The Socratic Method

The Socratic Method: Teaching [binary arithmetic] by asking instead of by telling by Rick Garlikov.

“The following is a transcript of a teaching experiment, using the Socratic method, with a regular third grade class in a suburban elementary school. I present my perspective and views on the session, and on the Socratic method as a teaching tool, following the transcript.”

This was only one of several excellent links I found at Ask MetaFilter: Numbers are fun!. The question was about “examples of number systems not based on western sets of 10. Anyone know of good info on non-standard number systems used in other cultures or for niche purposes, such as hexadecimal?”

Another fun web page is The Pi Code: “a base-26 system (the letters of the alphabet, with a=0) [is used] to write out Pi and then the string [is searched] for the appearances of English words.”

It’s almost like being there

MetaFilter: 360-degree panoramic galleries of European cities

“Arounder has an ongoing collection of high-quality full screen Quicktime VR panoramas of European cities, focusing on famous artistic and cultural landmarks (in Rome, Florence, Köln, Barcelona, Cyprus), with interactive maps and travel information. A collaboration with national tourist offices by Swiss company Vrway Communication, which also publishes Vrmag, a bi-monthly review of panorama photography, and the FullscreenQTVR directory in collaboration with the well-known panoramas.dk.”

I’ve been to the Cologne Cathedral many times, but am always amazed again by the sheer grandeur of the building. The virtual tour of the Kölner Dom lets you get a feeling for the place even if you’ve never visited. Bonus: There are nice views of Cologne from the towers of the cathedral.

Thirteen years ago I visited Tuscany on a school trip in my final year. We stayed in Florence (Firenze!) and of course visited the cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, and its tower. Cathedrals in Tuscany usually consist of a main building, il duomo, a baptistry, il battistero, and a tower, il campanile (e.g., the famous leaning tower in Pisa is the campanile of the cathedral at the Piazza dei Miracoli, the Square of wonders). The virtual tour of the Catheral made memories come back… I remember climbing up on top of the dome – there are very narrow funny little flights of stairs between the outer and inner domes, which can be a bit claustrophobic, but you are rewarded with a great view of the city.

Cheating

As a teacher, I sometimes have to deal with cheating at exams in school, so I’m always interested in hearing about new cool methods of cheating that were not around back when I went to school/university.

Ask MetaFilter: How do those scummy cheats do it? “I would like to know what people actually do to cheat in university (or school, or academic settings generally). […] Surely there are some ingenious methods out there for increasing your grades?”

In German they’re called Nasenbären, “nose bears”

Daniel spotted a group of Coatis while at Kitt Peak Observatory and managed to take a couple of good photos of them.

André and I saw some while hiking in Chiricahua National Monument during our trip in 2002. We were on a longish hike (very few people on the trail) and suddenly saw what looked like monkeys run off in the distance. Now I know that monkeys do not usually live in Arizona, but I had no idea what else they could be, so we had to ask at the ranger station after we returned from the hike. The ranger told us that we had probably seen some coati mundi (or white-nosed coati, ring-tailed coati), which is rare because they are pretty shy.

The other time I thought I’d seen African animals in the USA during that trip turned out to be neither a mirage nor a species unknown to me: I saw some oryx antelopes, which I had previously encountered on a trip to Kenya. It turned out that someone actually set some oryx antelopes free in the US in order to hunt them. Having no enemies, the population apparently grew quite a bit.