These topics can be used in different ways. One way is as a starting point or ice breaker for very informal/chill conversations that can go off in whatever direction we want, and that possibly will naturally fall apart into several smaller conversations if the group is bigger than 3-4 people. The topics can also be discussed togheter in a bigger group, in a somewhat more seminar-like format. In that case, it is important that we help each other to keep the discussion sort of on-topic, and make sure everyone gets the chance to share some of their thoughts.
Both these formats can, of course, be combined in different proportions each meeting. In general, some kind of structure probably helps to make it feel as natural as possible for new people to come by and do a lot of talking.
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Popular Math on Youtube. People could show videos from their favorite youtube channels (Vihart and 3blue1brown ftw!) on the projector and we could talk about what differences there are between them with respect to intended audience, the topics they choose, what kind of explanations they provide, how they depict the nature of math etc.
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Mathematical Arts and Crafts. Let's share and build the favorite mathematical toys that we have encountered this far in our education. Some things are so simple that everyone can try to build them and bring back home, whereas others might be things that we can keep for a future display case. A few ideas:
- Watch (a subset of) Vihar's hexaflexagon videos and build some.
- Do Buffon's needle experiment with matches.
- Make "origami" proofs of the Pythagorean theorem and the irreducibility of
$\sqrt{2}$ . - Build a torus and a Möbius strip from a sheet of paper (and discuss the quotient topology).
- Build a few simple knots from some kind of material, and disucss how we can be sure that they are disticint.
- Build a genetic matchbox algorithm that plays a simple combinatorial subtraction game.
- Drawing dotted lines on a blackboard ;)
- The Miura fold (not sure how rich the mathematical theory behind this is, but it's really cool!
- Watch "Perplexing Paperclips" on Numbephile and build the paperclip toy ourselves.
- Maybe we know some professor that might have more ideas?
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Things Any Math Major Should Know. We could meet and (perhaps in smaller groups of say 3-4 people) try to go through some of the items on all the lists (a few are posted in the #freeform_firday# channel) of the most classical and important mathematial results that math undergraduates normally encounter. Do we know everything on these lists (I definately don'!) This is great chance to help each other fill in the blanks (cough, calculus :D) if need be, or simply just perfect our understanding of these topics! Also: how would be explain these mathematical cournerstones to someone in, say, high school or our grandma?
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A Mathematician's Lament. This is another fun (and pretty aggressive) text about mathematics. It asks important questions like what the purpose of math education is, if the current so-called "math education" has (and should have?) anything to do with "real mathematics", and if there might be a better way to teach whatever we want to teach than the way we do it today.
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Mathematical Highlights. Meet and share some of the best parts of classes we have taken this far. For example: what's the coolest theorem you learn in, say, MATH 154 or 20E, or the take-home message from MATH 163 or 150A-B? Has anyone taken any non-mathematics classes with cool mathematical content (maybe something CS, philosophy or physics related) that is worth sharing? I think it's really good to practice explaining the essence of things really fast (like as in an elevator pitch!) to someone who is more or less completely new to that certain topic. If time permits, we could also brainstorm ideas for how our favorite theorems, definitions, problems or ideas can be explained to the general public.
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Math pitches for non-mathematicians. What are your best tips for pitching mathematics when you run into non-mathematicians? I'm pretty sure that all of us have had one of those awkward conversations where someone asks what you're studying and the answer "math" is met with terrified looks and skeptical questions. What are some good answers to questions like what math really is, if it isn't insanely difficult/boring, and what it's useful for?
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Diversity in the math community. Just by taking a quick look at the list of faculty at the website of our own math department, it becomes evident that for example women and people of color are severely underrepresented in the field. Why is this happening? Is it a problem? Provided that it is a problem: what can we do about it? What can SUMS as a math club do to make people of all backgrounds feel wellcome and included? It would be really cool if we could involve people from the Women's Center or any of the other resource centers available on campus in this conversation.
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The Ideal Mathematician. There has already been some discussion about the concept of "proof" in the #random channel, but there is a whole bunch of other topics connected to this text. Like the way that mathematicians communicate their results among each other, or the way mathematicians try (and often fail) to legitimize their work to the general public.
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The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences. A famous text that I've wanted to read for a while, where Nobel laureate E. Wigner discusses what he sees as a miraculous correspondence between reality and the language of mathematics. This raises a lot of cool questions about what mathematics really is, and how the heck it can work so incredibly well :D
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Proofs and Refutations. This is (an excerpt from) another really famous text that I wish to read at some point. The philosopher Imre Lakatos compares math to science by showing what he claims to be a typical mathematical conversation. Things worth discussing could be if this is an accurate description of math, and what exactly the difference between math and science really is.
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Everyone Has a Personal Green's Theorem. A short text about how mathematics is a challange for everyone, and how that shouldn't stop us from persuing a career in mathematics.
These can -- but don't have to -- be big events like the LaTeX workshop. They can also be smaller and much more internal/informal events that we don't do a lot of advertising for. (It might, for example, be a good idea to try out new workshop ideas in that kind of small format first, before setting up a bigger event.)
- Advanced LaTeX topics.
- Proof assistants, like Isabelle or coq.
- Maple/Mathematica.
- GitHub.
- Other programming resources, such as Jupyter for Python/SciPy, or different built-in tools in Matlab.
- Making GUI's.
- Introductions to useful programming languages that many math majors might be unfamiliar with, like Haskell, R or Pearl.
- Creating mathematical graphics. Tools like GeoGebra, Inkscpae, Tikz etc.
If people know anything about the math that comes up in the movies, it would be really cool if we could briefly discuss that before or after watching the moive! Another fun topic is how these movies depict mathematic. What do they get right and what do they get wrong? Do they help making people interested in math, or do they just scare people off?
- π (1998). A wonderfully weird, number-theory-themed psychological thriller with a brilliant soundtrack.
- A Beautiful Mind (2001). This will go very well with MATH 152 which rumors have is going be about Game Theory this upcomming quarter!
- The man who knew infinity (2015). This is a really nice movie that touches upon a lot of cool topics, like the (alleged) conflict between intuition and rigor in math.
- The Imitation Game (2014).
- Good Will Hunting (1997).
Solving problems, and presenting/discussing solutions with others is a lot of fun! I personally prefer getting a chance to think through and attempt to solve a problem on my own before before discussing it with others, but I know that people are very different in that aspect. Regardless, to spend at least a few meetings on some kind of problem solving sessions would be really nice! :D
If you are looking for addition worksheets for kindergarten, you've come to the right place. There are plenty of resources out there that will provide you with great material for your little ones. From videos to downloadable worksheets, you're sure to find the perfect program. Here are some tips to help you get started. First of all, make sure your students know how to count and understand addition equations. Then, give them some practice using their fingers and small toys to demonstrate the process of addition.