Numerati's definitions

Hybrid Modeling

A mix of intuitive bar modeling and abstract algebra to solve word problems, which serves as a bridge from pre-algebraic thinking (hidden in the Singapore bar model method) to formal algebraic thinking (involved in solving an equation).

Many middle school students in Singapore are so fluent in the bar model method that teachers and parents find it hard to wean them from it in order to embrace the algebraic method. As a result, some math educators suggest using the blended or hybrid modeling to make the transition less painful.

by Numerati October 17, 2024

Pi as Propaganda

When the number π is used to draw attention to herself through posters, banners, and graffiti in public places, because these oft-powerful images can influence or change people’s minds about the mathematical constant.

Unlike other noteworthy but struggling constants like e and 𝜙, π has continually succeeded to be part of popular culture, because she believes that “pi as propaganda” is an effective marketing tool to remain relevant in the minds of both math and nonmath people.

by Numerati November 23, 2024

Wasabi Math

Math problems titles filled with oft-minimalist information that tend to put off or confuse math-anxious people, who may find them mentally nauseating or brain-unfriendly.

Like wasabi peas and sushis, wallet-friendly wasabi math titles from Asian and Communist countries would petrify the majority of K–12 American students and their teachers, who’re spoon-fed with drill-and-kill questions.

by Numerati November 24, 2024

The Singapore Mathematics Calendar

A math calendar à la Singapour, which is designed in such a way that the answer to the problem on each day is the date on which the question appears, aims to develop in children a positive attitude towards the world’s most disliked school subject—when they are exposed to the beauty and joy of math rather than seeing it as a mere drill-and-kill subject.

The Singapore Mathematics Calendar—which takes three or four times longer to write than a typical assessment (or supplementary) math title, and costs a few folds more in publishing it—is a first in Singapore math publishing, as it offers students a creative and fun way to learning math, while honing their problem-solving skills.

by Numerati November 25, 2024

HumanAIzed Math

When math educators (teachers, tutors, writers, editors, consultants, …) come to terms that the human-machine convergence will create both opportunities and risks—it is not just a case of what machines can do versus what humans can do, but rather what tasks they can synergistically achieve together.

HumanAIzed math isn’t a mere fusion of humans and machines working alongside each other, but a cocreation for a new vision of math education.

by Numerati November 28, 2024

Bar-Modeling Orthogonality

When incorporating Singapore’s bar model method—the problem-solving visualization strategy to tackle word problems—at the elementary school level and its aim to develop students’ pre-algebraic thinking skills (before they are introduced to formal algebra) are not often partially achievable or necessarily correlated in practice.

Wallet-friendly Singapore math textbooks, workbooks, and teachers’ resources on their own doesn’t guarantee problem-solving mastery—bar-modeling orthogonality seems to be a constant in many traditional American classrooms, often because of teachers’ or parents’ faux perception that a foreign math curriculum or publication is harder (or even inferior) than their local inch-deep-mile-wide one.

by Numerati December 5, 2024

Math Is a Verb.

When you can’t be a spectator vis-à-vis the world’s most disliked school subject, but you need to be a player to master it—reading or listening about math won’t make you fluent in the subject, but doing math will.

Like Christianity, math is a verb. Just like you can’t impact lives if you merely know about Jesus and His teachings, so reading pop math books without dirtying your hands is unlikely going to raise your quantitative literacy in meeting the technological challenges of the 21st century.

by Numerati December 6, 2024