Life By Numbers Educational highlights
| Series
Information |
Curricular
Areas:
Mathematics and Technology |
| Length:13/Various
Length Programs (1 to 12.5 minutes), CC |
| Grade
Levels:7-12 and Professional Development |
|
Life
By the Numbers Educational Highlights shows how people from all
walks of life are using cutting edge computer models and specially
designed software programs to apply mathematical applications to
an amazing variety of real life problems. Fascinating digital application
helping world class skaters increase speed and precision is just
one of the ways these "best educational moments" of the
original seven hour series video segments urge students to learn
mathematics by engaging in real-world problem solving.
The program segments explore a variety of areas in modern life that
use mathematics and computer models in sports, work, education,
exploration, chance, technology and life in general. The segments
in this series were selected by teachers for each segment’s
specific relevance to the high school mathematics curriculum.
Episode Descriptions
Introduction
by actor, Danny Glover (1 minute 20 seconds)
Patterns of
Nature Shape the World:
Mathematics helps explore and describe basic aspects of life.
Mathematics
and Monsters — Biomechanics uses mathematical relationships
to explore the design of living things, in this case to design monsters
for the movies. This segment helps students understand the relationship
between height and volume. (11:30)
New Geometry — This segment helps students understand
exponential growth and fractal design. One computer scientist uses
fractal computer models to describe forms in nature such as flowers
and trees; another uses a computer to define an L system—which
describes the basic element of a small part, of a tree for instance.
(8:45)
Artificial Life — Biologist Tom Ray designed a computer
program using algorithms to build a model of an artificial rain
forest to replicate and explain the process of evolution. (9:32)
Seeing Is Believing
New Age:
Mathematics makes virtual reality possible.
Linear Perspective — An art history professor describes
how the new-found ability to mathematicize space changed the course
of Western civilization, focusing on the development of linear perspective.
(6:27)
Pictures from Numbers — A graphic artist, computer animation
expert and mathematician combine art, mathematics. and supercomputers
to visualize intergalactic space and the birth of the universe a
room sized computer screen. (9:08)
The Numbers Game:
Mathematical thinking permeates sports and often makes the difference
between winning and losing.
Crunching Numbers — To help them determine strategy
for a particular opponent, football coaches nationwide use computers
to turn a game’s video into mathematical statistics, giving
information about the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.
(6:08)
A Fine Line — Coaches, biomechanics, and athletes use
mathematical computer models to graph an athlete’s accomplishments
in events to improve performance, i.e. Is a triple axel higher than
a double axel or are the skaters just rotating faster" or the
most efficient stride for a long-distance runner." (12.24)
Chances of a Lifetime:
Mathematics makes sense of our lives.
Module VIII House Rules — A teacher of mathematics of
games and gambling helps students understand calculating odds by
using a device called a Galton Board to show why winning big in
Las Vegas is not very likely. (8:44)
Module IX Reading Minds — This segment shows why Gallup
succeeded n picking Roosevelt to win the presidency when others
failed. Another pollster goes through the process of random sampling
to determine outcomes. (6:20)
Shape
of the World:
A language called geometry enables us to measure and map the spherical
Earth in two-dimensional forms.
Module X Ground Truth — Cartographers and engineers
demonstrate the precision mapping system they have developed for
the US Air Force and show how it was used to negotiate boundaries
for Bosnia
(7:03)
Module XI Circles, Angles and Echoes — The program introduces
the early Greek use of geometry (the word is Greek and means measuring
the earth) to establish the spherical shape of the planet and the
mapping of uncharted areas of America and the oceans. (10:18)
Module XII Machines of the Future — Researchers are
pushing the frontiers of what personal computers can do (digital
personal servants). The program also describes Boolean algebra,
the basis of the modern computer and introduces the three different
operations that can be performed on x and y: x and y, x or y, and
x is not y. (11:09)
Module XIII Networking Earth/Data Mining — These segments
address how to find the shortest distance between two points and
uncover the meaning in vast amounts of data. A queuing (waiting
line) theorists uses mathematical computer programs to find the
greatest efficiencies for telephone lines, etc. and another organizes
data digitally for marketing purposes, for instance. such as consumer
buying habits. (12:30)
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