plate to the next and even back again, each dish that I tasted was my new favorite.  I'm not sure how that was possible, but it happened. 

What a fun trip.  Mike, Cara, and Harper were such great hosts.  They said we were good guests, too, and that we should come again sometime.  Hopefully they meant it, because we totally will be.   

School's Out: Summer Plans

It has been almost two months since I posted my controversial correlation between religion and ACT scores. It got quite a bit more attention than I had anticipated.  Although I was not intending to upset anyone, I knew that people would be upset.  When data and facts get in the way of what somebody believes, the emotions of those that are slaves to a sole way of thinking run rampant and their underpants get wadded up in a bunch.  Instead of thinking about what one can learn about the correlation posed, many people will immediately think that it cannot possibly be true and there is an explanation around it.  *Sigh*  Enough about that.

Like the title suggests, I'm done with classes for the summer.  But this will hardly be a summer like my others.  I will be officially taking over chair duties of the newly formed Statistics Department at Truman State University on July 1.  Meanwhile, I will be keeping busy with the transition process.  I will be attending a conference in Indianapolis July 11-13 hosted by the CCAS (Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences) which is specifically for department chairs.

Another huge thing on my plate this summer will be teaching JBA (Joseph Baldwin Academy) again.  This is a three week (June 8-29), highly intensive class with gifted 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students that come from all different parts of the country, mostly from Missouri.  I have been busy preparing for this since classes ended.  It will come close to sucking the life out of me.  These classes meet for 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon 5 days a week, and 3 hours in the morning on Saturday.  The course I will be teaching is titled The Beauty of Mathematics: Elementary Problems in Quantity, Structure, and Space.

Summer also means softball.  Like last summer, our large group of interested players have split into two men's recreational teams that play on Thursday evenings and one co-rec team that will play on Sundays.  Although I will probably see playing time on all three, the team that I will manage and give the most energy to will be the One Hit Wonders this year.

Erin and I will be traveling to San Francisco from May 22-26. We are going primarily to see her good friend Cara and her husband Mike's new baby girl Harper.  I'm sure we'll find some time to sample a few great beers from around the area.

My fifth Ragbrai will take place June 21-27.  I plan to make a mini-documentary of this week long bike ride across Iowa.  This will be one of the easiest years to date.  It is both short and not that hilly.  This will give me plenty of time to get some fun shots of interesting people.  This year, I will know a few more people going from Kirksville, so I will have a few more familiar faces on the ride.

Religion vs. ACT Scores in America

While I was doing some leisure reading and enjoying Taos, NM over Spring Break, a research question came to mind.  How religious is each state in America?  Along with that, how intelligent is each state on average?  The reason this came to mind is that through my own personal experience, I noticed I was able to break through the boundaries of my thinking back when I was religious and become, in my own opinion, much more intelligent.

Pretty quickly I found some data that Gallup collected on March 27, 2012 regarding how religious individuals felt.  Nationally, about 40% of Americans are very religious, in that they attend church services and believe religion to be a very important part of their lives.  Only 28% of Americans see themselves as moderately religious, where religion isn't that important but they attend services or they may feel it is important but don't attend services often.  The growing number is those Americans who feel they are not religious, as 32% fit into this category [see Gallup poll].

It turns out Mississippi is the most religious state, with Utah and Alabama coming in second and third respectively.  The least religious states in America (which also happen to be the most non-religious states) are Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.  Although Mississippi and Alabama are also the top two least non-religious states, there are at least 17 states that have fewer non-religious people than Utah.  I found that interesting.

The average ACT scores of graduating students is hardly a measure of the overall intelligence of a state, but it is one measure.  The ACT website had data on 2012 graduates from all 50 states, including the composite average and averages in Math, English, Reading, and Science.  I've put both the religious and ACT data in an Excel file that you can obtain here.

It turns out Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky have the lowest three average math ACT scores, while Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut have the highest three math ACT scores.

I fit a total of fifteen different simple linear regressions relating my response variable of either Percent of Very Religious (y1), Percent of Moderately Religious (y2), or Percent of Not Religious (y3), to one of five independent variables Composite ACT (x1), English (x2), Math (x3), Reading (x4), and Science (x5).

Here were the t values for the coefficients that go with each independent variable and the coefficient of determination for each regression:

Most likely, you're not a math person, and you're wondering what the hell this is telling you.  This is telling you that the average Math ACT score in a state is a very significant predictor of whether a state is Very Religious or Not Religious.  Here are some graphs that may help you see what is going on. 

The larger the percentage of "Very Religious" people in the state, the lower the average Math ACT score is in that state.

The larger the percentage of "Not Religious" in a state, the larger the average ACT Math score is in that state.  

Please note: this in no way shows or proves causation!  But isn't the correlation interesting?  There are many other variables at play here, no doubt, but nobody can argue that there is not a correlation between how religious a state is and how well they do on their Math ACT.  

This was the most fun I had with statistics since I've been alive. 

The Changing Tide

The issue of gay marriage has come up again and again over the years.  It reminds me of a steadily rising tide as we near dusk.  The waves have finally shown their white caps.  Now, it is time to grab a surf board and enjoy the glorious ride to its inevitable beautiful conclusion.

What led to this massive wave?  On March 7th, Bill Clinton wrote a piece for the Washington Post calling to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which he signed into law in 1996. On March 15th, Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio publicly backed gay marriage after his son came out as being gay. On March 26th, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) held hearings on Propostion 8.  Today (March 27th), SCOTUS will question the constitutionality of DOMA.

The Rising Tide (from FiveThirtyEight Blog)

Gay marriage is still not allowed in Missouri.  Since this is the case, academic institutions across the state which are full of forward thinking individuals have had to juggle around this injustice to offer employees in a committed same-sex relationship the same benefits and privileges as other employees that are married.  Truman State University is only now considering these benefits.  A joint resolution to encourage the board to act immediately in extending these benefits to domestic partners has already passed the Student Senate unanimously.  It is on the agenda of the Faculty Senate for tomorrow (March 28th).

Everywhere around me is the topic of gay marriage.  It is unavoidable.  I've already weighed in my opinion with my blog "Who will I vote for?" Since then, I've heard many other arguments against gay marriage.  They have all been discredited in some way or another.  I am closing in on a saturation point of arguments for and against.  Here is how all of them go in my head: 

Someone arguing against gay marriage tries to makes point A or argument B that does not support gay marriage.  I simply point out that point A or argument B is not anywhere in the vicinity of being as important to me as the equal treatment of all human beings, and that I find it appalling that their point A or argument B is MORE important to them than the equal treatment of all human beings.  

Usually at this point, the individual provides some song or dance around the issue of equality for all.  It is quite amusing to me to watch those that oppose gay marriage to dance around this issue.  They try their best to somehow justify their stance while sweeping this equality thing under the carpet.  But here we come, lifting the carpet back up and pointing at what is underneath.  Shame on them. 

If you are one to oppose gay marriage, shame on you for placing yourself on some high horse, where you may look down upon those you don't understand and say, "No, I will not grant you these rights and privileges that I enjoy."  Shame on you for thinking for a second that you have the right to pass judgement.  Shame on you for placing more weight in a definition, then the freedoms of "those other" people.  

Taos: Day 5

Surprisingly, I was not sore at all on the morning after my ski trip.  The only discomfort I experienced was the ongoing congestion that refuses to go away.

I woke up Erin when I got hungry because we had plans to eat breakfast at Michael's Kitchen, one of Taos's best restaurants for breakfast.  To continue the New Mexican theme, I ordered Huevos Rancheros with green chilis and hash browns and Erin had the Breakfast Enchilada with green chilis.  She sat in front of a picture window, so it was hard to concentrate on what she was saying with the view behind her. 

The View from my seat at Michael's

Naps and more relaxation were needed in the late morning.  I decided to walk to the Wired ? Cafe around noon for another attempt at getting some grading done.  I enjoyed a Blueberry and Pineapple Smoothie with an apple juice base as I graded two of five pages for both sections of my statistics classes.

Around 4 pm, Erin easily talked me into a hike along the Rio Grande Gorge.  The day was a gorgeous one.  We didn't hike very far, but far enough to sit on a bench dedicated to Keri & Amy (whoever they are) where I got a video of the gorge and the surrounding countryside.

Rio Grande Gorge

The hike got us hungry for ice cream, and the Taos Cow was mooing.  We took a drive over to Arroyo Seco (on the drive from Taos to Taos Ski Valley) where you will find one of the smallest communities that thrives on the traffic to and fro the Ski Valley.  I ordered a double scoop with White Chocolate Pistachio and Pinon Caramel on a waffle cone and Erin had a double scoop with Raspberry and Coffee ice creams on a waffle cone.  We sat outside on the long deck full of tables, chairs, and chili ristras to enjoy our ice cream.  

These are chili ristras (because I know you were wondering)

We took a drive and found a good place to watch the sunset if we wanted to come back a few hours later.  Instead, we stopped at a liquor store called The Old Blinking Stoplight (OBL) to buy the beer that people requested back home and a few extra six-packs just in case.  We also stopped at Smith's for some salsa requests.  Again, we picked up a few others just in case. 

Our dinner choice was the Gorge Bar & Grille which is on the Taos Plaza.  I ordered a margarita "old school" style, in which they do not put that American sweet & sour shit.  It is just tequila, orange liquor, and a half fresh squeezed lime.  Thank you very much!  I had a green chili grilled cheese with a black bean soup and Erin had a club sandwich.  

That was our last hoorah in Taos.  That evening we packed and cleaned the place up for a 5:30 am departure.  We had a great time and look forward to visiting again when her folks are actually down there.  I really like fact that I will have a place to ski and snowboard on a regular basis!

Taos: Day 4

At 6:40 Wednesday morning, I got up and dressed, fixed some coffee and a big bowl of cereal, drank a lot of water, and then hit the road for Taos Ski Valley.  I timed it almost perfectly as I arrived around 8 am.  That gave me an hour to rent some boots and skis, buy a lift ticket, rent a locker to put stuff into, and twiddle my thumbs for a few moments before the lift began operating.  I was fourth on the lift!

At the Base of Taos Ski Valley 

 The first time down was much better than my first time down with the snowboard a year and a half ago.  I only fell down a few times getting used to the skis.  I consider that quite an accomplishment.  For the first few runs, I stuck with the green routes (easy ones), and briefly thought that these would be the only ones I would ski for the day.  That idea got thrown out quickly, as I did venture to a few blue routes.  Since 2000 was the last year I had skied, and I like not being covered in bruises, I did not venture any further to the black diamond routes.

At the top of Taos Ski Valley

I had lunch a little after 11 am in the middle of the mountain at a place called Whistlestop.  I ordered a coffee, Powerade, a Clif Bar, and a spinach and mushroom crepe, all of which I downed in one setting.  Eating just got in the way of skiing the way I saw it, so I couldn't eat fast enough.

Although the lifts were open until 4:30, my mind and body were done at 2:30, so I beat the crowd and traffic by leaving a little early.  It was quick and easy retrieving my stuff from my locker and turning my boots and skis back in.

Erin wasn't expecting me back so soon, so that gave me plenty of time to have a big snack, shower, and take a long nap.  Around 5 she was done working (transcribing interviews for dissertation) and we went for a night on the town.

It started at Taos Mesa Brewing Company for appetizers and drinks.  We had some Green Chili Corn Fritters with a Green Chili Cheddar Ale dipping sauce and some chicken taquitos served with their homemade salsa.  I enjoyed a pint of their Superstitious Stout and 13 oz. of Crosseyed, their double IPA.  We listened to a band called The Paragraphs while enjoying our tasty beverages.

Near Sunset at Taos Mesa Brewing Company

For the third time this trip, we returned to Dragonfly Cafe (Erin's favorite restaurant in Taos) for Wednesday evening's Tapas and Wine Flights.  We ordered clams baked with chorizo and tomatoes served with grilled crostini, Brie with Medjool and black dates served with crostini, and an Indian spiced cabbage salad with grilled swordfish and smoked paprika aioli.  Our Italian wine flight consisted of three half pours of Prosecco sparkling wine, Bollini Pinot Grigio, and Fiano di Avellion.  On the table was a basket of apricot bread and Gorgonzola biscuits.

The Wine Flight at Dragonfly

By the end of the dinner and wine flight, I was ready to collapse from exhaustion.  It did not take long for me to pass out back at the house.  Although we have one more day to spend in Taos, it will be hard to top this one.