Happy Valentine's Day

Good Morning!

Send your love and kindness with some mathematics. So sweet.

Check out some Math-O-Grams here...

mathograms at desmos

Here Come the MYP2 Coders!

Anda is first off the blocks with his two codes

A cool Spiral and something quite Disco (if you have epilepsy, Disco is not recommended because there is a lot of flashing).

Click on the links to see the fun.

Disco programming was developed initially by Tera, then Nom and then Anda took it on too. Excellent collaboration.

Anda's Spiral at code.org http://learn.code.org/sh/11921722

Do you want to learn to code - check out the  Hour of Code for lots of tutorials.

Stay tuned - next week all of MYP2s first programs will be live on the blog.

CODING - You should learn to do it.

MYP2 has begun their new unit on coding - computer programming.

The giants of programming and computing must have known that we were going to be doing this unit because they have put together an AWESOME site

code.org/

Below is the video we watched for you to enjoy. In this video you will see some of our high profile teachers.

As well as coding we will be enjoying some 'analogue' activities so that our MYP2s get to see how computers do all that magic inside.

We are starting small, just like Bill Gates did, and building from there.

The site has a wide range of tutorials from phone apps to computer science to first year college courses in programming. Once the MYP2s do the Beyond One Hour Computer Science course, they can take their independent learning in any direction they like.

Coding is a very cool area of mathematics.

MYP2 - please check your Managebac messages to sign up to our course.

If anyone else wants to join, please check out the amazing site and it's one hour introductions into many aspects of coding at code.org/learn

Synchronisation or Synchronization depending on your point of view, it's all pretty cool

Lots of people are posting a video about a murmuration of starlings on social networks. I came across this video and others many years ago and I wish to see it at a large scale one day.

For more collective noun names for animals that are as cool as a murmuration of starlings and a murder of crows check this out. It's about naming a group of animals, so technically they are mathematical terms. You can't be a called a group without counting to check if there are more than one of something present.

What's your favourite?
Do you do the same thing in your mother tongue?



On the TEDtalk page of our mathematics blog is a video about synchronisation in every day occurrences. I think you will enjoy it.  Steven Stogatz and his talk on "How things in nature tend to sync up" should be at the top of the blog page.

MYP3 Rock the First Ever PIADS CASINO

WOW - impressive work from the mathematicians in MYP3.

Two fun and profitable games were created for the amusement of students and teachers alike.  See below for a summary of the day. We hope to see you next year.

The Mathematics of Chance

The Mathematicians in MYP3 have recently held the first ever Casino at PIADS. 

MYP1, MYP2 and teachers joined us to "have a flutter" and try their luck with our PIADS Bucks. It was a fantastic mathematical experiment. 

The games made large profits - hundreds of Bucks for Bullseye and thousands of Bucks for Pop Mania. They made that money in only 30 minutes! 

How did they do it? The wonderful world of Mathematics, some clever psychology (to make customers feel like winners), visual art and design technology skills to make their games look great. Even if people felt like winners on the day, and many did, the games made the most money by far.  

Calculating probabilities, converting them to odds and then adjusting those odds to favour the house is how profit is made in casinos everywhere. They are rigged and the odds are never fair, but that's no secret. 

When you join MYP3 you can learn about the mathematics of chance and build your own casino.  If you can’t wait, ask an MYP3 to explain it to you.

Why does the house always win?  Mathematics.

Our Area of Interaction Focus was Health and Social Education.

• Looking after ourselves: Being aware of the differences between games of skill and games of chance. 
• Understanding ourselves: How games of chance make us feel. 
• Ourselves in the wider society: How gambling can affect society.

Our MYP3 students will never be fooled by games of chance. They understand how customers are manipulated into playing again and again and why some governments regulate gambling.

See you at the next casino - more games, longer opening times.

CASINO TIME

MYP3 have been busy analysing the mathematics of chance through games.
Their summative task is to design their own casino games.

Can you beat the house? What are your chances? If their mathematics is sound, they should make a profit on the day.

MYP1 and MYP2 (along with some teachers popping along) will try their luck to beat the house on Tuesday.

They know the secrets the casinos use to keep you playing and feel like a winner.

See you on Tuesday in Casino Land.

fake PIADS Bucks provided. No real money will be used.

MYP2 and the Giant Rubber Duck

Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman makes giant ducks.

Each one is unique and they have a message for the world.

What is that message?

The Arrival by Halanslicensed under CC by A NC SA 

MYP2 have been working on the mathematics of generalisation or algebra. They find patterns. They create formulas. They estimate. They justify. They compare methods. They discuss accuracy. They form hypothesis. They tackle long problems, not short one liners. MYP2 are mathematicians at work.

Now they have been asked to bring all of their skills together to work out if Phuket can produce enough rubber for one of these ducks. It is not a yes or no answer, we want details. 

How much rubber is produced right next to PIADS? 

How much rubber is needed?

What are those ducks all about?

Why spread the message with a rubber duck? 

We have more questions - check out the windows of the maths room.