Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Mental Logic: Two Poems, Ashley Delvento

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

My submission is comprised of two poems that aim to intertwine mathematical themes with that of creative struggle, a working title for this pairing being “Mental Logic”. The first poem, ‘-ematics’ is a literary work created in the midst of mathematical problem solving. Being an avid writer and a mathematics enthusiast, the theme of this poem struck me while completing the University of Rochester Mathematics Olympiad. There seems to be a belief that literary creativity and mathematics cannot compliment one another, but throughout solving a probability problem on this Olympiad proved to be the ultimate moment of inspiration. This poem …

The Human Face Of Mathematics: Reuben Hersh (1927-2020) In Memoriam, Elena Anne Corie Marchisotto

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Reuben Hersh (1927-2020) celebrated mathematics as a human endeavor, historically evolved and intelligible only in a social context. It is therefore appropriate to remember him in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. There have been many tributes to Reuben, which commemorate his life and impressive mathematical and philosophical achievements. This memoriam to Reuben instead focuses on showing how his humanistic philosophy was so indicative of the person he was.

“All Of These Political Questions”: Anticommunism, Racism, And The Origin Of The Notices Of The American Mathematical Society, Michael J. Barany

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A recent controversy involving the Notices of the American Mathematical Society and questions of politics, racism, and the appropriate role of a professional mathematical organization began with a comparison to events the American Mathematical Society confronted in 1950. A close look at the AMS’s own archives for that period shows that the controversies that vexed the society around 1950 do indeed resonate strongly with those of today, but not in the ways recently suggested. Then, as now, the AMS confronted allegations of political and viewpoint discrimination in universities, the challenges of structural racism in American education and society, and the …

Pattern Blocks Art, Gunhan Caglayan

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Pattern blocks are versatile manipulatives facilitating connections that can be made among various strands of mathematics such as number sense, algebra, geometry and measurement, spatial reasoning, probability and trigonometry. This note focuses on an artistic interpretation of the pattern blocks with primary focus on convex polygons made with pattern blocks, and describes five mathematically rich activities using them.

Three Creativity-Fostering Projects Implemented In A Statistics Class, Margaret Adams

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Undergraduates in an introductory statistics class at a rural Southeastern college were assigned three creativity-fostering projects: statistics vocabulary crossword puzzle, word wall, and graffiti art poster. Given math anxiety, fear of failure, and lack of enthusiasm, it seemed imperative to spark interest and involvement. Rhodes 4P’s model (1961) served as the framework for this intrinsic case study involving 62 students. Independent thinking and research, peer collaboration, and use of art supplies within this model (person, press, process and product) generated remarkable learning outcomes. Grading rubrics focused on originality, quality and statistics content. Projects were classified into three qualitative categories ranging …

Using Departmental Publications To Foster Student Creativity In Mathematics, Zohreh Shahbazi, Parker Glynn-Adey

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This paper discusses the design and implementation of mathematical departmental publications. We argue that these publications foster students’ creativity and written communication skills.

Got Books? A Story Of Creative Mathematics Children's Book Writing, Maria G. Fung, Pamela Hollander

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In this report, we describe a joint project between a mathematics content course and literacy methods course for pre-service elementary teachers that resulted in our students writing children's mathematically themed books. Out report then focuses first on the creative process of combining mathematical knowledge and ideas for teaching with the craft of writing for children, and second on the creative connection between mathematics and literacy education at the elementary school level.

Fostering Student Discovery And Conjecture In Multivariable Calculus, Aaron Wangberg

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Who owns the mathematical ideas in the undergraduate classroom? A traditional mathematics classroom and curriculum imposes several barriers that prevent students from discovering and engaging with mathematical concepts. Definitions, notations, and theorems require mastery before students can work meaningfully with the underlying mathematical concepts. Raising Calculus to the Surface utilizes a different approach by providing students multiple entry points to engage meaningfully with mathematics ideas and allows students to promote meaningful ideas and conjectures into the classroom discourse to formalize their explorations. In this paper, we describe several characteristics built into the project materials, including a rubric designed to encourage …

Inspiring Mathematical Creativity Through Juggling, Ceire Monahan, Mika Munakata, Ashwin Vaidya, Sean Gandini

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The goal of the Creativity in Mathematics and Science project, funded by the National Science Foundation’s [NSF’s] Improving Undergraduate STEM Educa- tion program, is to reconsider how we teach mathematics at the collegiate level. Over the last three years, we have developed interdisciplinary modules that seek to encourage students, including non-STEM majors, to see mathematics in unexpected places, make connections to their own interests and disciplines, and explore creativity in mathematics. Relying on traits of creativity such as the ability to connect ideas, be inquisitive, question norms, and have flexibility [1], we encouraged students to participate and understand mathematics in …

Innovative Induction And Mathematical Code Switching, Benjamin Dickman, Erik Nauman

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In the first part of this paper, we provide an example of a project designed to foster mathematical creativity among students at an independent, all-girls school in the Northeast United States. The mathematical motivator for the project is a polyomino proof by induction first formulated by Solomon Golomb. We explain how the project has been implemented over the past two years at the school’s Innovation Lab in collaborative work between a mathematics instructor and an educational technologist, provide instructions and background information to facilitate the implementation of this project at other learning sites, and show examples of student work along …

Virtual Temari: Artistically Inspired Mathematics, Carl Giuffre, Lee Stemkoski

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Technology can be a significant aide in understanding and appreciating geometry, beyond theoretical considerations. Both fiber art and technology have been employed as a significant aide and an inspiring vessel in education to explore geometry. The Japanese craft known as temari, or "hand-balls", combines important artistic, spiritual, and familial values, and provides one such approach to exploring geometry. Mathematically, the artwork of temari may be classified based on whether they are inspired by polyhedra and discrete patterns or by periodic functional curves. The resulting designs of these categories provide an ancient vantage for displaying spherical patterns. We illustrate a …

The Surname Impossibility Theorem, Adam Graham-Squire

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The Surname Impossibility Theorem offers solace to anyone who has struggled in the quagmire of choosing a surname for a child. I posit that it is impossible to find a method for giving a child a surname that satisfies the important criteria of being traditional, aesthetically pleasing, ancestor-respecting, non-sexist, gender-neutral and non-heterosexist. My mathematical approach defines what those criteria would mean and analyzes different naming systems to conclude that no method could satisfy all criteria. In the same way that Arrow's Impossibility Theorem proved that no voting method can satisfy all criteria for a fair election, I prove the impossibility …

The Emergence Of Creativity: Insights From Carnatic Raaga Improvisation And Mathematical Proof Generation, Srividhya Balaji, Sean Chorney

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Creativity is a broad phenomenon that scholars have interpreted in a multitude of ways. We notice that a majority of the views describe creativity as something innate. This paper aims to verge from this perspective and explore creativity in terms of the constant mutual interaction of a person and their environment. Using the theoretical framework, enactivism, and the notion of emergence, we investigate the creative processes involved in musical improvisations of south Indian classical or Carnatic music and mathematical proof generation. Interview excerpts from professional Carnatic musicians and research mathematicians on their respective creative processes during musical improvisation and proof …

Fostering Mathematical Creativity While Impacting Beliefs And Anxiety In Mathematics, James M. Fetterly

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This quantitative study examined the notion of mathematical creativity and its relationship to epistemological beliefs of the nature of mathematics and mathematical anxiety. A counterbalanced design was employed, randomizing a class of elementary pre-service teachers into two groups and giving a pre- and post-test to determine if significant differences exist in the participants who are exposed to problem posing, divergent thought, and invented strategies, that is, a punctuated, intentional experience with mathematical creativity. This difference in mathematical anxiety, beliefs, and creativity was also gauged using repeated measures during the study. Furthermore, beliefs and anxiety were correlated with mathematical creativity employing …

Everyday Examples In Linear Algebra: Individual And Collective Creativity, Aditya P. Adiredja, Michelle Zandieh

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This paper investigates creativity in students’ constructions of everyday examples about basis in Linear Algebra. We analyze semi-structured interview data with 18 students from the U.S. and Germany with diverse academic and social backgrounds. Our analysis of creativity in students’ everyday examples is organized into two parts. First, we analyze the range of students’ creative products by investigating the mathematical variability in the more commonly mentioned examples. Second, we unpack some of the collective processes in the construction of students’ examples. We examine how creativity was distributed through the interactions among the student, the interviewers, and other artifacts and ideas. …

Special Issue -- Creativity In Mathematics: Foreword, Emily Cilli-Turner, Houssein El Turkey, Gulden Karakok, Milos Savic, Gail Tang

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

A World Of Creativity, Mark Huber, Gizem Karaali

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Video In Teaching Grammar To Pre-Secondary Students, Ivo Novita S Br Silalahi, Sisilia Setiawati Halimi Dr.

International Review of Humanities Studies

This paper examines the effectiveness of videos as a teaching medium in a pre-intermediate grammar class in Tangerang, Indonesia. This research adopted a quasi-experimental approach with a posttest control group design. Two pre-secondary classes in Tangerang were selected as subjects of the study. Data were obtained from the pretest and posttest, a questionnaire on student perception of video usage in teaching, and interviews. The experimental class was taught using a video while the control class was taught via textbooks. A pretest and a posttest were given to the experimental class. The improvement in scores was then examined using t-test. To …

From The Tree Of Knowledge And The Golem Of Prague To Kosher Autonomous Cars: The Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence Through Jewish Eyes, Nachshon Goltz, John Zeleznikow, Tracey Dowdeswell

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article discusses the regulation of artificial intelligence from a Jewish perspective, with an emphasis on the regulation of machine learning and its application to autonomous vehicles and machine learning. Through the Biblical story of Adam and Eve as well as Golem legends from Jewish folklore, we derive several basic principles that underlie a Jewish perspective on the moral and legal personhood of robots and other artificially intelligent agents. We argue that religious ethics in general, and Jewish ethics in particular, show us that the dangers of granting moral personhood to robots and in particular to autonomous vehicles lie not …

The Crisis Of Communication In The Information Age: Revisiting C.P. Snow's Two Cultures In The Era Of Fake News, Aaron Green

Irish Communication Review

The purpose of this paper is to revisit C.P. Snow’s “Two Cultures” lecture in light of the cultural dominance of information technology. The crisis of communication in the information age, whether in fake news, political polarisation or science denial, has come about because both scientific and literary cultures, in seeking a world without entropy, have inadvertently stumbled upon a world without meaning. In order to explain how this has happened, the paper first explores Snow's challenge: to describe the second law of thermodynamics. The paper then provides a description of entropy that is neutral with regard to thermodynamics and information, …

Hoop Dreams: An Empirical Analysis Of The Gender Wage Gap In Professional Basketball, Hailey Dicicco

Business and Economics Presentations

The gender wage gap is a very prominent point of discussion in the professional world, but in the sports world, it has taken the spotlight in recent years. One sport that has seen discussion and debate over salary differences is the National Basketball Association and Women’s National Basketball Association. In 2018, the average salary in the NBA was 6.4 million dollars, while the average salary in the WNBA was 71,635 dollars. A reason why these salaries are so differently is due to the amount of revenue that each league brings in. The NBA brings in roughly 7.4 billion dollars a …

Digital Modeling Of Cultural Heritage Objects, Snehal Padhye, James Ferwerda

Frameless

Cultural heritage objects are a rich source of information about human history. Due to the physical nature of these often old and typically rare or unique objects, humanity is at risk of losing this history. Given their importance, preservation is an active area of interest in the research community. While, digitally capturing images of the objects is common practice, we propose a more comprehensive approach to preserving these objects. It involves creating digital models that represent both the three-dimensional shapes of the objects and the materials they are made of.

Human Supremacy As Posthuman Risk, Daniel Estrada

The Journal of Sociotechnical Critique

Human supremacy is the widely held view that human interests ought to be privileged over other interests as a matter of ethics and public policy. Posthumanism is the historical situation characterized by a critical reevaluation of anthropocentrist theory and practice. This paper draws on animal studies, critical posthumanism, and the critique of ideal theory in Charles Mills and Serene Khader to address the appeal to human supremacist rhetoric in AI ethics and policy discussions, particularly in the work of Joanna Bryson. This analysis identifies a specific risk posed by human supremacist policy in a posthuman context, namely the classification of …

Coral Reefs, Climate Change, And Ecological Lament, Chloe Hansum

Student Work

"What can I do to enhance creation’s song? How can I better care for all creatures great and small?"

Posting about a Christian response to ecological degradation from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/coral-reefs-climate-change-and-ecological-lament/

Connecting Ancient Philosophers’ Math Theory To Modern Fractal Mathematics, Colin Mccormack

Parnassus: Classical Journal

No abstract provided.

Lulling Waters: A Poetry Reading For Real-Time Music Generation Through Emotion Mapping, Ashley Muniz, Toshihisa Tsuruoka

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Through a poetic narrative, “Lulling Waters” tells the story of a whale overcoming the loss of his mother, who passed away from ingesting plastic, as he attempts to escape from the polluted oceanic world. The live performance of this poem utilizes a software system called Soundwriter, which was developed with the goal of enriching the oral storytelling experience through music. This video demonstrates how Soundwriter’s real-time hybrid system was able to analyze “Lulling Waters” through its lexical and auditory features. Emotionally salient words were given ratings based on arousal, valence, and dominance while the emotionally charged prosodic features of the …

Poetry For Seers Or The Peruvian Visual Poetic Tradition In Front Of New Media, Michael Hurtado, Pamela Medina, Enrique García, Michael Prado

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Since the first decades of the twentieth century, Peruvian poetic tradition has been characterized by experimental uses of language. Among these possibilities, some records tensioned this medium from the link with the plastic arts, as in the case of the poetry of José María Eguren, while others opted for the playing with the spatiality and visuality of the blank sheet, such as in the case of the work of Carlos Oquendo de Amat. However, it is not until the appearance of the poetry of César Vallejo, specifically with a poems like Trilce in 1922, that these breakages force us to …

From Ai With Love: Reading Big Data Poetry Through Gilbert Simondon’S Theory Of Transduction, Andrew Klobucar

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Computation initiated a far-reaching re-imagination of language, not just as an information tool, but as a social, bio-physical activity in general. Modern lexicology provides an important overview of the ongoing development of textual documentation and its applications in relation to language and linguistics. At the same time, the evolution of lexical tools from the first dictionaries and graphs to algorithmically generated scatter plots of live online interaction patterns has been surprisingly swift. Modern communication and information studies from Norbert Weiner to the present-day support direct parallels between coding and linguistic systems. However, most theories of computation as a model of …

Why Are We Like This?: Exploring Writing Mechanics For An Ai-Augmented Storytelling Game, Max Kreminski, Melanie Dickinson, Michael Mateas, Noah Wardrip-Fruin

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Why Are We Like This? (WAWLT) is a playful, co-creative, AI-augmented, improvisational storytelling game in which one or more players explore and influence an ongoing simulation which they then glean for narrative material. It uses the recently developed simulation technology of story sifting (the recognition of microstories in a chronicle of simulation events), via the Felt library, to afford a new kind of playful, social, and creative writing experience. In this paper, we discuss our primary design goals: (1) using computation and interaction design to support casual player creativity, and (2) foregrounding character subjectivity as a driver for …