Researchers from Brazil's Universidade Estadual de Campinas used
a computer simulation to confirm paleontologist Stephen J.
Gould's prediction that it is evolutionarily advantageous for
cicadas to emerge at intervals lasting a prime number of years.
Last week a fourth grade teacher in Philly invited me to work
with her students. She emailed me to explain, ”We are moving
into intersecting, parallel, and perpendicular lines. Would it
be possible to focus your lessons Tuesday and Wednesday around
this skill?” On Monday I was still thinking about possibilities.
I was walking in South [...] I have been spending considerable
effort looking for situations to "mathematize" in my daily
interactions with students. Sadly, upper-level students are so
mark and answer focused that they spend little time wondering
about emerging problems with me.This is not the case with my
8-year old friend.While he was inventing his word problem, he
stumbled upon the idea of a middle. Specifically, he told me
that four train tracks met in