Category: Uncategorized

The Presenting Problem Recently I came across a video on YouTube that asked the question, “Which is bigger: 99! or 5099?” There are so many such questions on YouTube and I wonder why. After giving it some thought, I realize the truth in the saying, “Give a woman a fish and you feed her for…

Inane Phrases If you read my motivations page and the previous post, you will realize that my experience of teaching grade 6 students had an immense impact on me. While the previous post focused on BEDMAS (or BODMAS or PEMDAS, etc.), in the motivations page I also reveal that the students came to me with…

Order! Order! As a mathematics teacher, I primarily teach students in high school, preferring, within this group, to teach grades 11 and 12. There are two reasons for this. First, mathematics taught in grades 11 and 12 is complex enough to allow for interesting nuancing of the ideas and also blending of the various areas…

Down Memory Lane Just recently, while introducing me for a talk, someone stated that I have two loves – theology and mathematics. This is a reasonably accurate statement and I blog about these two areas regularly. I have been quite open about both of these with my students too. Hence, even though I am their…

The Presenting Problem In this post, I wish to continue with some geometry along with some insights from sequences and series. Consider the figure below It is given that ∠AOB = 60°. Also, the radius of the largest circle is 1 unit. The successive smaller circles are tangential to the circles on either side. This…

Recap In the previous post, from two weeks ago, I had addressed a development in Maharashtra, according to which they have lowered the pass mark in mathematics and science from 35 to 20. I had concluded that post with three questions. First, what is the relationship between a pass mark in an exam related to…

A Recent Development Late last month, around 23 October 2024, many newspapers carried the story that the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) in Maharashtra has decided to reduce the pass mark for mathematics and science from 35 to 20. The caveat is that students who have scored at least 20 marks but…

The Presenting Problem There is one big problem with being a mathematics tutor. You aren’t the students’ main teacher and hence you get to hear what the students have actually learned from their main teacher. Why is this a problem? Well, it exposes me to the ways in which we mathematics teachers regularly let our…

Looking Back, Looking Ahead The response to last week’s post on geometry was heartening. So I thought I would give the readers another small dose of geometry. Some of the ideas that arise from geometry are simple, yet so profound that it is hardly surprising that geometry was considered the pinnacle of human wisdom by…

The Presenting Problem In response to the previous post, in which I had categorically declared that the use of calculators in mathematics education is a hindrance to students, a former student asked me, “Do you think it would be feasible or even beneficial to move mathematical assessments from the current manipulation & computation to something…