What Mathematicians Do in Collaboration

Okay, the subject for this post is just a hint about the content; don’t expect news of a large-scale project involving multiple R1 institutions. I’m talking about a very specific collaboration in a small zone within our work. Namely … dealing with frustrating flaws in student reasoning in mathematics.

So, here is the context … After a recent test, I felt a need for the stress relief (aka “therapy”) due to a specific flaw in reasoning which was seen from a number of students in the class. The particular problem begins with a context dealing with the terminal velocity of a falling object. The problem provides a formula, which (upon substitution of values) leads to this equation:

30 = √(64h) [30 equals the square root of 64h]

Our office area includes several collaboration spaces, and one of them is adjacent to my office. In that space, I posted this (as part of my stress relief):

I was disturbed by the number of students who lost their algebraic reasoning when dealing with radical equations, and decided that eliminating a coefficient was best done by subtraction (perhaps just because the result is ‘nicer’ than the correct process).

A couple of days later, one of my colleagues (who has not yet confessed) posted this response:

Of course, my first reaction involved two components. First, that’s creative … why didn’t I think of that? Second, this is hilarious but probably not the reasoning my students had in mind.

Adjacent to this, the “perpetrator” posted this rationale for declaring “yes! … mod 73”.

I’m still bothered by the students’ use of the ’22’ step (and they heard about that in class the next day). However, my colleagues contribution did help me by showing a role for creativity and humor among mathematicians.

Developmental Mathematics Revival!

Bringing a new vitality to college mathematics 2011 to 2019