Borland Educational News and Views

How To Fail A Test With Dignity

2010-05-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you just can't win. In that case, there's no harm or shame in surrender.

So why not have a sense of humor about it?

These students tried and failed, but succeeded in turning their loss into laughs.

Enjoy!

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(blank line)
Who says failure can't be fun?

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Copyright © 2010 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Will Google Supplant The Dictionary?

2009-11-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

It's not much of an exaggeration to say that Google knows everything.

Nowadays, thanks to the preeminant internet search engine, reference books the world over are gathering dust. No longer are phone books, encyclopedias, newspapers, or maps things which all people must own.

But it seems Google has turned even the venerable dictionary, former mainstay of every self-respecting home or business library, into an unnecessary, out-dated info-relic destined for relegation to garage sales and recycling bins everywhere.

A recent Wall Street Journal article by Julia Angwin highlights the ways in which those functions most often fulfilled by dictionaries – checking spelling, finding definitions, locating sample sentences, etc. – can now be carried out more effectively and efficiently using a Google single-word search:

These days, however, Google is our database of meaning. Want to know how to spell assiduous? Type it incorrectly and Google will reply, in its kind-hearted way: "Did you mean: assiduous"? Why yes, Google, I did.

Google then spits out a bunch of links to Web definitions for assiduous. Without clicking on any of them, the two-sentence summaries below each link give me enough to get a sense of the word: "hard working," and "diligent."

Still not satisfied? Fine, click on the Google "News" tab – and you will be directed to a page of links where the word assiduous appears in news stories. Presto, sample sentences and usage examples.

"You and I can be our own lexicographers now," says Barbara Wallraff, the longtime language columnist for The Atlantic magazine. "We don't need dictionaries."

Aside from the tips given in the article, internet users can use Google as a kind of "super-thesaurus," conducting "reverse definition" word searches constructed in the following format (typed directly into a Google search field without quote marks):

"word meaning X" (where X is a short definition of the word you wish to find)

For example, here's the reverse word search I just used to come up with the word "esoteric" that I needed for the last paragraph in this post:

"word meaning information available only to a select few"

The article also sings the praises of a wonderful online dictionary that everyone should have in their bookmarks list. Wordnik provides easy access to definitions from a variety of major online dictionaries, but then goes a step farther by listing a host of sample sentences for each word studied taken from unimpeachable academic sources as well as from current newspaper usage and vernacular found on Twitter.

Dictionaries still have a place for those requiring more obscure information about particular words: etymology, history, esoteric definitions, etc. But as Angwin's WSJ piece suggests, Google has already become all the dictionary most people will ever need.

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

SAT Scores Stratified, In Decline

2009-11-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

Newly released results show SAT scores have declined since just before the introduction of the writing section and 2400 point system in 2006. During the fifteen years or so prior to that period, SAT scores had been on the rise.

The new data also show SAT scores sharply stratified according to race and family income, and will no doubt lead to increased criticism of the test as an unreliable measure of academic performance and potential.

A Huffington Post article by Justin Pope goes into detail (excerpts follow):

Results released Tuesday show the high school class of 2009 earned a combined score of 1509 on the three sections of the exam, down two points from last year.

Men also widened their advantage over women by 3 points; men scored 1523 on average compared to 1496 for women. The difference comes mostly from math scores.

Students reporting their families earned over $200,000 scored 1702, up 26 points from a year ago. That group is comparatively small, but the sharp increase could fuel further criticism the exam favors students who can afford expensive test-prep tutoring.

... Asian-Americans, whose average combined score surged 13 points to a combined 1623, while scores for whites fell 2 points to 1581. For black students, average scores dropped 4 points to 1276. Average scores for two of the three categories the College Board uses for identifying Hispanics also declined, and overall ranged from 1345 to 1364.

Whatever Asian-Americans are doing, educators want to bottle it.

"For students who are planning to attend college, there's this one group that's outperforming everybody," said Seppy Basili, senior vice president at Kaplan Test Prep. "So what is it about this group? Can we do something to study it?"

Unquestionably, the SAT is a highly coachable test. It's really no big deal to raise an average student's score hundreds of points after several hours of private coaching and a few carefully critiqued practice tests.

Although I make my living party by training students to improve their SAT scores, I've long been a strident critic of the test. The SAT outlived any true usefulness, if it ever had any, many years ago.

Click here to read another post I've written on the subject of the inequity inherent in the SAT, and what it reveals about the worrisome trajectory of modern American culture.

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

A Class On Stupid

2009-10-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Is it me? Or is this just plain ... dumb?

Students at Occidental College can now take a class that's genuinely daft. Critical Theory and Social Justice 180 is titled, simply, "Stupidity."

It's hard to decide which is most stupid: the very notion of a major American university offering a (way too) serious course on stupidity, the course description (a truly masterful example of vacuous academic jargon), or the kind of dazed and confused cultural context that could give rise so such things in the first place (tellingly, "United States" is listed as the core course requirement this class fulfills).

The deep, dizzying, decussate levels of irony here are so numerous and humorous it's hard to know where or how to begin comment on them.

From the Occidental College catalog:

180. STUPIDITY.

Stupidity is neither ignorance nor organicity, but rather, a corollary of knowing and an element of normalcy, the double of intelligence rather than its opposite. It is an artifact of our nature as finite beings and one of the most powerful determinants of human destiny. Stupidity is always the name of the Other, and it is the sign of the feminine. This course in Critical Psychology follows the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Gilles Deleuze, and most recently, Avital Ronell, in a philosophical examination of those operations and technologies that we conduct in order to render ourselves uncomprehending. Stupidity, which has been evicted from the philosophical premises and dumbed down by psychometric psychology, has returned in the postmodern discourse against Nation, Self, and Truth and makes itself felt in political life ranging from the presidency to Beavis and Butthead. This course examines stupidity.

No, really. I swear. That's the actual course description.

Click here to see for yourself.

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive

2009-10-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Math teachers, students, and other math enthusiasts will absolutely love the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive (MHMA) published online by the School of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland (the third oldest university in the English speaking world, founded in 1413).

This comprehensive site allows users easy access to thousands of biographies of important mathematicians throughout the ages, informative articles on hundreds of math history topics, treatises on dozens of famous mathematical curves, fascinating time lines of mathematicians' lifetimes and key events in math history, a helpful glossary of mathematical terminology, indices of female mathematicians and math educational history, and links to other noteworthy math history sites.

Math fans can spend many enjoyable and informative hours on the MHMA. The articles and other resources it contains combine rigor with accessibility as scholarly works that nevertheless remain perfectly intelligible, interesting, and useful to the lay reader lacking a mathematics degree. It's no wonder the site gets two million hits per week and almost one million unique visitors per month.

One of my favorite sections is the quotations index, which lists pithy quotations by famous mathematical figures.

Here are a few gems I lifted from this area of the site:

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George Pólya

The first rule of discovery is to have brains and good luck. The second rule of discovery is to sit tight and wait till you get a bright idea.

To teach effectively a teacher must develop a feeling for his subject; he cannot make his students sense its vitality if he does not sense it himself. He cannot share his enthusiasm when he has no enthusiasm to share. How he makes his point may be as important as the point he makes; he must personally feel it to be important.

A mathematics teacher is a midwife to ideas.

Look around when you have got your first mushroom or made your first discovery: they grow in clusters.

A GREAT discovery solves a great problem, but there is a grain of discovery in the solution of any problem. Your problem may be modest, but if it challenges your curiosity and brings into play your inventive faculties, and if you solve it by your own means, you may experience the tension and enjoy the triumph of discovery.

Bertrand Russell

The method of "postulating" what we want has many advantages; they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil.

The desire to understand the world and the desire to reform it are the two great engines of progress.

Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree or certainty which the evidence warrants, would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world suffers.

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Check here for the MHMA biography of Zeno of Elea, here for a discussion of the epicycloid curve (here for the Java-enabled version), here for a index of chronologies of important discoveries in mathematics, here for an index of time lines of mathematicians, here for the quotations index, and here for topics in the history of mathematics education.

If you like numbers, and you enjoy history, you'll love MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive.

See you there!

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

The Myth of Multitasking

2009-09-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Does multitasking work? In a word ... no.

Though ardent multitaskers may deny it, study after study show that unitasking, tending to only one main task at a time, is clearly more efficient, effective, and productive way to get things done than attempting to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously.

Author Steven Aitchison put it this way:

How many times have you heard someone say, "I get so much done because I am able to multitask"? Usually said with a smug little grin. Whilst it has been a popular thing to be able to attempt, multitasking is on its way out of our lives, that is if we really do want to become more efficient and productive.

  It has been shown in numerous studies that people who try and multitask actually lose efficiency and productivity levels drop. The guy on the phone, checking his emails whilst telling their work colleague what to do maybe be doing three things at once however he is doing three things at once very badly and not efficiently enough to be doing the job correctly.  Studies by Professor David Meyer at University of Michigan showed that young adults who had to perform two math tasks, back and forth, showed that it took longer doing the tasks this way than it would have if they had done them separately.

To read the entire article, click here.

While some limited multitasking can be a good idea, common sense dictates that one can pay full attention to only one mental processing task at a time. Many workers and students, put off by the boredom inherently a part of certain necessary activities and overwhelmed by the mountain of stuff they have to do, will dogmatically insist that multitasking works really well "for them" (thank you very much ...), and resist with gusto the whole concept of unitasking.

That's too bad, because by doing so habitual multitaskers are actually setting themselves up for increased stress, decreased productivity, and frantic, rushed mindlessness that characterizes the moment-to-moment experience so many of us have of our lives, today.

If you're still not convinced, click here for a list of LifeHacker articles that put the multitasking argument into proper perspective.

Click here to read about one man's quest to heal himself of frenzied "multitasking madness" in 30 days.

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

The Highest Scores Money Can Buy

2009-09-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

It's a sad but salient fact that SAT scores correlate extremely well to family income.

The greater the wealth of one's family, the higher one's SAT scores tend to be, and this discrepancy is most pronounced at the upper and lower ends of the income scale.

The obvious explanation is that affluent families can afford to buy the best in academic enhancements like private school tuition, special programs, tutors, coaches, and other advantages. Amidst increasing economic inequality and decreasing social mobility in modern American, it's increasingly true that money buys academic achievement, higher SAT scores, and attending economic opportunities.

An excellent article in the New York Times goes into detail.

As a professional academic coach, I know this to be so. My students succeed where others fail because they can afford to pay me to help them. Consistent with the law of supply and demand, the most experienced and capable academic coaches charge very high fees that only the affluent can bear.

Isn't it just a bit hypocritical for someone like me, who makes a living by exploiting the unusual ability of wealthy families to hire private teachers to make sure their children are successful in school, to complain about the foundational inequity at the root of the entire private education industry?

Guilty as charged.

Although the complete eradication of social inequality is neither possible nor desirable in a capitalistic society, I do maintain that severely tempering educational inequality would be a very good thing. Basic education at all levels should be much more equally available (and a LOT less expensive) in America. If necessary, I could simply find another job.

America currently finds herself fighting for her life in what Thom Hartmann has described as the self-destructive cancer stage of capitalism ... the final chapter in the story in which greedy, consumptive, parasitic instincts inherent to the capitalist system begin to eat and ultimately destroy the system itself and bring to ruin any society which rests upon it. At this critical point, the elimination of gross economic inequality is not only possible and desirable in our society, but essential for its survival.

Just as we cannot rely on foxes to guard hen houses, markets cannot responsibly police themselves. After the near economic meltdown we've just been through, I think this conclusion should be obvious to all but the most delusional "free marketeers." In the face of such terrifying and overwhelming evidence, even neo-liberal cheerleader and Ayn Rand acolyte Alan Greenspan has had to admit he was wrong about the "innate evil" of government regulation.

More and more, success in America requires prior success. We are, in fact, witnessing the death of the American Dream. A society in which achievement and advancement are based largely upon heredity and family wealth is fundamentally incompatible with basic moral, ethical, and democratic ideals such as meritocracy, fair play, and freedom. The rest of the developed world already understands this.

Eventually, we Americans will learn the same lesson. (Perhaps it's more accurate to say "relearn," since this truth was first realized by Americans during the Great Depression of the 1930's.)

I just hope we won't have to learn it (or relearn it) the hard way.

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Best Cities For Job-Seeking Grads

2009-08-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

After years of acquiring arcane knowledge in challenging classes and performing arduous tasks dictated by their professorial overlords, recent college grads are handed a final assignment to complete with alacrity and general excellence: get a good job with your shiny, new diploma.

Where in America are newly graduated scholars most likely to find gainful employment? Turns out they may not have to leave their off-campus housing. As it happens, an abundance of research activity and highly skilled workers means that bustling university towns are great for business, and an excellent place to look for that first job out of college.

An article on the abcNEWS Money web site explains:

Research universities tend to be great environments for business, as they're flush with cheap, highly talented labor (recent grads), and the massive research and development budgets universities have. Plenty of the world's top companies, including Dell, Cisco Systems and Google, began in university settings.

Universities provide the future educated labor force and are centers of innovation, which creates an ideal ecosystem for start-ups," says Antonio Ubalde, chief executive of ZoomProspector.com, a San Francisco-based corporate relocation and start-up consulting firm. He notes that new technologies developed in many schools wind up growing into businesses of their own: "Research universities spin off academic innovations into commercial enterprises."

In general, college towns also tend to be more interesting places in which to live, with the kind of well-developed cultural and intellectual diversity that can help keep sharp minds happy, healthy, and growing. Strong economic environments and the ever-present need for student housing also makes real estate in university burgs a better than average investment.

As an adjunct to the abcNEWS article, Forbes.com lists job growth, university employment, and other details about the cities that made the list of their "Top College Towns for Jobs" (click here to view the slideshow).

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

How Much College Debt Is Too Much?

2009-08-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

As tuition increases make higher education harder and harder for average American families to afford, more and more are now forced to consider "mortgaging the farm" to get kids through college.

The average college grad leaves school with $20,000 debt collar wrapped around his or her diploma, and while this is not a catastrophic sum, the question of where to draw the line concerning college debt is certainly an important one for students and parents to consider, especially during uncertain economic times.

An interesting and informative article by Kim Clark in U.S. News and World Report discusses the details:

One third of all new bachelor's degree recipients in June of 2008 started their working lives without owing a penny in federal or private educational debt. Only 10 percent of last year's graduates owed more than $40,000, according to the lead author of the report, College Board researcher Patricia Steele. (She did not count credit card debt or other noneducational liabilities such as car loans.)

The median borrower graduated last year owing almost $19,999, a $1,026 increase from the typical debt load of 2004 graduates. "Most people would say that is a reasonable amount of debt to take on for a baccalaureate degree," especially if students stick with federal loans, which now allow borrowers to adjust their payments to their income, Steele says.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent Bloomberg interview that unless colleges whose tuition schedules are "out of whack with reality" manage to reign in the cost of education they could soon find themselves pricing themselves into irrelevance as consumers turn increasingly to "no-frill" institutions offering less expensive three-year degree programs and other cost-cutting measures.

With real family incomes in retreat, and textbook prices going through the roof, even budget-conscious students at low-cost community colleges are often finding it difficult to make ends meet without taking on sometimes oppressive levels of educational debt.

For those about to face the prospect of taking out substantial student loans, this short piece by Associated Press outlines important things to keep in mind.

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Are Our Boys In Crisis?

2009-07-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Growing up has never been easy, but the evidence indicates that it's been getting a whole lot tougher in recent years for boys. While the feminist movement has brought much needed attention to issues facing girls and young women in our culture during the past two decades, a similar commitment to critical issues facing boys and young men has failed to materialize.

One result is that from 1995 to 2005 males 15 to 24 years old were more than five times more likely to commit suicide than were females of the same age.

According to William S. Pollack, director of the Centers for Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital (Harvard Medical School), psychological, educational, and other problems affecting male youths have worsened to such a degree that the word "crisis" may well be required to adequately describe them.

Rachael Rettner recently penned an informative and sobering article on this subject for LiveScience.com (excerpts follow):

"... it tends to be boys whose deeper problems are not looked into, and for whom programs that exist are not funded ... that’s absolutely true."

... compared with girls, American boys have lower literacy rates, lower grades, less engagement during school and higher drop-out rates. Boys also have higher rates of suicide, arrests and premature death.

... From 1995 to 2005, the rate of suicide among 20 to 24 year-old boys was 20.7 suicides per 100,000, while the rate for girls was just 3.5 per 100,000. Among 15 to 19 year olds, the rates were 12.5 per 100,000 for boys and 2.8 per 100,000 for girls.

An expert quoted in Rettner's article brings attention to the alarming increase in the gender gap with regard to suicide rates. In 1933 young males killed themselves 1.54 times more often than did young females, but by 2005 the rate among males had grown to 4.63 times the female rate. It's a profound and deeply disturbing fact that in just over 70 years, the suicide gap has fully tripled in size.

These numbers are a real punch in the gut.

How are we so favoring one gender and ignoring the other in so many critical areas that such brutal, heart-bruising statistics could come to reflect reality in our society?  

Certainly, our girls and young women deserve all the help and dedicated, devoted attention we can give them. But we've got to start earnestly and deliberately addressing the emergency affecting our young men, who we love no less, and who at present are, apparently, in even greater need of rescue.

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Enter The Three-Year Degree

2009-06-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

With college costs skyrocketing, the economy contracting, and America falling behind international competitors in the all-important educational arena, is the three-year undergraduate degree an "idea whose time has come?"

Although the four-year degree has been the predominant model for higher education in the U.S. since before the Declaration of Independence, three-year degrees are standard at England's Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and more than a few American colleges have been experimenting with the "express degree" idea for some time, now.

The idea has it's adherents as well as it's naysayers. Molly Corbett Broad, current president of the non-profit American Council on Education and former president of the University of North Carolina, lauds the idea. Derek Bok, president emeritus of Harvard, is a detractor.

From an article appearing last May in the Washington Post:

At Chatham University in Pittsburgh, a three-year bachelor of interior architecture will be offered without summer courses, allowing students to get into the job market a year earlier, school officials said. School officials reconfigured the four-year degree by cutting the studio classes from 14 weeks to seven.

"It's a creative solution to a lot of different things," said program director Lori Alexander. "Students enter the workforce quicker, they save a year of tuition and they can go on sooner for graduate study. And no, they aren't missing anything. Academic quality stays the same."

If three years is too long to wait, Purdue University's College of Technology has begun offering a two-year bachelor's degree!

Are quickie degrees a good idea?

Undoubtedly, for those able to handle the increased work and stress load, the economic savings and other advantages may outweigh the downside of compressing the traditional four-year undergraduate education into just three years. For those more affluent students unable or unwilling to give up their non-academic lives for three years of ultra-intense academic commitment, however, the four-year model will almost certainly be a better fit.

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

How To Save Thousands On Textbooks

2009-06-26T12:00:00.001-07:00

Textbooks demand scandalously high prices these days. It's nothing for math and science texts to cost more than $150 apiece, and list price on some books has soared to more than $200! That means that today's college students can easily spend well over $1000 or more on textbooks alone in a single year.

Excerpts from a recent article in the Pittsburg Post-Gazzette:

Like college tuition, the price of textbooks has soared faster than inflation. From 1986 to 2004, textbook prices nearly tripled, according to a Government Accountability Office report in 2005.

Nationwide, the GAO figured that textbooks were about a fourth of the cost of tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities and as much as three-quarters of the cost of tuition and fees at two-year public institutions.

Fortunately, there's a simple way to avoid falling victim to the college textbook extortion racket: ditch the college bookstore ... and buy new, used, or previous editions online!

Over the course of a four year college education, this tip plus a little disciplined research could easily save students and parents thousands of dollars.

Start by putting together a reliable list of the exact titles and ISBN numbers of all textbooks you'll be required to obtain for your classes during the upcoming semester (give yourself more time to save money and avoid problems by doing this as far in advance as possible).

To begin shopping, first search for the books you need by title, author, and/or ISBN on Amazon. It's possible to save nearly 30% or more when buying new books through Amazon or other online book dealers instead of at college bookstores, and even more (over 70%!) by buying used books online (at amazon, just click on the "... used" link a few inches below the title on the book's product page).

In addition to amazon, a host of online textbook price comparison sites like DealOz, CheapestTextbooks, and BookFinder enable one to directly compare prices of new and used textbooks offered for sale online at drastically reduced prices.

The latest edition of a given text is, of course, going to be the most expensive. But if the course instructor will allow students to use a previous edition rather than the most current one (it doesn't hurt to ask!), you could save nearly 70% on a brand new book by buying it online.

When buying textbooks online, whether new or used, it's a good idea to buy only from highly rated merchants (DealOz and Amazon provide this important information when doing book searches; CheapestTextbooks and BookFinder do not); otherwise, if your books don't arrive in a timely fashion or in acceptable condition, you may have to procure them again in great haste and at full retail price through the college bookstore.

And don't forget the option of selling your textbooks after you no longer have a need for them! Amazon makes this easy, and doing so could recoup much of the money you've had to spend (even after highlighting and marking your books, you'll still be able to get something for them by passing them along to another buyer).

The movement to lower textbook prices is growing fast. Some university professors are fighting back, opting to use free and low-cost online resources rather than force students to get ripped off at the college store. Aside from saving a pile of wallet green, buying used books online is also environmentally greener than purchasing brand new books to be used only for a short time and then discarded.

Save a bundle ... buy texts online!

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

"Honor Society" Rip-off Alert

2009-05-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

You know those slick "honor society" membership enticements you get in the mail once your high achieving teenager gets about halfway through his or her sophomore year? The ones that tempt you to provide your child membership in a "selective and prestigious" national honor roll that may boost chances of admission to top colleges just by joining? You know ... offers that seem perhaps too good to refuse?

Refuse them.

Writing in the Education section of the New York Times, high school guidance director Robert Bardwell exposes the fraudulent nature of these seemingly legitmate offers:

I NEVER recommend that a student pay to join any organization that will supposedly have an impact in the admission process. Even free honor societies available to high school students (i.e.: National Honor Society, Pro Merito and individual subject area societies) have little or no effect, especially at highly visible institutions. If a student wants to join such an organization for the other benefits of membership, that is fine, but not to help get a leg up on his admission chances.

If there is a hint that admission chances would be improved as a result of his being a member, I would suggest you report it to the Better Business Bureau as it may constitute fraud.

You can read Bardwell's entire post here.

As usual, too good to be true is neither true nor good. It's amazing how deeply infected with manipulative, deceptive commercial spin American culture has become in recent decades. What appear to be beneficient invitations may in reality be academic industry shakedowns, and any unfamiliar but official-sounding scholastic organizations that solicit enrollment by mail should be regarded with strong suspicion and thoroughly investigated before raising your hopes or sending any money.

Bardwell is also the president of the New England Association for College Admission Counseling, and provides Times readers with additional advice about the daunting college admissions and financial aid processes here.

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Get The Solutions Manual!

2009-04-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

While textbooks required for demanding math and physical science courses generally provide explanations and examples designed to help students review covered material or make better sense of teachers' lectures, the sample exercises included are often too limited or few in number to paint students a complete picture of the topics presented. Answers are usually given for odd-numbered homework problems, but oftentimes this just isn't enough. The issue for many students in these tough classes is how to get those particular answers.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a companion book that would actually list the step-by-step solutions for each odd-numbered problem in a given math or physical science textbook ... not just the answers?

In most cases, there is such a book. It's called the "solutions manual," and possession of one of these miracle volumes can sometimes make all the difference between ease and stress, progress and frustration, success and failure.

The solutions manual is the perfect compliment to the required text for any important math or science course. When stuck in the mud on a particular homework exercise, students can simple appeal to the solution shown in the manual, allowing them to answer their own questions and continue their forward progress with the assignment. Instead of pulling out their hair over a particularly vexing problem, students can use the solutions manual to quickly figure out what they've been doing wrong, and then apply the techniques illustrated in the manual's solution to other similar exercises, saving valuable time and energy (e.g. solutions to corresponding even-numbered exercises can typically be inferred from those given in the manual for odd-numbered problems). In this way, the solutions manual acts as a virtual tutor, enabling students to make much more efficient and effective use of time spent doing homework or studying for exams.

I always recommend that students about to take a difficult math or science class invest in a copy of the solutions manual for the textbook required for that class. The best way to find a copy is to visit the publisher's web site or do a Google search using the full name of the text followed by the author's name and preceded by the phrase "solution manual" or "solutions manual" (without quotes). Once you have an ISBN number for the appropriate solutions manual, you may be able to find a less expensive copy by searching for it on amazon or eBay.

(Note: the term "solutions manual" usually refers to the "student solutions manual" containing solutions to odd-numbered problems; the "instructors solutions manual" shows solutions to all problems in the text, but is available only to course instructors).

Don't pound the table, become discouraged, or fall behind ... just get the solutions manual!

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Copyright © 2009 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Test Dates: 2009-2010

2009-03-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

Click here for more information.

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SAT Dates: 2009-2010

10/10/09

11/7/09

12/5/09

1/23/10

3/13/10

5/1/10

6/5/10

See the College Board web site for registration details (plan to register at least one month in advance).

Click here for more information.

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SAT Subject Test Dates: 2009-2010

10/10/09

11/7/09

12/5/09

1/23/10

5/1/10

6/5/10

See the College Board web site for registration details (plan to register at least one month in advance).

Click here for more information.

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SSAT Dates: 2009-2010

10/17/09

11/14/09

12/12/09

1/9/10

2/6/10

3/6/10

4/17/10

6/12/10

See the SSAT web site for registration details (plan to register at least one month in advance).

Click here for more information.

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What NOT To Bring To Show And Tell!

2009-02-15T22:01:00.000-08:00

Most of us have fond memories of grade school "Show and Tell" times, when we as youngsters could bring "cool stuff" to share in front of the class.

"Show and Tell" fosters confidence, introduces little ones to the art of public speaking and presentation, and injects welcome variety (and uncertainty ...) into the daily classroom routine. Thankfully, this old-fashioned pedagogic technique has not gone the way of the Dodo, and is still practiced in many early elementary school classrooms throughout the country.

Nevertheless, some "cool stuff" really ought to stay at home.

An elementary school near Dallas was evacuated recently when a second-grade student innocently brought a deactivated hand grenade to present during his class's "Show and Tell" period.

The principal took the prudent step of emptying out the entire school until police could determine that the neutered explosive device posed no threat. Though it contained a pin, the grenade was empty and harmless, and ultimately no one was hurt.

Can you imagine the lecture this kid got? My ears burn just thinking about it.

An article in Yahoo! News documents the incident.

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Are Hard Times Breeding Language Snobbery?

2009-02-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

I confess. It does bother me when I encounter grammatical mistakes in advertisements, uttered nonchalantly by media personalities, or written on public signs or forms.

Perhaps that's to be expected ... I am an academic coach, after all.

But are heightened levels of stress and anxiety due to the current world economic crisis making irritated and obnoxious language snobs out of more regular folk?

Obsession with others' language blunders may, in fact, to be on the rise. As personal circumstances fall increasingly beyond our own control, it can be strangely consoling for many to know the "right way" to say or write something and even to browbeat others into adopting correct usage and orthography.

A recent piece at msnbc.com explores this idea more deeply:

But while blunders and bloopers have ever exasperated the spelling snobs and grammar grunions of the world, our recent woes — housing foreclosures, massive layoffs, rising debt and war — may be ratcheting up the pressure some feel to seize control of something (anything!), even if it’s just a properly placed comma.

“Hanging on to some kind of rule might be comforting to people,” says Bethany Keeley, a grad student from Athens, Ga., who runs The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. “People are looking for something they can control and ‘What should we do about our foreign policy?’ is a lot more complicated a question than ‘Should the period go inside or outside the quotation mark?’”

While it's obvious that too much language nagging is too much, I think it's clear that sloppy usage can go too far as well.

In recent years, leaders and role models in government and elsewhere have practically made a career out of mangling language ... and seem almost proud of it, denigrating those who prefer to speak or write with care and skill (See Bushisms and Palinisms).

The moral?

Neither a language snob nor slacker be.

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Wikipedia Begins Flagging Revisions

2009-01-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia anyone can write and edit, one of the top ten sites on the entire internet, the wonderfully useful if not fastidiously veracious repository of aggregate human knowledge, is becoming civilized.

There's a new sheriff in town, and his name is "Flagged Revisions."

Before the new content management system began governing changes, anyone could, in a manner of seconds, edit a Wikipedia article read by the entire world. The possibility of inaccurate or biased revisions has indeed sullied Wikipedia's reputation among academic purists. But with entries that are generally reliable and contain useful links to expand one's knowledge quest quickly and productively, Wikipedia has become the first stop for many amateur researchers and is now the "go to" site for those seeking basic information on topics and questions of general interest. (Following in Wikipedia's footsteps, even the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica has now begun experimenting with user-generated content.)

After malicious revisions to Wikipedia falsely announced the deaths of Senators Edward Kennedy and Robert Byrd, however, Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales called for the swift introduction of Flagged Revisions to prevent such vandalism in the future.

New York Times technology writer Noam Chohen explains:

The new system, called Flagged Revisions, would mark a significant change in the anything-goes, anyone-can-edit-at-any-time ethos of Wikipedia, which in eight years of existence has become one of the top 10 sites on the Web and the de facto information source for the Internet-using public.

The idea in a nutshell is that only registered, reliable users would have the right to have their material immediately appear to the general public visiting Wikipedia. Other contributors would be able to edit articles, but their changes will be held back until one of these reliable users has signed off, or “flagged” the revisions. (Registered, reliable users would see the latest edit to an article, whether flagged or not.)

Click here to read Cohen's entire article.

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Wordle Word Graphs

2009-01-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

Once in a while a simple yet brilliant and beautiful idea comes to life online and reminds us that computer technology wasn't invented just to drain our free time, create dependence and then frustration when these vital tools fail to work, and give us another excuse to avoid personal contact with other human beings.

Wordle is one of those ideas. Take a famous speech, a letter to a friend, a junk email message, or any piece of textual information and Wordle can turn it into a thing of beauty and usefulness, marrying form and function to delight the senses and divulge hidden meanings in color, word, and shape.

Think of Wordle as a cross between painting, language, and math that enables anyone armed with a piece of text to engage creatively in all of these activities at the same time.

Wordle takes your text, analyzes which words are used and how often they appear, and creates a verbal montage that shows, based on the size of the words appearing in the wordle, the relative frequency of the particular words comprising that text. By showing graphically the popularity of words contained in a given piece of writing, Wordle reveals with striking clarity those ideas and themes given the most emphasis by the work's author. One gets the distinct feeling that wordles even somehow manages to expose the author's true intentions, giving viewers the opportunity to spy on the writer's unconscious mental processes and discover his or her latent motivations.

Here's a wordle I created out of Barack Obama's victory speech on election night, 11/4/2009:

Attribution: http://www.wordle.net

Users can customize their creations by changing fonts, color schemes, layout, orientation, etc. to form endless variations of the same wordle. There's even a "Randomize" button to generate random versions!

Finally, you can publish your best wordles for the world to see in the Wordle Gallery.

And Wordle costs ... absolutely nothing!

Not only that, but users are completely free (with proper attribution) to use wordles they create in any way and for any personal or commercial purpose they like, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License that governs images created by Wordle.

Try it out yourself! Click here to go to the Wordle site, and start making your own wordles for fun, learning, or profit.

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Pythagorean Legends, Pythagorean Triples

2008-12-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

The Pythagoreans were a secret society in ancient Greece, a mystical brotherhood dedicated to mathematical study. Their motto was "All is number." Esoteric groups such as the Freemasons and Rosicrucians claim descent from the Pythagorean Brotherhood.

The central assumption of the Pythagorean brotherhood was that the entire universe could be explained by careful application of whole numbers or their ratios (i.e. fractions, or rational numbers). Legend has it that when a member of the cult of Pythagoras proved that even something as simple as the diagonal of a square could not be measured using whole numbers or their ratios, he was summarily executed to avoid insulting prevailing Pythagorean doctrine.

Nevertheless, Pythagorean theories have been applied over the centuries to such diverse problems such as building the great pyramids of Egypt, establishing musical scales, and mapping the orbits of planets.

The good ol' Pythagorean Theorem is one of the most fundamental formulas in all of mathematics. Falsely attributed to Pythagoras of Samos, this famous rule defines the relationship between the lengths of the sides of all right triangles:

a^2 + b^2 = c^2.

Pythagorean Triples are trios of whole numbers that conform to the requirements of the Pythagorean Theorem, and therefore measure the three sides of a right triangle: the two "legs" forming the right angle, and the "hypotenuse" (not "hippopotamus") opposite the right angle.

Here's a fun and simple way to generate Pythagorean Triples from any given natural number (indeed, all Pythagorean Triples can be generated this way):

1. Pick a whole number larger than two. Call this number n.

2. If n is even: let y be 1 and let x be half of n; otherwise (if n is odd) first subtract 1 from n, then let y be half of this new number and let x be one more than y.

3. The following expressions will generate the numbers in a Pythagorean Triple:

x^2 + y^2

2xy

x^2 + y^2

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Tech Tools Fight Online Idea Theft

2008-12-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

The internet has delivered the world's libraries into the palms of our hands. It's also made plagiarism as easy as copy and paste.

Stealing ideas, phrases, sentences, or even whole paragraphs or larger sections from online sources is the simplest thing in the world to do and for many students has become a tempting way out from under the stress and pressure of heavy academic workloads. Understandable as the underlying motivation may sometimes be, plagiarism, the use of another's ideas or written expressions without attribution, is a high academic crime, a form of cheating.

In recent years, however, espial software that combs the contents of academic papers for exact online matches have been developed that makes it more difficult for students to successfully take credit for the work of others.

An interesting and informative piece by Christina Stolarz in The Detroit News goes into further detail:

To combat the problem, thousands of high schools in more than 80 countries have bought memberships from a plagiarism detection service — online software called Turnitin — in the past year to check whether their students are stealing sentences, and even entire paragraphs, from the Internet.  On average, Turnitin reviews more than 10,000 student papers nationally each day, of which 30 percent contain a significant amount of plagiarism, according to company statistics. Turnitin is used in some prestigious institutions, including the United States Military Academy at West Point and Rutgers University, but it is just one in a handful of online plagiarism detection services.

To read the article in its entirely, click here.

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Which Majors Net Highest First Year Pay?

2008-11-10T12:00:00.000-08:00

An article on MSN's careerbuilder.com web site is a great resource for those money-minded college students pondering the important question of which major to select.

Listed are the "Top 10 Starting Salaries by College Major," along with brief descriptions of career paths open to graduates with academic emphases in those fields.

Apparently, things have recently been looking up for those with the right specialization listed on their university diploma.

From the article:

Whether you're a recent grad who's been living in your parents' basement since Commencement Day or in the midst of your college career trying to figure out what you should major in, there's good news coming your way.

According to a recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), members of the class of 2007 can expect to earn bigger starting salaries as they enter the workforce than their predecessors. Results show that the average starting salary has increased across many disciplines since last year, the result of increased competition among employers for employees fresh out of college. Furthermore, hiring managers expect this trend to continue for years to come.

Which college major led to the highest entry-level salary in 2007 (according to a study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers)?

Chemical Engineering: $59,361.

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When Math Isn't cool, Other Countries Eat Our Lunch

2008-11-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

Since I attended high school in California in the 1970's, things have changed in so many ways. Not the least of these changes has been the gradual draining of rigor from math and science instruction in America's elementary and secondary schools.

As we faced the threat of Soviet domination in critical scientific fields, American schools (and particularly those in California) were second to none, and produced the most reliable stream of super brains the world had ever seen.

Today, national academic goals and priorities have shifted dramatically to raising the academic floor while virtually ignoring the needs of gifted students. The unhappy result is that the full potential of our best and brightest young minds is going to waste.

Below are excerpts from an article on the subject by Sara Rimer appearing recently in the New York Times:

The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.

... in China math is regarded as an essential skill that everyone should try to develop at some level. Parents in China, he said, view math as parents in the United States do baseball, hockey and soccer.

“There is something about the culture in American society today which doesn’t really seem to encourage men or women in mathematics,” said Michael Sipser, the head of M.I.T.’s math department. “Sports achievement gets lots of coverage in the media. Academic achievement gets almost none.”

In America today, intelligence and academic achievement are not only generally underrated; it has now actually become fashionable to deride intellectual prowess and accomplishment. Increasingly, the doltish are hailed as heroes while those with the sharpest minds are ignored or shunned as undesirable.

One needs look no farther for crystal clear evidence of the victory of mediocrity over excellence in our culture than the recently concluded 2008 presidential election, in which a gifted scholar and brilliant orator was framed as "elite" in contrast to inarticulate intellectual super-lightweights who were touted as "true, genuine Americans."

Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber are the new models. Bushisms and mangled communication have become acceptable. Smart just isn't cool, anymore. Math is for Asians ... not for "real" Americans.

Raise the floor, yes, by all means. But don't forget that raising the ceiling is just as important.

Other countries understand this. We ingore it at our peril.

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The Stanford Laptop Orchestra

2008-10-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

The personal computer has transformed the world of music.

Just as iTunes transformed the commercial music industry, new hardware and software tools have fundamentally changed the way in which university music departments teach the art of musical composition and performance.

The Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrK ) is a bold experiment by Stanford researcher/programmer Ge Wang that combines the flexibility of Apple MacBook laptops, multi-channel speaker arrays made out of Ikea salad bowls, creative computer programming, and visionary imagination into an intriguing mix that makes for some pretty interesting sounds.

Paul Craft writes in the Stanford Daily:

The set-up is relatively simple. Members of the SLOrk operate black Apple Macbooks, which are connected via a series of cables to a spherical speaker system and control box for volume, among other things. Depending on the piece being played, the set up can include a joystick and other accessories.

The laptops themselves are, as the group’s title suggests, the heart of Wang’s vision. Ensemble members — the “musicians” — use a variety of different programs and configurations to create a variety of different sounds, ranging from a human-like voice to percussion to the ambient noises of a casino. SLOrK relies on a coding language that Professor Wang developed while at Princeton known simply as “CHUcK.” The language is made specifically for music and sound use, prototyping an instrument in a matter of minutes. “The computer itself is not an instrument. We have to craft it into one,” Wang said.

Read the rest of Craft's article here.

An interesting posting in the Pro section of the Apple site further details SLOrk's innovative joining of laptop and audio technology.

For video articles on SLOrk, and to hear the orchestra live in concert, click here and here.

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To Spell Or Not To Spell ...

2008-10-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

British academic Ken Smith, exhausted from the attempt to cure students of their atrocious spelling habits, is suggesting that the time has come for university profs to embrace common misspellings of words as acceptable variants.

Should teachers simply look the other way when students incorrectly write "ignor" for "ignore," "arguement" for "argument," or "Febuary" for "February?" Or is the cause of correct spelling still a battle worth fighting in the age of chat-speak and spell checkers?

From Smith's article in The Times Higher Education:

... Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct the same mistakes year after year, I've got a better idea. University teachers should simply accept as variant spelling those words our students most commonly misspell.

The spelling of the word "judgement", for example, is now widely accepted as a variant of "judgment", so why can't "truely" be accepted as a variant spelling of "truly"?

Smith goes on to submit ten words as examples of common misspellings that should be declared legitimate English variants, among them:

- Arguement for argument. Why do we drop the "e" in argument (and in judgment) but not in management? We do not pronounce "argument" "ar-gum-ent", so why should we spell it this way?

- Febuary for February (and Wensday for Wednesday). We spell the word "February" the way we do only because it is taken from the Latin word februa, the Roman festival of purification. Similarly, the "correct" spelling of the word "Wednesday" comes from the Old English Wodnes daeg, or Woden's day. But why should we still pay homage today to a pagan god or a Roman festival of purification?

- Ignor for ignore. The word "ignore" comes from the Latin ignorare meaning "to know" and ignarus meaning "ignorant". Neither of these words has an "e" after the "r", so why do we?

Although at first I bristled reflexively at the notion of lowering the guard of academic rigor protecting traditional English orthography, I then took the point made in a recent Reuters article on Smith's controversial recommendation that no language, it seems, is less consistent than English in obeying it's own spelling rules or more arbitrary in allowing variants:

Playwright George Bernard Shaw was fond of pointing out that the word "ghoti" could just as well be pronounced "fish" if you followed common pronunciation: 'gh' as in "tough", 'o' as in "women" and 'ti' as in "nation".

Hmmm.

To spell, or not to spell ... which is nobler?

That is indeed the kweschun.

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Car Talk Puzzlers

2008-09-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

NPR's uproariously funny Car Talk could be the single funniest thing on radio.

On more than one occasion it was all I could do to maintain control of my car as I listened to the hilarious rantings of Tom and Ray Magliozzi, better known as "Click and Clack ... the Tappet Brothers," during their weekly automotive question and answer show (to get an idea, check out the current list of Car Talk staff members, presumably vetted by the show's ace legal firm: "Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe").

Far from being among the dimmer bulbs in the lamp, these grease monkeys are actually scientists with MIT degrees, no less. A featured part of each broadcast is the weekly "Puzzler," and a fair number of these fabulous brain twisters are mathematical rather than automotive in nature (here's where the guys show their MIT roots).

Click here for an archive of Puzzlers from past shows ... or here to buy a recently published collection of favorite Car Talk Puzzlers at amazon.com for as little as $.01 plus S & H!

To listen to Car Talk (online, NPR affiliate station, Sirius Satellite Radio, podcasting, etc.), click here.

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Finite Simple Group Of Order Two

2008-09-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Whoever said math isn't musical has never heard The Klein Four.

If you've got a couple of minutes, take a break, give yourself a treat, and check out this hilarious, cleverly written, well performed a cappella composition:

Finite Simple Group of Order Two

Although knowledge of group theory isn't at all required to enjoy the performance, the brilliant plays on words that comprise the lyrics will make real sense only to those with some knowledge of higher mathematics.

Here they are:

~

Finite Simple Group of Order Two

The path of love is never smooth
But mine's continuous for you
You're the upper bound in the chains of my heart
You're my Axiom of Choice, you know it's true

But lately our relation's not so well-defined
And I just can't function without you
I'll prove my proposition and I'm sure you'll find
We're a finite simple group of order two

I'm losing my identity
I'm getting tensor every day
And without loss of generality
I will assume that you feel the same way

Since every time I see you, you just quotient out
The faithful image that I map into
But when we're one-to-one you'll see what I'm about
'Cause we're a finite simple group of order two

Our equivalence was stable,
A principal love bundle sitting deep inside
But then you drove a wedge between our two-forms
Now everything is so complexified

When we first met, we simply connected
My heart was open but too dense
Our system was already directed
To have a finite limit, in some sense

I'm living in the kernel of a rank-one map
From my domain, its image looks so blue,
'Cause all I see are zeroes, it's a cruel trap
But we're a finite simple group of order two

I'm not the smoothest operator in my class,
But we're a mirror pair, me and you,
So let's apply forgetful functors to the past
And be a finite simple group, a finite simple group,
Let's be a finite simple group of order two
(Oughter: "Why not three?")

I've proved my proposition now, as you can see,
So let's both be associative and free
And by corollary, this shows you and I to be
Purely inseparable. Q. E. D.

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Study Buddies!

2008-08-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

One of the best things you can do to improve your chances of success in a given class is also one of the most fun.

"Study Buddies" are people you meet and with whom you agree to form informal academic partnerships in each course you're currently taking. Not only will these relationships help you in making sure you make it through the course successfully, they can also add spice to your social life!

As a new semester begins, find two people in each class, fellow students you like who seem to share your particular standards and interests, and exchange contact info (phone, email, etc.) with them. Now, if you miss class and need information about homework, an upcoming test, lecture notes, etc., you have two people you can call (if one isn't available, the other probably will be).

Study Buddies may even choose to go beyond occasional contact to form more formal study groups that meet before important tests to go over course material and help answer each others' questions, work together on group projects, etc.

Forging and utilizing these alliances can result in better grades, reduced stress, and enhanced involvement and participation in class, while providing a safe and productive way to make contact with other students you'd like to meet and get to know better.

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Chat-speak Takes Over The World

2008-08-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Am I showing my age? Really, young people today ...

Like Mary Kolesnikova in her opinion piece for the L.A. Times, I regard the invasion of chat-speak into our culture as more than a bit annoying:

Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between a person LOLing and crying – but I am definitely weeping. The cause for my earth-shattering depression is an April 25 Pew Research Center study that polled 12- to 17-year-olds on their attitudes about writing. A heart-stopping 38% said they let chat-speak – such as LOL (for "laughing out loud"), ROFL ("rolling on the floor laughing"), BRB ("be right back"), TTYL ("talk to ya later") – slip into essays and homework.

Read Kolesnikova's entire piece here.

But honestly, much of the angst I feel about this is probably just my own resistance to change.

Chat-speak is the abbreviated form of English made popular by text messaging in which, due to the inefficiency of thumb-keyboards, less is definitely more when it comes to aggregate character counts.

Here are few examples for the uninitiated:

---

ASAP - As Soon As Possible
BBL - Be Back Later
BRB - Be Right Back
BTW - By The Way
CU - see you
CUL8R - see you Later
EZ - Easy
F2F - Face to Face
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
FWIW - For What It’s Worth
FYI - For Your Information
GG - Good Game
GTG - Got To Go
HTH - Hope That Helps
IAC - In Any Case
IIRC - If I Remember Correctly
J/K - Just Kidding
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
IMNSHO - In My Not-So-Humble Opinion
IMO - In My Opinion
LOL - Laughing Out Loud
NBD - No Big Deal
NRN - No Reply Necessary
OMG - Oh My God
OTOH - On The Other Hand
ROFL - Rolling On the Floor Laughing
THX - Thanks
TTYL8R - Talk To You Later

---

Certainly, technological adaptations mustn't be allowed to replace or ruin students' use of and mastery over standard written English. However, I have found that habitually abreviating words does in fact make text entry into hand-held devices like my Treo 650 PDA phone a whole lot faster and easier.

Times change. Technology advances. The march of progress continues.

IMHO it's really NBD.

GTG. CUL8R!

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Best Source Of SAT Essay Prompts

2008-07-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

When it comes to the SAT, nothing is more important than practice in achieving an outstanding essay score. And nothing is more important in maximizing the effect of SAT practice essays than the quality of the essay prompts utilized in their creation.

Although a google search for "sat essay prompts" will return nearly 100,000 hits, most of these will not yield a large number of SAT-like essay prompts useful to average students preparing to take the SAT.

By far the best online source of SAT essay prompts I've seen is found here. (Scroll nearly to the bottom of the page, and look under the heading "SAT Essay Prompts.")

This assemblage contains essay prompts taken from actual SAT tests given since March, 2005, and is large enough to give even the most ardent SAT student more than enough essay outlining and writing practice.

As such, this collection is perfectly suited to the needs of those getting ready to take the SAT!

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2 = 1

2008-07-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

All kinds of falsehoods can be "proven" true if subtle errors in reasoning are allowed to go unnoticed. I get a kick out of debunking these arguments, and thought I'd share one with you.

See if you can find what's wrong with the well-known "proof" that 2 = 1, outlined below:

---

a = b (Given.)

a² = ab (Multiply both sides by a.)

a² + a² = a² + ab (Add a² on both sides.)

2a² = a² + ab (Simplify the left side, a² + a² = 2a².)

2a² - 2ab = a² + ab - 2ab (Subtract 2ab from both sides.)

2a² - 2ab = a² - ab (Simplify right side: ab - 2ab = - ab.)

2(a² - ab) = a² - ab (Factor 2 out of each term on left side.)

2(a² - ab)/(a² - ab) = (a² - ab)/(a² - ab) (Divide both sides by a² - ab.)

2 = 1 (Which was to be proven.)

---

Can you find the error?

Come on ... don't look ahead until you at least give it a try!

All right, here's the mistake:

If a = b (given), then a² - ab = 0. Division by zero is impossible. Therefore, the "proof" falls apart in the next to last line.

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Two Dynamite Questions

2008-06-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

Dave Denman, of Dave Denman Associates (with offices in Sausalito, California: 415-332-1831), an expert educational consultant and long-time colleague of mine, gave me a tip many years ago that was one of the best study tips I’d ever heard. I’ve had the opportunity to pass it on to many of my students over the years.

Here it is:

During or after completing your homework in a given class (say, history), think of two "dynamite questions" to ask your teacher the following day, about the general topic you’re currently discussing in class. Make these questions interesting, not run of the mill, but as thought provoking or even controversial as possible. Jot these questions down in your notes.

Then, at an appropriate time during class the next day, be sure to ask your teacher these two questions!

Asking thoughtful questions is one of the best ways to make the class more relevant and interesting to other students, and doing so will certainly get you noticed by your instructor. In addition, coming up with these questions in the first place gets you thinking more deeply about the material you’re learning in class and therefore tends to make it more interesting and memorable to you. Teachers always greatly appreciate and respect students who ask great questions, especially those who make a habit of doing so on a regular basis. These students are obviously taking a special interest in the class, and nothing makes a teacher’s day like students who consistently put forth the effort to ask insightful, probing questions.

Although it only takes a couple of extra minutes to do so, recording and then asking dynamite questions really livens up class time, makes your teacher’s job a whole lot easier and more enjoyable, and goes a long way to making any class more fun and interesting for you and for your fellow classmates!

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Lost In Translation

2008-06-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a riddle:

Q. What do you get when you cross fallible computerized language translation with the need to market a business to those speaking an unfamiliar language from a far away culture?

A. A restaurant in China named "Translator Server Error."

No, really. I'm not kidding. Click here to see for yourself.

What's next?

Maybe a salon in Indonesia calling itself "404 File Not Found," or some such thing ...

More well intentioned but hilarious insults to English can be found here.

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ADD: Harmful Disorder Or Helpful Variation?

2008-05-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Thom Hartman has extensive experience working with and writing about various aspects of the ADD/ADHD debate.

Hartman's Web site can be found at:

http://www.thomhartmann.com/

and some of his writings about ADD/ADHD at:

http://tomhartman.com/whosorder.shtml.

Harman has many interesting things to say about a number of important topics, not the least of which is the topic of education in America.

I strongly endorse his views, and I urge you to visit his site, read his thoughtful and interesting articles, and go on to some of the other links he lists there.

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Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Can Your Computer Read Your Mind?

2008-05-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

The first time you visit this site, you may think your computer has come to life, has found out how to read your thoughts, and that our machines may in fact be ready to take over the world (reminiscent of “Hal,” the infamous on-board computer in Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece film “2001: A Space Odyssey”):

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/mind

Try it a few times. You won’t believe it. Seems impossible. (Really ... take a few minutes right now and see if this doesn’t make you scratch your head in amazement.)

But have no fear ... it’s all just simple algebra!

Here’s how it works:

Any two digit number has a ten's digit called "t" and a unit's digit called "u." The value, v, of any two digit number (and therefore of the original two digit number you pick from the puzzle page) is 10t + u. The sum of the two digits, s, is: t + u. You are instructed to subtract the digit sum from the original number; let's call this result "r."

Therefore:

r = v – s = (10t + u) – (t + u) = 9t.

Since t can only be a whole number from 0 through 9, n = 9t can only be a multiple of 9 less than 90: 0, 9, 18, 27, ... 81. So, no matter which two digit number you initially select, you will end up looking up a multiple of 9 in the chart! The writer of the program on this site has been careful to place the same symbol next to each multiple of nine in each version of the chart shown to viewers, and has instructed the program to expose that symbol in the "crystal ball" when the user clicks on it.

Go back to the puzzle page. No matter how many times you open a new and totally different puzzle page, you will notice that, on each new page, all multiples of 9 less than 90 are always associated with exactly the same symbol (the other numbers will never come up, and so they are assigned random symbols).

Here's an entertaining variation of the game:

First, send someone a number/symbol chart together with a letter the game's instructions. Then, after this person tells you he's received the letter, has calculated his "magic number," and has found and focused on their "magic symbol," you mail him another letter in which you tell him which symbol you "psychically" picked up (of course, this is the symbol associated with each multiple of 9 on the rigged chart you sent).

For even more fun:

After your victim receives the initial letter from you, you might like to place a harmless bet with the victim (say, for lunch at the winner's favorite restaurant), that you will, in fact, be able to "perceive" his magic symbol through your superior psychic powers. When you successfully "intuit" his symbol, you’ll not only get a good laugh out of it, but a free lunch with a good friend as well (unless your friend is unusually adroit with numbers, he will totally miss the pattern underlying this trick).

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Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Top Universities Liberalize Financial Aid Policies

2008-04-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

The outrageous cost of higher education in America just got knocked down a few notches.

In tow with Stanford University, both Yale and Harvard have recently announced plans to make tuition at their institutions much more affordable for Americans with low and middle incomes.

At Stanford, students whose parents make less than $60K per year will soon pay no tuition and nothing for room and board, while those those whose families earn up to $100K per year still still pay zip for tuition.

Under the new plans, the average student attending Yale will pay half what he or she paid before. Students at Harvard with less than $60K in annual parental income will now pay zero to attend (though work study will be required), and parents with incomes up to $180K will pay only 10% of their combined incomes for each child in attendance.

Other major universities nation-wide are following suit, increasing aid to middle and low income families and substituting grants for student loans so students can graduate without having to shoulder a crushing debt burden.

On Planet Earth in 2008, access to higher education divides countries that "have" from those that "have not." While other developed nations offer a free college education to any citizen who can cut the mustard academically, here in the U.S. the unmanageably high cost of college has been shutting off economic and cultural advancement to large segments of our population for some time, now.

It's about time this untenable situation was addressed and remedied. Let's hope the recent trend toward making higher education affordable for all qualified students in America continues and accelerates. Fixing this problem is clearly a matter of national economic competitiveness, and therefore, ultimately, a matter of national security.

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Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Harvard Chooses Female Head

2008-04-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

It only took 371 years, 27 previous presidents, and a LOT of coaxing, but Harvard finally has a woman as top banana.

Ms. Drew Faust, a Civil War historian, will take the place of discredited former head Lawrence Summers, who left as Harvard's head amid contentious relationships with faculty and after making controversial remarks about the inherent inability of women to do world-class research in the sciences.

With seven U.S. presidents as alumni, and over 40 Nobel Prize winners on its cumulative list of faculty members, Harvard occupies a singular place in the roster of great American universities, and Faust's appointment is sending a powerful shockwave throughout academia in this country and within the iconic institution itself.

From a recent Washington Post article:

"Harvard is making a statement at a critical time when we are seeing student bodies [at many schools] that are well over 50 percent women," said Claire van Ummersen, director of the Office of Women in Higher Education at the American Council on Education. "We see women faculty increasing in number, and the place where we have lagged most is in research institutions having women at the executive level. . . . Hopefully, this will have some influence on boards of trustees or overseers of other institutions."

Faust's selection comes as Harvard moves to modernize its more than 30-year-old undergraduate curriculum, a move that's being closely watched by institutes of higher education throughout the U.S.

Read the rest of the article here.

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Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Recommended Test Prep Schedules

2008-03-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Achieving outstanding results on standardized tests like the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, ACT, PSAT, SSAT, and HSPT is rarely an accident!

Many devoted hours and much hard work are generally required to maximize the probability of success on these important exams. Because of the importance of the outcome and the significant expenditure of time, energy, and money that's typically involved, careful planning is essential.

Long-term preparation in advance of test day will almost always yield the best result ... but isn't always possible or practical. Alternatively, medium-term or even short-term prep can often be extremely effective in optimizing standardized test scores.

Here are the specific schedules I recommend as guides for you to follow in organizing your test prep plans in advance of the most popular test dates for each test (preparation schedules for dates not listed can be extrapolated from those given below).

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May SAT:

Begin long-term prep the preceding June, medium-term prep in October, and short-term prep in February.

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November SAT:

Begin long-term prep the preceding December, medium-term prep in April, and short-term prep in August.

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June SAT Subject Tests

Begin long-term prep the preceding November, medium-term prep in February, and short-term prep in April.

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April ACT

Begin long-term prep the preceding September, medium-term prep in December, and short-term prep in February.

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October PSAT

Begin long-term prep the preceding March, medium-term prep in June, and short-term prep in August.

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November SSAT

Begin long-term prep the preceding April, medium-term prep in July, and short-term prep in September.

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December HSPT

Begin long-term prep the preceding May, medium-term prep in August, and short-term prep in October.

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Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Test Dates: 2008-2009

2008-03-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

Having a clear test preparation plan is crucial in achieving success on major standardized tests like the SAT, SAT Subjects Tests, ACT, PSAT, SSAT, and HSPT.

Testing dates scheduled during the 2008-2009 school year have now been released for most of these tests.

As soon as possible, select the test dates that work best from the list below, and arrange your plans accordingly.

For further information about a particular test, click the "more information" link provided at the end of the appropriate list of dates, below.

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ACT Dates: 2008-2009

9/13/08

10/25/08

12/13/08

2/7/09

4/4/09

6/13/09

See the ACT web site for registration details (plan to register at least one month in advance).

Click here for more information.

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HSPT Dates: 2008-2009

Test dates vary. The most common dates are in the fall and spring.

Contact high school admissions departments to confirm test and registration dates.

Click here for more information.

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PSAT Dates: 2008-2009

10/15/08 or 10/18/08

10/14/09 or 10/17/09

Contact the student's high school to confirm test and registration dates (plan to register at least one month in advance).

Click here for more information.

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SAT Dates: 2008-2009

10/4/08

11/1/08

12/6/08

1/24/09

3/14/09

5/2/09

6/6/09

See the College Board web site for registration details (plan to register at least one month in advance).

Click here for more information.

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SAT Subject Test Dates: 2008-2009

10/4/08

11/1/08

12/6/08

1/24/09

5/2/09

6/6/09

See the College Board web site for registration details (plan to register at least one month in advance).

Click here for more information.

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SSAT Dates: 2008-2009

10/11/08

11/8/08

12/13/08

1/10/09

2/7/09

3/7/09

4/18/09

6/13/09

See the SSAT web site for registration details (plan to register at least one month in advance).

Click here for more information.

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borlandeducational.com

Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

No Child Left Behind ... Except The Gifted Ones

2008-02-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

I admire the liberal, egalitarian goal helping all America's children to achieve academic success. Unfortunately, in our zeal to leave no child behind, we may in fact be leaving the entire nation behind.

With our limited resources, common wisdom now dictates that the special needs of gifted students be sacrificed in order to provide for those of lower achieving kids. Programs and energies previously directed at nurturing the best and brightest in our schools have now all but dried up, blown away by the erratic and often irrational winds of political correctness.

Certainly our culture benefits by raising the floor, but doesn't it also benefit by raising the ceiling? Isn't it just as important to make sure that the next generation's great thinkers, planners, inventors, and creators in all fields be given the educational stimulation and support they need throughout their early academic careers to fully develop their special abilities? Is it not the extraordinary capabilities of these individuals at the far right end of the bell curve – when their exceptional talents are not allowed to atrophy as in our current educational environment – that create many or most of the breakthroughs powering the progress of nations? Do we not still need to rely on the promise of such breakthroughs in fields such as medicine, computer science, energy production, etc. if our country is to continue to remain a world leader?

From a recent Washington Post article by Joann DiGennaro:

The ugly secret is that our most talented students are falling through the cracks. Not one program of such major governmental agencies as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation or NASA specifically targets the top 5 percent of students who have demonstrated academic excellence and have the greatest potential for becoming our inventors, creators and groundbreaking scientists. An international assessment of math problem-solving skills of 15-year-olds in 2004, along with more recent studies, found that the United States had the fewest top performers and the largest percentage of low performers compared with other participating countries. By the time students reach 12th grade in math and science, they are near the bottom or dead last compared with international competition, according to the Education Department. These are the critical years for supporting students in science and math, for it is when they make career-determining decisions for college studies.

The blade must be strong, but the cutting edge must also be sharp in order for a tool to be truly useful. Sacrificing one necessary outcome for the sake of another is a foolish strategy, one that's bound to fail.

We as a nation should be willing (eager, in fact) to invest the resources necessary to accomplish the twin goals of leaving no child behind and holding no genius back.

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Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Dalai Lama Appointed To Emory University Chairmanship

2008-02-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual and cultural leader of the Tibetan people and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, will begin his new life as a Presidential Distinguished Professor at Atlanta's Emory University when he begins lecturing there this coming October.

Part of the Emory-Tibet Partnership that aims to "provide a solid basis for [a] joint quest to explore the frontiers of knowledge" by engaging in a "genuine two-way exchange of people and ideas that encompasses the areas of culture, philosophy, religion, science and health ...," the Dalai Lama's appointment crowns on a cooperative effort that goes back several years before the partnership between Emory University and Drepung Loseling Monastery was officially established in 1998.

The shared dream of His Holiness and Emory Dean Dr. Robert Paul first envisioned in 1991 is a "vision of bridging two worlds for the benefit of humanity."

A recent article in The Guardian gives further details.

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Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

The I Hate Mathematics! Book

2008-01-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

I came across this little gem back in the early days of my private teaching career nearly 30 years ago (I still have my original copy), and it remains one of my very favorite books for students young or old who struggle with math phobia or maintain an abiding hatred for the subject.

In a wonderfully accessible style, with engaging illustrations, jokes, activities, and explanations, the authors manage to show the "other" side of math ... the creative, beautiful, quirky, fun side hidden from all but the most fortunate students.

This is not an instructional text, not at all, but rather a funny, fascinating exploration aimed to crack the fearful shells of the math phobic and blow the minds of math haters everywhere.

The I Hate Mathematics! Book should be required reading for all young students and others who wish math would just "go away." After any serious reading of this short work, it's difficult to believe that math is hopelessly beyond one's grasp, or to retain a complete lack of interest in the subject (much less an thorough contempt for it). Parents should buy this book, read it themselves, and then read and discuss it with their youngsters who display any signs of serious aversion to mathematics.

The only improvement I could suggest would be to strike through the word "Hate" in the title and replace it with the word "Love," as I did with my original copy – such is the unexpectedly powerful, positive effect this book can have on its readers.

Recommended for ages 9-12.

Find it here.

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Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

What's Finland Doing Right?

2008-01-03T12:00:00.001-08:00

An article in BBC News tells of the extraordinary success of Finland's academic establishment.

Based on tests comparing 15-year-old students in 2006, the rankings released by PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) showed the Scandinavian nation in the top five for reading and math, and in the number one slot for science achievement.

Coming up fast in Finland's rear view mirror are competitors from Asia such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

From the BBC News article:

The latest findings also show the extent of global competition in education - with the northern European countries now challenged by and overtaken by Asian rivals, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea.

South Korea has continued to strengthen its position - after a remarkable rise in achievement against international competitors.
In the 1960s, the OECD says South Korea's national wealth was similar to Afghanistan's.

But a sustained drive in education has seen it rise to the upper ranks in international education leagues - both in subject scores and in completion rates in secondary school.

As with Finland, there has been an emphasis in South Korea on education as a key to economic success and the "knowledge economy."

Where did the U.S. rank? In the middle of the "below average" range for mathematics, lagging behind Spain, Hungary, and Azerbaijan (a test administration error precluded a reading result for the U.S.).

A Washington Post article elaborates further on American students' terribly poor performance on this important international assessment.

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Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Cite It Right

2007-12-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

Properly formatting the information one presents in an academic work is important. Doing so is probably required, and in any case, it's easy ... with a little help!

To the unprepared, however, conforming to particular writing and formatting styles in high school and college research papers can be a real hassle, and many students find this requirement irritating, time consuming, and distracting. APA, MLA, and Chicago styles all have different requirements for presenting and citing information. Strict and correct adherence to the style favored by the instructor is absolutely necessary, and even minor deviations may result in a lowered grade for the project you're working on.

Dealing properly with headings, tables of content, page numbering, bibliographies, footnotes, etc. can be troublesome. But full compliance with standards of correct formatting is non-negotiable to many teachers, and patient submission to rigorous formatting requirements gives your work a professional look and feel that noticeably and significantly improves its value.

Luckily, software that interfaces with popular word processors to easily produce correctly formatted written projects with a minimum of fuss and bother is available for both Mac and PC platforms!

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Reference Point Software Templates cost only $28, work with both Mac and PC operating systems, and allow the user to compose properly formatted works in APA or MLA style using Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works, or Corel WordPerfect (although I don't have personal experience with this product, numerous customer testimonials tout it's effectiveness and ease of use.

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Various online sites exist to help students with proper formatting and citation. The following are two you might like to visit:

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Dr. Scribe's Guide to Research Style:

http://www.docstyles.com/;

and an excellent writing help site produced by Purdue University:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/.

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Various, now you have no excuse.

Cite it right!

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Distance Learning for High Schoolers

2007-12-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

Truly, many roads lead to Rome ... and to successful receipt of a diploma.

I myself am no stranger to "distance learning," a popular buzz-phrase signifying the earning of full academic credit for structured, supervised independent study work done outside the physical walls of a major educational institution. In fact, I earned my undergraduate degree back in the early 1980's from the State University of New York at Albany while enrolled in the Regents External Degrees Program, which was at the time one of only two fully accredited external degree programs in the United States. I remember with fondness teaching myself calculus and studying the history of mathematics though college-level correspondence courses administered by the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and Brigham Young University (BYU).

In the old days, this meant learning on one's own from an approved textbook, completing assignments on paper, mailing them to the instructor for grading and comments, and then ultimately taking a proctored final exam to receive credit for the course. Nowadays, distance learning courses are typically conducted online, since the miracle of the internet makes possible a much richer and more efficient flow of educational content and course work between student and instructor. But the idea is essentially the same: independent study, followed by submission of course work, followed by assessment and finally the granting of credit.

Over the course of my 29 year career as a professional academic coach, tutor, and mentor, I've occasionally been hired to help high school students raise an unacceptable grade or earn additional course credits by completed various accredited distance learning courses offered through prestigious institutions such as UCB and BYU. These courses offer many advantages over typical high school classes taken during the academic year at school (e.g. being able to work at one's own pace, polish and perfect one's course work before submission and grading, study subjects outside the standard high school curriculum, etc.), and generally grant full academic credit to students completing them. Nevertheless, it's very important to first obtain written approval from your school before enrolling for credit in any distance learning course, to be sure that credits and grades earned will be fully accepted by your school.

Serious independent study work such as this both demands and fosters greater than average self-discipline, motivation, and organization, and requires real commitment of the part of all concerned ... but can be an excellent way to supplement or improve one's academic resume and develop qualities of independence, pro-activity, and responsibility so critical to success in college and beyond. Nevertheless, it may still be a good idea to secure the services of an academic coach or other capable adult to supervise distance learning courses to make sure that timely progress is being made and important deadlines are met. You've got to be committed and follow through ... but if you're a motivated, self-starter who reads well and wants or needs extra academic credit or stimulation, online or other distance learning courses may be just what you're looking for!

Below are links to accredited distance learning opportunities offered to high school students by UCB and BYU:

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UC Berkeley Extension Online

http://explore.ucxonline.berkeley.edu/highschool/body_hscourses.html

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BYU Independent Study

http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/select.cfm?&TYPE=hs&SUBJECT=75

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

NYC Bribes Students To Improve Academic Performance

2007-11-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Parents paying little Johnny or Suzie for each "A" on their report cards is a tried and true motivational strategy well known within America's more affluent families.

But when New York City herself gets into the act, it's natural to wonder if this practice has gone just a bit too far. Under a new system, high school students getting high scores on advanced placement exams could earn thousands of dollars in prize money!

From an article in the New York Times:

The city is expanding the use of cash rewards for students who take standardized tests with a $1 million effort financed by philanthropists who will pay students who do well on Advanced Placement exams.

High school students who get a top score, a five, on the exams will earn $1,000. A score of four will be worth $750, while a three will earn $500.

What do I think?

America has, in so many ways, devolved in recent decades into a culture of middling results and expectations based on the luxury of denial that affluence affords. Nowhere is this more evident than in our schools. In my opinion, the sorry state of education in our nation is so dire and desperate that we should do whatever works, whatever it takes, to turn things around. And if this means local governments colluding with private benefactors to bribe students into working harder on academics, so be it!

Relying on greed to motivate kids to do their work is a pretty miserable thing to have to do, and the need to do so says it all regarding the sad state of affairs in early 21st century America. Sure, learning for its own sake and for that of personal development and character building should be the norm. But this truly is an emergency, and we truly do need to find a way to climb out of the whole into which we've dug ourselves. Remembering that "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride," it's far too late for us to categorically say "no" to anything that might work to reverse our national slide into horrifying mediocrity.

If bribing students gets them to work harder and achieve more, and taxpayer money isn't involved ... I say that's fine, for now.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Don't Let Your Studies Put You To Sleep!

2007-11-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Once students enter high school, and certainly after starting college, late night study sessions become at least an occasional necessity. As a red-eye session grows longer and the body and mind increasingly tire, the law of diminishing returns eventually sets in, reducing the benefit of additional study. Before fatigue and stress combine to turn your brain to cardboard, it's good to learn a few key tips about how to avoid falling victim to "sudden brain shutdown syndrome."

In essence, the rule is to do that which is most likely to put you to sleep as early as possible in the day. If you've got a lot of boring reading to get out of the way, or need to complete some hideous math homework that makes you want to do almost anything else instead, be sure to do these things while you're fresh and wide awake, resisting the temptation to put these off until the wee hours of the evening when you can barely keep your eyelids up as it is. Uninteresting, yawn-inducing activities most likely to put you to sleep should be done as far from sleep time as possible, saving more engaging or physical activities like lab experiments, model-building, or group collaboration for later in the evening when extra interaction or increased interest will help you stay awake.

If there's just no way to avoid dull, passive activities late at night, consider moving your studies temporarily to a coffee shop or similar gathering place where the buzz of people around you will help keep your eyes open and prevent "zombie brain" without so distracting you that you can't hear yourself think.

It's a good maxim to live by, anyway: do the stuff you don't like first, then reward yourself with the cool stuff afterward. The willingness to delay gratification yields even greater benefit for busy, semi-exhausted students who must find a way to get an impossible amount of work done and yet remain conscious and functional while doing it all.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

U.C. Berkeley For Free!

2007-10-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

Made possible by the miracle of the internet, a wonderful movement is now well underway among some of the greatest universities in the world to make their courses freely available to anyone with an internet connection – not for profit, but simply to disseminate knowledge for the betterment of the human community at large (see my post on the "OpenCourseWare Movement" titled: M.I.T. for Free!).

Today, those interested in learning informally and independently from some of the best colleges and professors on the planet can essentially audit many courses at institutions like M.I.T. and U.C. Berkeley online. Whether done in one's spare time for the pure pleasure of learning, or in a more structured way to gain greater expertise in a particular academic area, the potential for personal and professional growth is tremendous. Whether an advanced high schooler in Larkspur, California, a budding computer genius in Helsinki, Finland or a poor villager in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, the collective knowledge of mankind is now beginning to be offered online without cost or registration, worldwide, for the benefit of all concerned.

Additionally, by taking these online peeks under the hood at the engines that power famous universities in the U.S. and abroad, one begins to get a feel for what it may be like to attend this or that college, to take a course with this or that professor, a valuable plus for anyone soon to make critical decisions about which university, major, or professors to select.

Below is a short sample of U.C. Berkeley courses that anyone can audit, for any reason, for free, online:

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Title: Introduction to Nonviolence
– PACS 164A: Lecture 14

Date: Fall 2006

Instructor: Michael N. Nagler (Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature)

I spent an hour late this morning peeking into a terrific U.C. Berkeley class given by renowned professor Michael N. Nagler, as he delivered an enthralling lecture about the successful efforts of the 1930's Pashtuns, who, lead by Abdul Ghaffar Khan in what is now Pakistan, manned the "army without guns" that nonviolently fought and finally helped defeat the British colonizers and win their people's freedom.

I learned that Ghaffar Khan, an ardent Muslim and follower of comrade and contemporary Mohatma Ghandi, was a strong believer in the absolute compatibility of Islam with the tactics and philosophy of nonviolence, a belief that carries with it critical importance and special relevance today:

"I am going to give you such a weapon that the police and the army will not be able to stand against it. It is the weapon of the Prophet, but you are not aware of it. That weapon is patience and righteousness. No power on earth can stand against it."

– Abdul Ghaffar Khan

I find it hard to describe what a thrill it was to listen to Professor Nagler, a remarkable instructor and world-class expert in this particular field, teach on the power of nonviolence as a political and cultural force ... to be able to sit in on this fascinating class.

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Title: Physics for Future Presidents (Physics C10)
– Lecture 04: Gravity and Satellites II

Date: 2/2/2006

Instructor: Richard A. Muller (Professor of Physics)

From the course description:

"The most interesting and important topics in physics, stressing conceptual understanding rather than math, with applications to current events."

In this lecture, Prof Muller talks about escape velocity, and other topics germane to the space program, etc.

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Title: General Human Anatomy (Integrative Biology 131)
-- Lecture 30: The Eye

Instructor: Marian Diamond

Professor Diamond takes a look at "the cells that built the Golden Gate Bridge, that built the pyramids, that built the Palm Pilot ... the two main cells in your cerebral cortex that are responsible for all of your behavior."

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Click here to see the complete catalog of U.C. Berkeley courses available on YouTube.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Arithmetic, Algebra, And Mathemagic

2007-10-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

Arithmetic can be called the study of "known" numbers, or calculation.

Algebra, then, is the study of "unknown" numbers.

Arithmetic is easy. All it takes is a good teacher, and sufficient practice.

Likewise, since all real numbers (whether known or unknown) obey the same rules, algebra is easy – provided the student is well taught and well practiced.

Knowing only simple algebra empowers one to do some pretty interesting and impressive things, including all kinds of "mathemagic" tricks, like the one below (trust me ... it's just simple algebra).

Give it a try!

Here goes:

1. Start with the number of doors in your home.

2. Multiply by 2.

3. Add 5.

4. Multiply by 50.

5. Add the number of legs on a normal moose.

6. Subtract 335.

7. If you’ve already had your birthday this year, add this year; otherwise, add last year.

8. subtract the number of days in July.

9. Add 85.

10. Subtract the year you were born.

11. Add 29.

12. Subtract the number of ears you have.

The three or four digit number you now have reveals the number of doors in your home followed by your age.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Danger In The Dorms

2007-09-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

There's a new killer on college campuses these days: meningococcal meningitis.

Though quite rare, meningitis infections are deadly in 10-12% of cases and disfiguring or disabling in many others, and are easily passed among persons in close contact like college freshmen living in dormitories.

Early symptoms of meningitis resemble those normally associated with flu: headache, upset stomach, vomiting. But the disease can quickly progress to organ failure, brain damage, blindness and deafness, and other serious complications, and can even cause death in just a few hours. Limb amputations are often required to remove tissue damaged by the infection. Spread through droplets in the air, direct physical contact with an infected person, or by sharing personal items like drinks or cigarettes with someone who's harboring the bacteria, college dorm residents are particularly vulnerable.

A vaccine exists that is 83% effective against nearly all strains of the bacteria, and pressure is building to pass laws mandating the vaccination.

From a recent article on the MSNBC Web site:

“It’s a safe vaccination, it’s an effective vaccination, and it’s one of those terrible, terrible risks — albeit extremely rare — that you can really minimize by spending money on the vaccine,” says Turner, who is also the chair of the Vaccines Preventable Diseases Committee for the American College Health Association. The vaccine is generally covered by insurance and costs around $120 on most college campuses.”

Meningococcal meningitis can be a terrible ordeal under the best of circumstances, and could easily cost an unsuspecting college student his or her young life. Though unlikely to effect more than a small number of people across the country, anyone heading off to college, especially freshmen planning to live in the dorms, should strongly consider immunizing themselves against this horrible but preventable disease.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Starting Salaries For The Multi-lingual Exceed $100K

2007-09-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

I'm the father of a teenager, and I often wonder how to advise my daughter about her future.

As the 20th century fades away, what can we expect of the era that will replace it? How best to play her cards as an American student at this point in time? What ought to be the emphasis of her education? Which careers should she investigate, and what specific skills must she acquire, in order to be best positioned to profit personally and professionally in the coming decades?

Of course, no one really knows. But it seems fairly certain that being multi-lingual is going to be hugely beneficial to any American professional or would be world-citizen in the first half of the 21st century. The trend toward the globalization of economies and the "mashing" of cultures is accelerating and expanding exponentially, as the internet continues to transform international commerce and communication. The end of the "age of English" may in fact be at hand. As new economic and political realities challenge the hegemony of English speaking nations, which languages are poised for ascendancy? Aside from obligatory Spanish, which foreign languages are likely to most greatly benefit Americans of the future? Mandarin? Hindi? Japanese? Russian? German?

Two "sleepers" worth considering are Indonesian and Arabic.

I've chosen to mention Indonesian not just because I'm married to an Indonesian national and speak some Indonesian myself, but because Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation and the fourth most populous nation overall, and is fast becoming "China's China" (the country to which China now outsources much of its own manufacturing). A country rich in natural resources (an OPEC member, etc.), Indonesia is set to become the next big economic player on the world stage, if only a way could be found to overcome the rampant, systemic corruption that so discourages foreign investment there.

Arabic, however, has more immediate drawing power. Those fluent in Standard Arabic can now attract starting salaries well above $100,000 per year, following the recent explosion in demand for Arabic translators. An article last year in Newsweek highlighted this hot new college course of study:

"'Once upon a time, studying Arabic would have placed a student squarely in the "What are you gonna do with that?" camp. But enrollment in U.S. college Arabic courses grew 92 percent between 1998 and 2002—and, spurred by 9/11 and the Iraq war, has probably doubled since then,' says Gerald Lampe, president of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic.

... Nawar Saddi, 23, received daily calls after posting his résumé on Monster.com. "Last year I was getting offers of $130,000," he says. "This year it's $180,000."

Packaging "Authenticity"

2007-08-29T12:00:00.001-07:00

It seems that the latest trend among college admissions departments is to favor "authenticity" in students' college application materials. Looking for "honest, reflective students," some colleges, like MIT, go so far as to require prospective students to directly address the topics of failure or disappointment in their applications.

Ever eager to please, some college counselors are now actually advising students to deliberately fake a simple mistake in their application (e.g. a typo or two) to better portray themselves to colleges as imperfect, "real" students.

From a recent Associated Press article on this subject:

"For some students, the challenge of presenting themselves as full, flawed people cuts against everything else they've been told about applying to college – to show off as much as possible.

At the other extreme, when a college signals what it's looking for, students inevitably try to provide it. So you get some students trying to fake authenticity, to package themselves as unpackaged."

The practice of deliberately presenting one's self in an unrealistic light in order to gain acceptance isn't unique to students attempting to court colleges, of course. Colleges' own sales materials routinely show saccharin scenes of smiling students sitting happily under trees, peering intently at test tubes, or enthusiastically participating in cozy seminars with accessible, caring professors. In each case, one entity is trying to sell itself to the other, and using the craft of artifice to do so.

But isn't this kind of marketing as American as apple pie, the 4th of July, and NASCAR? Is this all much ado about nothing?

Or is finding the proper fit between student and college what really counts, not just the prestige of a given school or its ranking on the most recent list of best colleges?

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Follow A Daily Study Schedule

2007-08-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

One of the most important study habits for students to establish and maintain is that of following a daily study schedule.

Without setting aside regular times each day to get homework, project work, and test prep done on time, it's just too easy to procrastinate and not get the job done. Many students study only haphazardly, in fits and starts and at odd times, often waiting till "crunch time" to frantically complete work in a mad rush just before deadlines pass. Quality suffers as stress and pressure increase, and as a consequence, grades diminish (to say nothing of students' enjoyment of the learning process).

By contrast, forming the habit of "clocking in" and "clocking out" at particular times in a well-planned daily study schedule helps ensure that homework and projects will be completed consistently and on time, and will meet or exceed acceptable standards of quality. Eliminating the feeling of "overwhelm" that comes from being chronically late is just one of the many benefits associated with adhering to a strict daily study routine. In addition, maintaining regular study hours often makes it possible to get important long-term work done early, allowing extra time to improve quality and polish the final product.

As soon as children are given homework on a regular basis parents should provide them with a daily study schedule to follow to make sure they're able to get their school work done as soon as possible after coming home from school. After a suitable break to unwind after a long day at school, three consecutive periods of study should begin, roughly equal in length, with a short break in between: "Homework Time," "Project Time," and "Extra Time."

Homework Time is for completing short-term assignments due the next day (i.e. homework), with the most important or difficult assignments done first. Project Time is for long-range assignments, projects, or papers generally due more than one day in advance (including upcoming tests and quizzes). Extra Time is to complete any work not finished during the first two daily study periods, or to review or polish work already completed.

Each period should be of a reasonable fixed length (e.g. one hour for high school students, 45 minutes for middle school students, and proportionally less for younger children). Students should habitually "switch gears" at the end of the allotted time and move on to the next period of study (even if work remains from the previous period), but not before. On particularly light days, it's permissible to finish the first two periods early, if all work has been accomplished, but not the last; Extra Time should always last the full time allotted, if only to do extra review, focused reading, skills practice, or similar study. If sports or other after school activities prevent commencing the study schedule just after the school day ends, it should begin as soon as possible after these other activities have concluded.

Here's a sample schedule for a high school student who gets home at 3:30 P.M., with no after school activities during the week:

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Monday-Friday

Homework Time: 4-5pm; Project Time: 5-6pm; Dinner and relaxation: 6-7pm; Extra Time: 8-9pm.

Saturday-Sunday

Additional time as needed to keep academic skills, assignments, and projects on track (i.e. ahead of schedule), and to be prepared for upcoming tests and quizzes.

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Making a habit of working on both homework and long-term projects and/or upcoming tests and quizzes each and every day makes it difficult for too much unfinished work to pile up. Nevertheless, pile-ups can occur, and should be dealt with as quickly as possible over the weekend to prevent them from dragging on or growing worse. Likewise, it's a very good idea to occasionally use free time on weekends to get out in front of especially difficult or complex projects before they can turn into problems; investing extra hours to get ahead in this way is like "saving money in the bank," and is an extremely profitable and wise use of one's time.

It really is by far the best approach, if possible, for children to make a habit of completing all school work each day right after getting home from school. Nothing should be allowed to interfere with a student's work during study periods (no phone calls, television, music, internet, etc.). But under NO circumstances should a student's study schedule be allowed to interfere with adequate sleep; all study periods MUST be completed before bedtime, preferably well before (nothing ruins health and wrecks academic performance like sleep deprivation).

Committing to a regular study schedule is a sacrifice – but a far less painful and much more profitable one than defaulting to the helter-skelter "study when I feel like it" method adopted by so many unfortunate young people. Parents interested in the academic progress and happiness of their children should insist they follow a daily study schedule to maximize the probability of their success in school.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Marin Magazine Interview

2007-07-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

I was recently interviewed as one of three educational experts for an article by writer Samantha Bronson titled: "Higher Education: Marin College Prep Experts Give Advice."

In her piece appearing in the August 2007 edition of Marin Magazine, Bronson addresses important questions that are perennially on the minds of parents of college-bound children.

From the article:

"Getting into college these days is tougher than ever. Because standards are higher and competition is fierce, a child’s preparation for the college admissions game must begin at an early age.

How do parents ensure their kids are making the most of their educational opportunities? How can students raise their chances of getting into the college they want ... ? Are good grades and test scores enough? What else matters?"

For the feature, Bronson also interviewed Dave Denman of Denman Associates in Sausalito, California (415-332-1831). Dave is a long-time colleague of mine, and one of the top educational consultants in the nation.

To read the entire article, click here.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Chinese Gaokao: SAT Stress On Steroids

2007-07-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

As insane as the almost obsessive preoccupation with acing the SAT can seem in the lives of America's teenagers ... it's a whole lot worse in China, apparently.

Stressed-out American high school students can at least be grateful they don't have to place all their bets on a single test score, as do their Chinese counterparts.

A recent Associated Press article examines the phenomenal pressure faced by students taking the ultra high stakes Chinese "gaokao" college entrance test:

"Education is unrivaled in importance in China, and the two-day test that ended Friday is one of the few events that can bring the country to a standstill. Cities ordered drivers not to blow their horns, construction sites were shut down, streets near test sites were closed and flight paths were altered lest the noise disturb test-takers.

"This is the culmination of years of studies. This test will decide the rest of their lives," said Ma Jingshun, speaking for his son, a hulking 18-year-old whose voice had sunk to a soft mumble because of nerves.

Unlike the U.S., where standardized test scores are just one factor weighed by universities, how Chinese students do on the gaokao determines everything. Students list their top three schools and their major and hope their score is high enough to win a place.

Extracurricular activities, volunteer work and high school grades do not count. There are no essays to persuade admissions officers."

To read the entire article, click here.

Next time you begin to complain about the overblown importance of the SAT, you may want to remember the goakao, and Ma Jingshun's son, and count your blessings instead!

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Best Education News Sites

2007-06-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Although the internet is vast and the information it contains plentiful and diverse, I've found relatively few sites that do a very good job of gathering and presenting news stories on educational topics.

Below is an annotated list of my favorite education news sites.

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Yahoo! News Full Coverage: Education

Breaking stories, feature articles, and op-ed pieces covering a wide range of educational topics and concerns:

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/US/Education

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Newsweek Education

An excellent site offering a very interesting selection of featured news stories about all aspects of education and learning:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8573372/site/newsweek/

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New York Times Education News

A good list of recent articles covering national and local NYC issues in education:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/education/

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National Science Teachers Association

A sizable collection of articles focusing mainly on matters of higher education:

http://newsite.nsta.org/educationnews/&category_ID=194

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Learning And Earning: It's About Basics

2007-06-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

We all know the importance of getting a college education. It's truly amazing just how big a difference it actually makes to one's financial bottom line.

According to a recent article at washingtonpost.com:

"... while families at all educational levels have benefited from rising home values and stock market gains, the better-educated have enjoyed skyrocketing wealth, with college graduates recording an average net worth four times greater in 2004 than that of high school graduates."

The article goes on to report that while the incomes of families headed by college graduates have improved substantially in recent decades, real incomes of families headed by those with only a high school diploma have actually fallen by as much as 11 percent during the same period.

In another article, the Associated Press reported U.S. census data showing that, on average, college graduates in America earn almost twice the income of those with only high school diplomas (the ratio increases to nearly three to one for those with advanced degrees).

Nowadays, education is indeed the coin of the realm, and financial security and comfort necessarily require a good, university-level education. However, this in turn now increasingly depends on better elementary and secondary education than that available to most children in America (hence the phenomenal growth of the private practice education industry, of which I'm a part). Our educational system is producing inadequate results at best, relegating more and more young American students to the middle or bottom rungs of the ladder of international academic competitiveness. Because of an accelerating trend toward second-rate achievement in American schools, our teenagers will likely face increasing competition from more capable, better trained, more highly motivated foreign students clamoring to enter top American universities in the coming decades.

Our personal and national economic interests lie, therefore, in providing excellent basic education for our children, and on the rapid resuscitation of failing U.S. public schools. First of all, this means funding of good, public preschool programs for all youngsters in America, since universal preschool is by far the most powerful and cost effective way to quickly improve results in our schools, restore educational parity with the rest of the world, and ensure our future standing in the world economy.

Ultimately, American parents are the ones accountable for the success or failure of their own children. Following the bad examples of governmental leaders, corporate heads, sports figures, and others, Americans are becoming dishonest softies, for whom "playing by the rules" is only for fools, "discipline" and "rigor" are bad words, and "taking the easy way out" is the accepted norm. Parents who care and who know better simply cannot allow their children to fall behind in school. I'm always rather amazed and somewhat disheartened when perfectly capable high school students come to me for academic coaching addicted to their calculators (still not knowing their math facts by heart), unable to hand write legibly or organize their papers, etc. – that such basic deficiencies have been allowed to go uncorrected for so long.

In the current educational climate in America, often characterized by systemic sloppiness, grade inflation, cheating, corner-cutting, and general mediocrity, a good report card no longer guarantees actual competence or real accomplishment. Today, parents simply must take an intense interest in their children's early academic achievement. Without being obsessive, parents should micro-manage the progress of their children through the 6th grade, at least, to insure full mastery of essential academic skills. Otherwise, we as a nation risk losing the race in the new global market place. A cursory glance in the rear view mirror already shows China, India, and a host of other nations quickly gaining on us, threatening to take the lead.

More and more, it's all about basics.

And more than ever, it's more important than ever before.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Test Dates: 2007-2008

2007-05-09T00:21:00.000-07:00

Having a clear test preparation plan is crucial in achieving success on major standardized tests like the SAT, SAT2, ACT, PSAT, SSAT, and HSPT.

Testing dates scheduled during the 2007-2008 school year have now been released for most of these tests.

It's time to select the test dates that work best from the list below, and arrange your plans accordingly.

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ACT Dates: 2007-2008

6/9/07 (Registration: 5/4/07; late registration: 5/18/07.)

9/15/07 (Registration: 8/10/07; late registration: 8/24/07.)

10/27/07 (Registration: 9/21/07; late registration: 10/5/07.)

12/8/07 (Registration: 11/2/07; late registration: 11/15/07.)

2/9/08 (Registration: 1/4/08; late registration: 1/18/08.)

4/12/08 (Registration: 3/7/08; late registration: 3/21/08.)

6/14/08 (Registration: 5/9/08; late registration: 5/23/08.)

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HSPT Dates: 2007-2008

Test dates vary. The most common dates are in the fall and spring.

Contact high school admissions departments to confirm test and registration dates.

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PSAT Dates: 2007-2008

10/17/07 or 10/20/07

Contact high school to confirm test and registration dates.

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SAT Dates: 2007-2008

10/6/07 (Registration: 9/10/07; late registration: 9/14/07.)

11/3/07 (Registration: 10/2/07; late registration: 10/11/07.)

12/1/07 (Registration: 10/30/07; late registration: 11/8/07.)

1/26/08 (Registration: 12/26/07; late registration: 1/4/08.)

3/1/08 (Registration: 1/29/08; late registration: 2/7/08.)

5/3/08 (Registration: 4/1/08; late registration: 4/10/08.)

6/7/08 (Registration: 5/6/08; late registration: 5/15/08.)

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SAT2 Dates: 2007-2008

10/6/07 (Registration: 9/10/07; late registration: 9/14/07.)

11/3/07 (Registration: 10/2/07; late registration: 10/11/07.)

12/1/07 (Registration: 10/30/07; late registration: 11/8/07.)

1/26/08 (Registration: 12/26/07; late registration: 1/4/08.)

5/3/08 (Registration: 4/1/08; late registration: 4/10/08.)

6/7/08 (Registration: 5/6/08; late registration: 5/15/08.)

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SSAT Dates: 2007-2008

10/18/07

11/10/07

12/8/07

1/12/08

2/9/08

3/8/08

4/12/08

6/14/08

(Registration and late registration dates to be announced.)

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Career Choice In The Age of Outsourcing

2007-05-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

American students are now being confronted with a critical new question: how to "outsource-proof" one's choice of college major and career path?

The global market is forcing a redistribution of wealth from formerly wealthy nations like the United States and those in the European Union to those traditionally poor countries with ever increasing numbers of well-educated citizens, like India and China. Many jobs that have traditionally gone to local American workers can now, in the Information Age, be done for a small fraction of the cost by skilled workers and technicians overseas. As the outsourcing boom born of the internet miracle continues to expand, and the economic playing field worldwide levels out in the face of competition from workers and professionals in other nations able to provide needed services for far less money, salaries in the U.S. and E.U. will likely decline over the next few decades compared to those in other countries. For the foreseeable future, American and European professionals will have to adjust to continuous downward pressure on salaries while those in other locales experience the opposite phenomena.

What advice, then, should American parents give their college-bound children regarding educational majors and careers? As economic boundaries blur, and given the unstable, unpredictable outlook for professional employment opportunities here in the U.S., how do we help prepare the next generation of American young people for success?

Excellent online resources now enable parents and students to research and analyze various career paths in just a short while. At these sites, critical factors such as average salary, predicted job growth in the U.S. over the next 10 years, stress level, a "day in the life," etc. can be examined and compared in great detail, often yielding surprising results.

For example:

Did you know that there's an "under the radar" professional job that offers tip-top growth, quality of life, flexibility, and attainability, a median salary of almost $80,000 per year, and is highly resistant to outsourcing ... yet requires only a bachelors degree? It's the exciting Physician Assistant field (For more information, click the associated link in the U.S. News and World Report "Best Careers 2007" table, referenced below.)

Below are some links to help you begin your research on hot career paths for early 21st century college graduates:

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My favorite general career path resource is the U.S. News and World Report careers site, located in the Money & Business section of their main site:

http://www.usnews.com/sections/business/careers/index.html.

Featuring advice on topics as diverse as best careers for 2007, top government jobs, whether or not grad school makes sense, socially conscious careers, overrated careers, calculators to comparing job offers and cost of living, etc., this site is a fantastic place to start.

Their "Best Careers 2007" table offers a quick overview of the most promising American careers.

In addition, ace career consultant Marty Nemko has written several excellent articles on the U.S. News site that deserve special attention, among them: Most–and least–rewarding careers, and Get-Ahead Careers for 2007.

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The Johns Hopkins University Career Center Web site offers numerous links to online career and job-related resources:

http://www.jhu.edu/~careers/links.html.

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Finally, the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics offers all the information only a huge government bureaucracy can assemble.

Two of their online databases provide detailed, current information on just about any job and career field imaginable.

They are the Occupational Outlook Handbook, and the Career Guide to Industries.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Math As Art (Part 2)

2007-05-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

From the "Math as Art" page of the Borland Educational Web site:

"As the study of patterns both real and abstract, mathematics is an inherently creative and artistic endeavor.

Recent advances in computer technology have finally made possible the widespread discovery and appreciation of the sublime beauty of mathematics. Once the province of just a select few, the art of mathematics can now be enjoyed by one and all."

In an earlier post on this subject (click here), I wrote briefly about the pioneering work of Michael Trott, who as "the worlds most advanced Mathematica user" has brought together like no other the realms of visual art and mathematics.

Today's post contains a few selected links intended as starting points to ignite and inspire your curiosity and act as further impetus for your own look into the alluring world of mathematical art.

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The tantalizing Wolfram Research Graphics Gallery is the best place I know of to begin enjoying and appreciating the wonders of numbers in visual form:

http://gallery.wolfram.com/.

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Another interesting point of embarkation is the following page highlighting works of mathematical art exhibited at recent major conferences:

http://www.bridgesmathart.org/amsmaa.html.

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The following "Pythagorean Tree" generators are simple ways to create mathematical art of your own:

http://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/aburns/flash/pyth4.html;

http://www.nsf.gov/news/overviews/mathematics/interactive.jsp.

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Fractals are fascinating, relatively recent products of mathematical research famous for the alluring beauty and entrancing effect of their images. The internet abounds with sites devoted to the study of fractals (a simple google search will yield upward of 8 million hits!).

Here are a few to get you started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal;

http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/frac/;

http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/fractals/;

http://members.cox.net/fractalenc/encyclopedia.html.

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Long Island University mathematics professor Anne Burns has published a "Gallery of Mathscapes" showing some of her works as a mathematical artist:

http://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/aburns/gallery/gallery.htm.

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The National Science Foundation has a superb, highly accessible general mathematics site suited for lay people with more advanced interest in the subject (highlighting recent mathematical news, research, discoveries, etc.)

http://www.nsf.gov/news/overviews/mathematics/index.jsp.

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Last, but absolutely not least, is the Wolfram Functions Site. Containing "the worlds largest collection of formulas and graphics about mathematical functions," a visit here is not for the faint of heart, but for math fans who just have to "have it all:"

http://functions.wolfram.com/.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

Cheney Invitation Inspires Ire At BYU

2007-04-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Those of us Baby Boomers who hear about "student protests" and "campus sit-ins" instantly recall the political demonstrations made famous during the 1960's free speech movement on liberal campuses like U.C. Berkeley, S.F. State, and others. Long-haired hippies in V.W. vans, blasting protest music and picking up like-minded hitch-hikers on the way to anti-war marches come quickly to mind.

Times have changed.

This time, it wasn't liberal coastal campuses hosting large anti-establishment rallies, sit-ins, and sign-waving, anti-government dissent. No, no. This time, it was Brigham Young University (BYU), perhaps the nation's most conservative college, the reddest campus in the reddest state in America.

At the Mormon University owned and operated by the LDS church, public protest and dissent are rare. Unity, propriety, and pro-Americanism have always been the norm there, where any serious opposition to leaders of the Republican Party tends to raise disapproving eye brows. Nevertheless, open protests by students and faculty at BYU erupted recently over the decision to invite Vice President Dick Cheney to be this year's BYU commencement speaker (Cheney spoke at BYU on 4/26/07).

Despite the fact that nearly all of the student and faculty at BYU are strong conservatives, and the vast majority registered Republicans, many at BYU feel that Cheney's personal behavior and governmental policies do not at all reflect the traditional Christian/American values (honesty, fairness, integrity, freedom from debt, respect for the Bill of Rights, clean language, etc.) taught at the University and in the LDS church.

From a recent New York Times article:

“The problem is this is a morally dubious man,” said Andrew Christensen, a 22-year-old Republican from Salt Lake City. “It’s challenging the morality and integrity of this institution."

In restrained campus demonstrations on 4/4/07 and again on 4/26/07, several hundred BYU students, faculty, and staff protested Cheney's speech. An "alternative commencement" in neighboring Orem, Utah was miraculously funded and produced at the last minute (despite active local opposition) featuring Ralph Nader as speaker, and more than 3800 LDS members signed an online petition in opposition to the Cheney invitation.

Read the entire article here.

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Copyright © 2007 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.

SAT Prep Planning (Part 2)

2007-04-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

A host of nation-wide testing companies (Princeton Review, Kaplan, Ivy West, Revolution Prep, etc.) offer pre-packaged SAT courses. These courses cost as much as $999 or more, and often require a huge commitment of time and energy (e.g. the Princeton Review's SAT1 course requires more than 50 hours devoted to class time, homework, and practice testing). School sponsored courses offered by local firms or coaches are usually less expensive and time consuming, but can be less effective than those administered by established companies. Buyer beware: many prep course "guarantees" are not straight money-back guarantees, but instead merely offer dissatisfied customers the right to retake the course one more time for free or at a reduced rate.

For students who wish to prepare on their own, there are a plethora of SAT study guides and workbooks available commercially. While not as effective as working with a good private coach or investing considerable time and money in a top-flight SAT course, disciplined study with a good work book along with plenty of practice before test day can make a big difference, and is certainly much better than nothing. Unfortunately, most SAT self-study books are decidedly inferior in quality, and very few include good, comprehensive advice and realistic, truly useful practice tests. The vast majority of them are a waste of time, at best, and should be avoided. Below are my picks as the best commercial SAT guides:

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• The "Bible" of SAT preparation is The Official SAT Study Guide by the College Board (the organization that administers the SAT). This huge blue tome (899 pages) contains eight official SAT tests – the only publication featuring real tests. It's the perfect resource for SAT practice, and is the first book every student preparing for the SAT should get.

• Alternatively, Cracking the SAT, 2007 by the Princeton Review is an excellent book on SAT strategy, and contains three fairly good unofficial practice tests (a great choice for self study).

• Another reasonably good source of SAT practice tests is the Princeton Review's 11 Practice Tests for the SAT and PSAT, 2007 (get this book, also, if you're taking a full year to prepare or you think you'll need a larger supply of tests than that supplied in The Official SAT Study Guide; then, work with these first, saving the official tests for last).

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By far the best way to prepare to take the SAT is to hire an experienced private test coach. For most students, private coaching offers the best value, combining superior instructional quality, flexible scheduling, and maximum cost-effectiveness. Top quality professional test coaches in private practice with decades of experience generally charge from $120 to $160 per hour in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's possible to pay a lot more, though, while getting a lot less. The Princeton Review, for example, charges up to $350 per hour for their best tutors (those with at least five years tutoring experience), in blocks of 10-23 hours, minimum, and then pays these tutors a small fraction of that hourly fee ... so while you're paying absolutely top dollar, you could be getting just an average quality coach. See the following article I've posted on my Web site for information on how to find the right coach:

http://www.borlandeducational.com/page5/page5.html.

Here's the long term SAT prep plan I recommend as ideal:

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• Months 1-3: Strategy coaching and instruction (weekly 60-90 minute sessions, with untimed practice between sessions)

• Months 4-11: One complete timed practice test per month, each followed by a single 60-90 minute coaching session to critique and correct the student's performance.

• Month 12: One complete timed practice test per week, each followed by a single 60-90 minute coaching session to critique and correct the student's performance (scheduled to conclude immediately before test day).

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Below is a planning chart giving suggested start dates for various SAT prep strategies:

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• Long range prep: begin 10-12 months ahead of test date

• Medium range prep: begin 6-7 months before test date

• Short range prep: begin 3-4 months before test date

• Last-minute prep: begin 1-4 weeks before test date

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With standardized tests like the SAT, planning and preparation are the keys to unlocking a winning score. The probability of success on the SAT correlates most directly to the type and quality of instruction and the amount of test taking practice given to students before test day. While it's certainly possible to dramatically improve one's score in a shorter period of time, a one year plan allows sufficient time to do required practice and gain the confidence, competence, and experience necessary to perform at one's best on the test, and offers students the best chance of a successful outcome. Keep in mind, however, that although it's unlikely that busy students will be able to get enough practice in just a few months or weeks to actually maximize their final SAT numbers, even a little high quality test prep and one or two practice tests can make a big difference. Get a coach, take a course, read some books, plan your work, and work your plan.

The worst SAT plan, by far ... is no plan!

(Click here to go to Part 1.)

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