Teaching Perspectives

Randomness and Design

joshwilkerson1 Comment

Thanks to the Discovery Institute for passing along this information. Here is a link to the original post on EvolutionNews.org.

The National Research Council, a division of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), has a new book out titled Thinking Evolutionarily. The purpose of the book is to help teachers understand what it means to not only teach evolution as a single unit but to redefine their entire curriculum and teaching methods by “thinking evolutionarily.” Essentially it is what I (and others) are trying to accomplish through this website in regards to mathematics and thinking Christianly, but with an emphasis on evolution as the driving force behind education.

Here is a quote:

Getting one’s head, heart, and soul around the scientific theory of evolution and its implications is daunting … While our awe and wonder about the world may deepen in light of evolutionary theory — indeed, evolution does seem miraculous — our minds may also boggle and buckle when coming to terms with a certain fundamental randomness and unpredictability, a lack of a grand design, a perception that the theory portends a loss of meaning and purpose in our lives.

This quote does an excellent job of illustrating what has been said here before: the debate on evolution and intelligent design, when you honestly examine the arguments and pare them down to the fundamentals, is really a question of how you understand randomness.

There are several issues I take with this quote but here is the most important: when understood properly, fundamental randomness and unpredictability do not imply a lack of grand design. Mathematically speaking there are many scenarios in which randomness is actually required to produce order.

Instead of detailing this out, I’ll again point you to what has been said here before, namely James Bradley’s talk “Is There a Place for God in a World Governed by Chance?”, because I would only be repeating what he has already said.

My hope is that people would begin to realize the importance of “thinking Christianly” about mathematics in contributing to the discussion of “thinking evolutionarily” in the classroom.

PRIMUS and Service-Learning

joshwilkerson5 Comments

The following announcement was sent out to members of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences:

The journal  PRIMUS announces a special issue on Service-Learning. Kelly Black, Karl-Dieter Crisman, and Dick Jardine will be guest editing the special issue, inspired by a MAA Contributed Paper Session on this topic at the Joint Meetings in 2011.

Service-Learning connects service to the community with academically-based learning. This is a growing concern on college campuses, sometimes even a mandate, but the mathematical sciences are often seen as a more challenging environment to bring service into the classroom.  In particular, there are only a few resources widely available on this topic specifically geared toward collegiate mathematics.  This PRIMUS special issue aims to provide a significant addition to this literature, with a number of tested ideas in a single volume as a pedagogical resource.

We are calling for papers describing and evaluating innovative and successful service-learning ideas in the mathematical sciences, at all levels and in all topics.  Papers should explicitly address how the service connects to learning the mathematical content of the course, as well as any non-mathematical outcomes.  These may include modeling or statistics courses, but we especially encourage submissions involving non-major courses or non-`applied’ major courses.

Submissions will be welcomed until March 31, 2012.  Papers for this special issue will normally be around 10 pages long, although there is some flexibility.  Supplementary materials, such as appendices and color illustrations, may be published in the online version.

We also extend a call for referees for this special issue, especially those who have some experience with or significant interest in service-learning.

For more information, please contact:

Special Issue Guest Editors:

Karl-Dieter Crisman,  karl.crisman <at> gordon <dot> edu
Kelly Black,  kjblack <at> gmail <dot> com
Dick Jardine,  rjardine <at> keene <dot> edu

PRIMUS-Problems, Resources, Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies-is a refereed journal published by Taylor and Francis.  See http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/10511970.asp  for more information.

PRIMUS Editor-in -Chief

Jo Ellis-Monaghan, jellis-monaghan <at> smcvt <dot> edu

Math Education and Social Justice

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Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Amos 5:24

This looks like an amazing endeavor. While not explicitly Christian in its motivation, I think this conference could go a long way toward shaping what it means to integrate mathematics with our mission to the world.

Clicking the image above will take you to the conference website: http://creatingbalanceconference.org/. I also encourage you to check out the parent site: http://www.radicalmath.org/.

For further reading:

“Changing the Balance in an Unjust World: Learning to Teach Mathematics for Social Justice,” by Joan Kwako.

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.”

Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?”

The King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

Matthew 25:31-40