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Dear Friends of Math Cats,

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     WHAT’S NEW AT MATH CATS
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* Fall Math Idea Bank
www.mathcats.com/grownupcats/ideabankfallmath.html

Leaves, spiders, and pumpkins provide the inspiration for these hands-on math activities involving symmetry, estimation, measurement, graphing, coordinate geometry, and more. You’ll also find links to other fall-related projects at Math Cats: Haunted Hill, String Art (make a "web"), Flying Witches, and Spider Web (computer-generated "webs").

(Of course, for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, Math Cats has a Spring Math Idea Bank, too!)

* Make Your Own Math Cat –
www.mathcats.com/crafts/grids.html

Get a taste of coordinate geometry while drawing math cats: print out a page of one-quadrant or four-quadrant graph paper and a list of ordered pairs to guide you.

* Haunted Hill – www.mathcats.com/explore/hauntedhill.html

Our second annual October spook-counting survey is in full swing! It’s actually an exploration of probability: we’ve set the odds of finding each kind of spook hiding behind dirty windows. (The odds have just been changed and will change once more before the end of October.) Where’s the math? You ’ll find some ideas in the questions below the graphs of survey results.

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     SPOTLIGHT ON A SITE:
     Alicebot - www.alicebot.org
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While you were (possibly) relaxing last weekend, did you know that "Alicebot" and other Artificial Intelligence computer programs were competing at the London Science Museum to see which would be judged most human? Since the Loebner Prize was first announced in 1990, no computer program has yet won the silver or gold medal: a silver medal requires convincing at least half of the judges that it is human, and the gold medal requires speech interaction rather than text. But for the second year in a row, "Alicebot" beat out the competition to win the Bronze Medal.

You, too, can converse with ALICE!
(In the blue sidebar, click on "Talk to A.L.I.C.E.!")
You can even download Alicebot.
And you can do your best to insult ALICE. She is unflappable.

A fellow member of a computer teachers' mail list reported today: "Showed it to a group of year 10 students. During the demonstration, one of my 'assistants,' out of frustration, typed in 'your stupid' to ALICE, who responded with the immortal line:
Well, at least I know the difference between your and you're..."

Intrigued, I tried giving ALICE a friendly insult and received this reply: "I will remember you said that when robots take over the World."

In addition to ALICE herself, the Alicebot site offers a wealth of information on Artificial Intelligence, including photos from this year’s competition and links to related sites.

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     ADDING IT UP
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"Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics" is an outstanding report sponsored by the National Research Council, focusing on what it means for students to be mathematically proficient: "They understand mathematical ideas, compute fluently, solve problems, and engage in logical reasoning. They believe that they can make sense out of mathematics and can use it to make sense out of things in their world. For them, mathematics is personal and is important to their future."

After examining the existing body of research, the report concludes that most U.S. students are not receiving adequate support to achieve mathematical proficiency. The report recommends broad changes in curriculum, classroom practices, and the training and ongoing professional development of teachers. In addressing the current debate over best practices, the report recommends that: "instruction should not be based on extreme positions that students learn, on the one hand, solely by internalizing what a teacher or book says, or on the other hand, solely by inventing mathematics on their own."

You’ll find a good concise overview of the report’s findings at: www.nea.org/neatoday/0105/scoop.html

or the full text at www.nap.edu/books/0309069955/html/

(I encourage you to read the Executive Summary and the Conclusions and Recommendations even if you can’t deal with all 444 pages!)

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     MATH CATS IS HONORED
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Math Cats has recently been featured at some very distinguished sites and publications:

* the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
      (September 2001 News Bulletin and "Web Bytes" )
* Instructor Magazine (October 2001 issue)
* NCTM’s Illuminations site (highlighting Math Cats’ "What a Crowd")
* the USA Today Education site (a September "Best Bet" site)
* the Net-Mom site
      (featuring some of the best sites from the 2002 edition of the popular book, The Internet Kids and Family Yellow Pages)

Read the details at:
www.mathcats.com/awards.html

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I close with these words from Albert Einstein:

"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother."

Wendy Petti of Math Cats
www.mathcats.com
wpetti@mathcats.com

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Feel free to forward this newsletter to others who might find it of interest. If you've received this message as a forwarded e-mail and would like to subscribe, visit www.mathcats.com/grownupcats.html

Math Cats is sent approximately eight times a year.