Mathematics as a Tool

Mathematics as a Tool PDF Author: Johannes Lenhard
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319544691
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
This book puts forward a new role for mathematics in the natural sciences. In the traditional understanding, a strong viewpoint is advocated, on the one hand, according to which mathematics is used for truthfully expressing laws of nature and thus for rendering the rational structure of the world. In a weaker understanding, many deny that these fundamental laws are of an essentially mathematical character, and suggest that mathematics is merely a convenient tool for systematizing observational knowledge. The position developed in this volume combines features of both the strong and the weak viewpoint. In accordance with the former, mathematics is assigned an active and even shaping role in the sciences, but at the same time, employing mathematics as a tool is taken to be independent from the possible mathematical structure of the objects under consideration. Hence the tool perspective is contextual rather than ontological. Furthermore, tool-use has to respect conditions like suitability, efficacy, optimality, and others. There is a spectrum of means that will normally differ in how well they serve particular purposes. The tool perspective underlines the inevitably provisional validity of mathematics: any tool can be adjusted, improved, or lose its adequacy upon changing practical conditions.

Mathematics as a Tool

Mathematics as a Tool PDF Author: Johannes Lenhard
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319544691
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book puts forward a new role for mathematics in the natural sciences. In the traditional understanding, a strong viewpoint is advocated, on the one hand, according to which mathematics is used for truthfully expressing laws of nature and thus for rendering the rational structure of the world. In a weaker understanding, many deny that these fundamental laws are of an essentially mathematical character, and suggest that mathematics is merely a convenient tool for systematizing observational knowledge. The position developed in this volume combines features of both the strong and the weak viewpoint. In accordance with the former, mathematics is assigned an active and even shaping role in the sciences, but at the same time, employing mathematics as a tool is taken to be independent from the possible mathematical structure of the objects under consideration. Hence the tool perspective is contextual rather than ontological. Furthermore, tool-use has to respect conditions like suitability, efficacy, optimality, and others. There is a spectrum of means that will normally differ in how well they serve particular purposes. The tool perspective underlines the inevitably provisional validity of mathematics: any tool can be adjusted, improved, or lose its adequacy upon changing practical conditions.

Tools and Mathematics

Tools and Mathematics PDF Author: John Monaghan
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319023969
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
This book is an exploration of tools and mathematics and issues in mathematics education related to tool use. The book has five parts. The first part reflects on doing a mathematical task with different tools, followed by a mathematician's account of tool use in his work. The second considers prehistory and history: tools in the development from ape to human; tools and mathematics in the ancient world; tools for calculating; and tools in mathematics instruction. The third part opens with a broad review of technology and intellectual trends, circa 1970, and continues with three case studies of approaches in mathematics education and the place of tools in these approaches. The fourth part considers issues related to mathematics instructions: curriculum, assessment and policy; the calculator debate; mathematics in the real world; and teachers' use of technology. The final part looks to the future: task and tool design and new forms of activity via connectivity and computer games.

Symbolizing, Modeling and Tool Use in Mathematics Education

Symbolizing, Modeling and Tool Use in Mathematics Education PDF Author: K.P Gravemeijer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401731942
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
This book explores the option of building on symbolizing, modeling and tool use as personally meaningful activities of students. It discusses the dimension of setting: varying from the study of informal, spontaneous activity of students, to an explicit focus on instructional design, and goals and effects of instruction; and the dimension of the theoretical framework of the researcher: varying from constructivism, to activity theory, cognitive psychology and instructional-design theory.

Semiotics as a Tool for Learning Mathematics

Semiotics as a Tool for Learning Mathematics PDF Author: Adalira Sáenz-Ludlow
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9463003371
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Semiotics as a Tool for Learning Mathematics is a collection of ten theoretical and empirical chapters, from researchers all over the world, who are interested in semiotic notions and their practical uses in mathematics classrooms. Collectively, they present a semiotic contribution to enhance pedagogical aspects both for the teaching of school mathematics and for the preparation of pre-service teachers. This enhancement involves the use of diagrams to visualize implicit or explicit mathematical relations and the use of mathematical discourse to facilitate the emergence of inferential reasoning in the process of argumentation. It will also facilitate the construction of proofs and solutions of mathematical problems as well as the progressive construction of mathematical conceptions that, eventually, will approximate the concept(s) encoded in mathematical symbols. These symbols hinge not only of mental operations but also on indexical and iconic aspects; aspects which often are not taken into account when working on the meaning of mathematical symbols. For such an enhancement to happen, it is necessary to transform basic notions of semiotic theories to make them usable for mathematics education. In addition, it is also necessary to back theoretical claims with empirical data. This anthology attempts to deal with such a conjunction. Overall, this book can be used as a theoretical basis for further semiotic considerations as well as for the design of different ways of teaching mathematical concepts.

Mind Tools

Mind Tools PDF Author: Rudy Rucker
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486492281
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Originally published: Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.

Tools of the Trade

Tools of the Trade PDF Author: Paul J. Sally (Jr.)
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821846345
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
"This book provides a transition from the formula-full aspects of the beginning study of college level mathematics to the rich and creative world of more advanced topics. It is designed to assist the student in mastering the techniques of analysis and proof that are required to do mathematics." "Along with the standard material such as linear algebra, construction of the real numbers via Cauchy sequences, metric spaces and complete metric spaces, there are three projects at the end of each chapter that form an integral part of the text. These projects include a detailed discussion of topics such as group theory, convergence of infinite series, decimal expansions of real numbers, point set topology and topological groups. They are carefully designed to guide the student through the subject matter. Together with numerous exercises included in the book, these projects may be used as part of the regular classroom presentation, as self-study projects for students, or for Inquiry Based Learning activities presented by the students."--BOOK JACKET.

Mathematical Concepts

Mathematical Concepts PDF Author: Jürgen Jost
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331920436X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
The main intention of this book is to describe and develop the conceptual, structural and abstract thinking of mathematics. Specific mathematical structures are used to illustrate the conceptual approach; providing a deeper insight into mutual relationships and abstract common features. These ideas are carefully motivated, explained and illustrated by examples so that many of the more technical proofs can be omitted. The book can therefore be used: · simply as an overview of the panorama of mathematical structures and the relations between them, to be supplemented by more detailed texts whenever you want to acquire a working knowledge of some structure · by itself as a first introduction to abstract mathematics · together with existing textbooks, to put their results into a more general perspective · to gain a new and hopefully deeper perspective after having studied such textbooks Mathematical Concepts has a broader scope and is less detailed than standard mathematical textbooks so that the reader can readily grasp the essential concepts and ideas for individual needs. It will be suitable for advanced mathematicians, postgraduate students and for scientists from other fields with some background in formal reasoning.

Mathematics: a Simple Tool for Geologists

Mathematics: a Simple Tool for Geologists PDF Author: Waltham, D.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134983018
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Uses geological examples to illustrate mathematical ideas. Contains a large number of worked examples, and problems for students to attempt themselves. Answers to all the questions are given at the end of the book.

Strengths-Based Teaching and Learning in Mathematics

Strengths-Based Teaching and Learning in Mathematics PDF Author: Beth McCord Kobett
Publisher: Corwin Press
ISBN: 1544374925
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
"This book is a game changer! Strengths-Based Teaching and Learning in Mathematics: 5 Teaching Turnarounds for Grades K- 6 goes beyond simply providing information by sharing a pathway for changing practice. . . Focusing on our students’ strengths should be routine and can be lost in the day-to-day teaching demands. A teacher using these approaches can change the trajectory of students’ lives forever. All teachers need this resource! Connie S. Schrock Emporia State University National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics President, 2017-2019 NEW COVID RESOURCES ADDED: A Parent’s Toolkit to Strengths-Based Learning in Math is now available on the book’s companion website to support families engaged in math learning at home. This toolkit provides a variety of home-based activities and games for families to engage in together. Your game plan for unlocking mathematics by focusing on students’ strengths. We often evaluate student thinking and their work from a deficit point of view, particularly in mathematics, where many teachers have been taught that their role is to diagnose and eradicate students’ misconceptions. But what if instead of focusing on what students don’t know or haven’t mastered, we identify their mathematical strengths and build next instructional steps on students’ points of power? Beth McCord Kobett and Karen S. Karp answer this question and others by highlighting five key teaching turnarounds for improving students’ mathematics learning: identify teaching strengths, discover and leverage students’ strengths, design instruction from a strengths-based perspective, help students identify their points of power, and promote strengths in the school community and at home. Each chapter provides opportunities to stop and consider current practice, reflect, and transfer practice while also sharing · Downloadable resources, activities, and tools · Examples of student work within Grades K–6 · Real teachers’ notes and reflections for discussion It’s time to turn around our approach to mathematics instruction, end deficit thinking, and nurture each student’s mathematical strengths by emphasizing what makes them each unique and powerful.

Mathematical Tools for Data Mining

Mathematical Tools for Data Mining PDF Author: Dan A. Simovici
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1848002017
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 615

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Book Description
This volume was born from the experience of the authors as researchers and educators,whichsuggeststhatmanystudentsofdataminingarehandicapped in their research by the lack of a formal, systematic education in its mat- matics. The data mining literature contains many excellent titles that address the needs of users with a variety of interests ranging from decision making to p- tern investigation in biological data. However, these books do not deal with the mathematical tools that are currently needed by data mining researchers and doctoral students. We felt it timely to produce a book that integrates the mathematics of data mining with its applications. We emphasize that this book is about mathematical tools for data mining and not about data mining itself; despite this, a substantial amount of applications of mathematical c- cepts in data mining are presented. The book is intended as a reference for the working data miner. In our opinion, three areas of mathematics are vital for data mining: set theory,includingpartially orderedsetsandcombinatorics;linear algebra,with its many applications in principal component analysis and neural networks; and probability theory, which plays a foundational role in statistics, machine learning and data mining. Thisvolumeisdedicatedtothestudyofset-theoreticalfoundationsofdata mining. Two further volumes are contemplated that will cover linear algebra and probability theory. The ?rst part of this book, dedicated to set theory, begins with a study of functionsandrelations.Applicationsofthesefundamentalconceptstosuch- sues as equivalences and partitions are discussed. Also, we prepare the ground for the following volumes by discussing indicator functions, ?elds and?-?elds, and other concepts.