I teach my kids with this method and use it quite frequently in designing odd shaped speaker volumes. Was just doing that last night in fact! I love the play on words.
On Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 10:14 AM, <ch...@wbmfg.com> wrote: > Below is a part of a thread between me and Ken Hohhof. I found it fun > last night. > Can you figure out the riddle? > > *From:* ch...@wbmfg.com > *Sent:* Tuesday, December 12, 2017 9:08 AM > *To:* Ken Hohhof > *Subject:* Re: OFFLIST: government is not the only place where money talks > > I called 4 of my kids and asked them if they could understand the squaw on > the hippo. > > First kid, my youngest son, 23 years old, really good machinist, acted > like I was speaking a foreign language. Even with hints and prompting he > never got there. > > Second kid, actually works for a company building parts for Space X. CS > degree. He took lots of hints and prompting. > > Third kid, EE, works for DOD at Hill Airforce Base got it instantly. I > was surprised as his EE coursework seemed about 1/3rd as rigorous as the > stuff I had to do. > > Fourth kid, science teacher in Jr High, got it with a minor hint. > > Her husband, ME student at the Uof U didn’t have a clue. > > 3 more kids to ask. That was fun! > > *From:* Ken Hohhof > *Sent:* Monday, December 11, 2017 5:07 PM > *To:* 'Chuck McCown' > *Subject:* RE: OFFLIST: government is not the only place where money talks > > > Well, that’s discouraging. The books might be digital now, but nothing > else has changed in almost 50 years. > > > > BTW, the “new math” happened while I was in approximately grades 8-10. We > had paperback textbooks from SMSG (School Mathematics Study Group). I > don’t remember them as being bad. I think a lot depended on the teachers, > whether they knew the material and taught it well in the classroom > including the practical applications that Feynman wrote about. Teachers > were more highly valued in that period than now, and I think I had some > really good science and math teachers especially in high school. The “new > math” approach I think was the first attempt at teaching college type math > to all high school students rather than assuming most students would never > need algebra, trig, or Venn diagrams. > > > > When my kids went to high school, everything in math class seemed to > center around graphing calculators. I’m not sure why. It doesn’t teach > fundamentals, and hardly anyone solves daily math problems with a graphing > calculator. I think it’s the same approach as teaching the way to find the > diagonal of a right triangle is to cut one out of paper and measure it. I > remember a bad joke in high school that ended with “the squaw on the > hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws on the other two hides”. > Who today would even know what that refers to? > > > > > > *From:* Chuck McCown [mailto:ch...@wbmfg.com] > *Sent:* Monday, December 11, 2017 5:16 PM > *To:* Ken Hohhof <khoh...@kwom.com> > *Subject:* Re: OFFLIST: government is not the only place where money talks > > > > Richard Feynman had an interesting experience with the textbook selection > process: > > > > http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm > > > > > > *From:* Ken Hohhof > > *Sent:* Monday, December 11, 2017 4:01 PM > > *To:* 'Chuck McCown' > > *Subject:* OFFLIST: government is not the only place where money talks > > > > Pharmaceutical companies of course spend a lot of time and money > recruiting doctors to prescribe their drugs and recommend them at medical > conferences. > > > > Same thing is happening with classroom technology like laptops and > software, raising ethical concerns. Lots of articles like this: > > https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/technology/silicon- > valley-teachers-tech.html > > > > And apparently there was a scandal at Baltimore County Schools concerning > a big contract for HP laptops: > > http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2017/ > 11/baltimore_county_tech_conflicts.html > > > > My guess is shenanigans like this go on to a greater or lesser extent in > almost any school district and influences the contracts for “Ed Tech”. So > we end up with kindergartners having iPads and Chromebooks, all the > textbooks being online, and teachers using classroom management software, > and wondering how much this really improves education. Maybe it’s all > great stuff, but it seems to show that lobbying and buying influence are > not restricted to Washington. Silicon Valley goes after the educators the > same way Big Pharma goes after the doctors. >
