Talk:MathGloss

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Let's Talk


Contents

Thread titleRepliesLast modified
Additional sources of information104:05, 12 July 2010
Categorisation suggestion506:30, 22 November 2009
What is the developing relationship between WE and CNX ?006:07, 3 November 2009
Where are we on the Math Glossary?212:50, 19 September 2009
About Tips415:21, 20 March 2009
Java applet307:09, 21 February 2009
Should we include citations?802:18, 21 February 2009
Main Page: layout, style, contents and so on215:22, 14 February 2009
Customaizing tables for the Glossary113:32, 13 February 2009
Resource Use (Copyright and CC licensing topics)413:25, 13 February 2009
Issues regarding to generating PDF004:04, 12 February 2009
Including Tables718:03, 10 February 2009
Alignment of Numbers in Tables216:03, 10 February 2009
Stat Examples407:45, 9 February 2009
About field Suplementary Definitions311:53, 6 February 2009
Data data data207:30, 5 February 2009
Getting Involved417:13, 4 February 2009

Additional sources of information

If you can get through the advertising a possible source for additional information for this glossary may be found in the mathematics Wikia .

Jkelly952 (talk)14:44, 27 February 2010

Recently (July 10, 2010) I found this which you may want to check out Florida's Mathematics Glossary Report . (Note it is near the bottom of the link to page)

Jkelly952 (talk)04:05, 12 July 2010
 

Categorisation suggestion

I think we should change the categorization of the Math Glossary such that all of the mathgloss pages are categorised in their own category: Category:Math glossary. This will put all of the completed math glossary pages in one place.

Then we should make Category:Math glossary a sub-category of Category:Glossary and Category:Mathematics.

One thing I'm just learning about is how to add a sort key to a category. Ideally we would like the math gloss pages to sort by the subpage name.

I think we can do that with this code [[Category:Math glossary|{{SUBPAGENAME}}; the section after the pipe serves as a sort key without displaying in the list. You can read more about this technique on WP: Sort.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

ASnieckus (talk)06:55, 31 October 2009

I wonder if it might be more beneficial if we treat the glossary as a portal. I like Brent Simpson's portal http://www.wikieducator.org/Portal:Primary , unfortunately the grade levels seem to have been blocked in by the biology group.

jim kelly

http://wikieducator.org/User:Jkelly952

Jkelly952 (talk)04:09, 4 November 2009

I agree that the Math Glossary is similar in style to a portal (I do like the idea of Brent Simpson's portals -- not sure how to handle the biology content).

I'm suggesting creating a category for just the Math Glossary, because currently all of the MathGloss pages are included in Category:Glossary and Category:Mathematics. As it is the math gloss pages are overrunning these categories, and these pages are only going to get more numerous. Seemed like creating a subcategory for the Math Glossary would be a good thing.

The main page of the glossary can be more of a portal (if we'd like), I'm interested in creating a specific category for the subpages.

ASnieckus (talk)07:14, 4 November 2009
Edited by author.
Last edit: 09:17, 17 November 2009

You may want to check the change that I am making to my page http://www.wikieducator.org/K-12math.info_%28English_-_Espa%C3%B1ol_%E2%80%93_Fran%C3%A7ais%29 . The section at the bottom of the page is the direction I am going for the whole page. Live links to supporting information have been set up for the first entries in the Subect and Grade level sections.

Jim Kelly

Jkelly952 (talk)09:58, 5 November 2009

Jim,

Nice looking portal. Portals are wonderful ways to help users browse the available content. I'm hopeful that WE will have many and varied portals to match the many unique perspectives of the WE membership.

<smile>

ASnieckus (talk)05:21, 8 November 2009
 
 
 

I'm going to go ahead with revising the categorisation of the math glossary, as described in my original post. Hope that's OK with everybody.

Alison

ASnieckus (talk)06:30, 22 November 2009
 

What is the developing relationship between WE and CNX ?

Not sure what Wayne was saying when he announced "Good news here -- under the OERFs current bid from the Hewlett Foundation we will be building import <==> export capability between WikiEducator and the Connexions platform. Therefore it will be possible for WikiEducators to host a static instance of their content and lock down editing without compromising our core values. This feature will also be very useful for teachers wanting to revise their course materials during a live session of their course ( in the case where a static version is required). We will be able to host a static version on Connexions while working on the dynamic version in WikiEducator." What kind of access will WE have to, for instance the Mathematics Grade 1 through 9 materials (Example: grade 2 http://cnx.org/content/col11131/latest/ ) ? They seem to be activity oriented.

Jim Kelly

http://wikieducator.org/User:Jkelly952

Jkelly952 (talk)06:06, 3 November 2009

Where are we on the Math Glossary?

Edited by author.
Last edit: 12:07, 19 September 2009

Where are we on the Math Glossary? It looks like April was the last time anything has been done.

Sorry about not working on the Mathematics Glossary but some medical and home issues have kept me very busy. Now that number one (and only) child is settled in his first year college term, I have some “free” time. A check of the statistics on the pages shows that “A” with a 1,021 hits was the highest, and the remaining pages around the average of 470 hits. I was hoping to see if certain terms (or groups of terms) were of more interest to the users, but I guess not – it might be too early for that. Has anyone expressed an interest in having information in a specific area, like geometry terms, arithmetic operations, numbers, etc?

I have been working with a list of 80 terms which appear in 3 or more grade levels in the average textbook series in the United States. I am thinking that frequently referenced terms in a curriculum, are terms that might be checked into first by users. I have created a bibliography of Wiki references for the 80 terms. Sorry that it is in my k-12math.info website, but I don't know where the Math Glossary is going.

Jim Kelly http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Jkelly952

Jkelly952 (talk)14:01, 16 September 2009

Jim,

I'm very interested in the completion of the math glossary. My interest is statistics, but I can see how many math areas would find it useful to have glossary links to include in their instructional materials.

In a Jul 27 post to the main WE list, Wayne announced that the OER Foundation was awarded a William and Flora Hewlett Foundation grant to include

2) Build a technology bridge for OER content interoperability between Connexions and the Mediawiki software platforms thus fostering further development and scalability of the OER ecosystem among projects which subscribe to the free cultural works definition.

Connexions includes a glossary of statistics terms, as well as a glossary of more general math terms.

I decided to hold off on further development of the stats terms in the Math Glossary, for a time, hoping to hear more about the technology bridge.

Maybe we should post to the main list to see where things stand, so we can know whether to move forward now, or continue on hold.

Your list of terms with relevant links is very helpful; it'd be great to have that info on WE.

Alison

ASnieckus (talk)14:52, 18 September 2009

Thank you for pointing out the CNX's glossary. I'm sure that it will help in the development in the definition sections of the glossary, which should provide a focus for putting together the examples section. This approach will work for terms and concepts that make up the secondary and higher grade level's mathematics programs. Since local languages, economics and social needs greatly impact the learning, that occurs on the primary school level, the selection with examples (and hopefully lessons) is extremely important (definition are secondary at best). Spending most of my life outside the classroom, I have applied a lot of elementary and secondary school mathematics, and am very grateful to teachers who provided examples and gave a real world feel to mathematics. It makes a difference!

I am sure a “watch” has been set on this page. Jim Kelly

Jkelly952 (talk)12:50, 19 September 2009
 
 

About Tips

Thanks for adding the tip about citations.

It would be a good idea if we separate tips from the "Definition" field. We may use Tip Template {{Tip|Write here your tip}} in the "Examples" field What do you think?

Cheers. Gladys

Chela5808 (talk)09:04, 18 February 2009

I realize now that the "present" you used is a template and now I know how to use it :-).

I was thinking the same thing as I was trying to figure out the tip template, I should use it to include the tips that I've been including in the stat term pages. I usually have more than one tip. I'm thinking that each would be a separate entry. I'll try it out.

Alison

ASnieckus (talk)09:18, 18 February 2009
 

OK, I tried it out on Pie Chart. I wasn't able to get it to line up right, but I'm wondering if having three in a row makes the page "too cluttered". One heading with multiple bullets afterwards might be better. I found a Template:Tips that was created, but it doesn't appear to be in active use (it shows up on a user's sandbox). Thoughts?

Alison

ASnieckus (talk)09:31, 18 February 2009

I am presuming, Template:Tips is only a failed attempt by User:Hoatson to try something which has no relationship with developing a template.

Seems there is no "movement in the bullpen" :-) for this Template page since June 2008.

The only page which links Template:Tips is User:JosephineDame/My Sandbox. No movement since August 2008. It also seems to be a practice of pedagogical templates.

I think we can use Template:Tips for creating a tips template usefull for various tips in one box.

I suggest you replicate Template:Tip. Just switch to "Tips" in the Title.

Cheers. Gladys

Chela5808 (talk)10:40, 18 February 2009

Gladys,

Thanks for encouraging me to make the change. I did so (actually awhile back), but then thought I'd make some changes to make it fit better with how I would use it. Well, when I went back to the places where I had multiple tips, I decided to break them up into single tips.

So the new template is there, but I've not used it yet.

Just thought you'd be interested to know.

Alison

ASnieckus (talk)15:21, 20 March 2009
 
 
 

Java applet

Is it possible to include a java applet in a wiki page. I noticed that the eXe manual includes java applets under available idevices. I couldn't find any documentation for how to put it into the wiki page.

I'd like to include this histogram application:

http://www.stat.sc.edu/~west/javahtml/Histogram.html

The java applet code is listed on the page below the application, suggesting it's available for use.

I found the following datasets using google search including "Search only pages that are free to use or share, even commercially":

http://exploringdata.cqu.edu.au/datasets.htm

The "Old Faithful" dataset is in the list.

Is there a way to put this together so it would work on the MathGloss histogram page?

Thanks, Alison

ASnieckus (talk)15:56, 20 February 2009

To my knowledge we can't embed java applets using the edit tools we have in WE. Installing Java applets require acces to source code of the WE platform. This is reserved to sysops I guess. We can post this topic in Google Groups, so they can update the info I have.

Otherwise, we have the chance to upload .swf files wich work fine, because the can also be interactive. I'm actually trying to develop some animations, but it takes some time. Our challenge is to find sources for swf's meeting WE licences.

Please check for the list of swf files already uploaded to WE:

  • Special pages - MIME search - then type: application/x-shockwave-flash

A list of swf files uploaded to WE will be displayed. PPT and ODP slideshows can be converted to swf. Video can be imported to Flash CS3 then saved as swf.

I create swf animations using Flash CS3. They can then be converted to avi, mpeg and flv video formats ready to be uploaded to Kaltura (Collaborative Video). I made a test of Kaltura here User:Chela5808/Audio_and_Video. It's really easy to upload videos, preferable in flv format (saves time).

I have collected some animations in User:Chela5808/Flash

One important item in my personal ToDo list is create animations, and videos (kaltura) for the Math Gloss and other projects.

Cheers Gladys

Chela5808 (talk)03:29, 21 February 2009

Thanks. I will post to the google group to see what people say about progress toward integration of java applets into WE.

Thanks for the search tip. I had just read about MIME yesterday, so your tip is perfectly timed to my learning needs.

I visit your testing laboratory often. I love the magnifier -- very cool.

I'm on the bottom of the learning curve with the multimedia applications. The curve seems pretty steep, but upside is that I should be able to make good progress with small efforts.

Alison

ASnieckus (talk)05:51, 21 February 2009

Yes Alison,

Step by step... work at your pace but don't stop. There are more search strategies. Try also this one: Special:ImageList.

I've just uploaded a swf file. Its a test, see User:Chela5808/Flash. Didn't like the quality. I'll fix it and translate to english.


I also have added a test for FLV files, and the RSS I added in my User Page). Please see again User:Chela5808/Audio and Video

We have nice tools for developing and publishing media in WE. Hope after WE moves to new server, the tech team make some upgrading for embeding features.

Cheers Gladys

Chela5808 (talk)07:09, 21 February 2009
 
 
 

Should we include citations?

I found an open content source for how to calculate bin size for a histogram and decided that it'd be easiest to copy the info from their website: Online Statistics, since I liked their write-up. The authors request citation, where possible, so I included one. See histogram.

Question 1: do we want to include citations on these definition pages?

I didn't find a standard anywhere for what to include in the citation or how to format it, so if we want to include citations when needed:

Question 2: what standard should we use?

Alison

ASnieckus (talk)15:51, 13 February 2009

Absolutely,

Citations must be part any section of the concept page, if its requested by authors. You did the right thing. You are a pro.

There is a wiki markup which can be useful in this case. Please see User:Chela5808/Miscellaneous#Using_Notes_or_Reference. I'm afraid there is not a Help Page in WE for this topic, so our second source should be Wikipedia. Please see W:Wikipedia:Citing sources.

Saludos Gladys --chela5808 02:03, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)15:03, 14 February 2009

Thanks for the references on references;-). I've implemented a new version of a citation on the histogram page I've been working on. I decided to put a "Notes" section at the end, like the Wikipedia article suggested. I put it at the end of the page instead of inside the Definition section, because I will probably be using someone else's data in the example section. Having all of the citations together seemed the right option. "Notes" is a pretty broad concept so this allows us to add other kinds of info in addition to the citations.

Is this the first time that we've needed a citation in MathGloss? Should we add something about citations and Notes in the MathGloss standard?

Happy Valentine's Day, Alison

ASnieckus (talk)11:53, 15 February 2009

Hi Alison,

I am deeply grateful for your kind words, hope one day I can meet you in person.

Yes, it's the first time. Perhaps further reviews of already written concepts make necessary insert some citations. I think the field "notes" should be displayed when necessary, and you have choosen the right place. I'm impressed for the wonderfull examples you are adding to the Glossary, you are pushing me to be more creative on my examples :-)

Could you please add in the standard a short instruction regarding the usage of citations?

Cheers, Gladys G.--chela5808 14:59, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)03:59, 17 February 2009

Gladys, I do hope we can meet sometime. Maybe 8 years ago I visited Cancun very briefly. I'll be sure to look you up next time I get a chance to visit your country.

You learning from me??? NAY, it's me learning from you. Ah, guess it's a two-way street.

Alison

ASnieckus (talk)09:10, 18 February 2009
 

Oh, and...

One question. I originally used a third level header for the "Notes" section. I'm wondering if a second level header would be better (second seems to be more the standard in Wikipedia).

Alison

ASnieckus (talk)09:12, 18 February 2009

This is a two-way street. <--- new for me. Thanks :)

Yep, you're right. Looks better "Notes" will become an eventually 4th. field.

I loved your books... on example MathGloss/P/Pictograph. BTW, I have a nice collection of icons. I'll upload then ASAP, and categorize them...mmmhh .... "exicons"? --chela5808 21:34, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)10:34, 19 February 2009
 
 
 
 
 

Main Page: layout, style, contents and so on

Hey folks,

Anny suggestions for our main page's new dress?

Please consider the WikiEducator Style Guide on your comments.

Cheers. Gladys Gahona. --chela5808 14:48, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)03:48, 11 February 2009

Gladys,

I love the new dress!! I noticed it a few days ago, but somehow didn't see this post, till now. I'm thinking that you added the "Related WE projects list." Good idea! I don't have any further suggestions, but I know that you'd welcome them if I did.

--Alison Snieckus 01:54, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)14:54, 13 February 2009

Affirmative :)

I added the list in order to be aware of developings Math Glossary could serve. Web resources are also useful in searching for valid sources.

Hope our list grow.

Cheers, Gladys --chela5808 02:22, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)15:22, 14 February 2009
 
 

Customaizing tables for the Glossary

I wonder if wouldn't be better to standarize table styling for the Glossary. Guess we can start thinking in a general purpose table like this (trying to match colors to pedagogial templates):

Title of Table
Text Data Numeric Data
# ###.##
Percentual Data
%
Text 1 282.75 37.8%
Text 2 465.25 62.2%
Total 748.00 100.0%


Starting from this, we could play with text alignment, fonts or stuff like that. Keeping fixed background colors and border-colors.

What do you think?

Chela5808 (talk)08:27, 13 February 2009

Gladys, I totally agree -- giving them all the same look and feel -- background colors and border-colors -- will help tie all of the pages together. And will be key when we get to transcluding (which I totally see "in our future").

The changes made on the pie chart page look great.

--Alison Snieckus 00:32, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)13:32, 13 February 2009
 

Resource Use (Copyright and CC licensing topics)

Edited by author.
Last edit: 03:03, 12 February 2009

I'd like to display a few pictures in the MathGloss/P/Pictograph pictograph entry showing appropriate and inappropriate pictographs. There are two very good examples of inappropriate pictographs:

  • carnegie mellon open learning initiative (hit the next arrow at the bottom of the page 3 times and then scroll to last picture on the screen - TIME magazine attracts most advertising dollars (bottom of page)

I'm thinking we can't use these images because of the NC component of their copyright.

  • CMU uses creative commons BY-NC-SA

Please confirm.

If the answer is info/materials from these sites is not appropiate for WE, are there any other options for getting an example like this besides make one up (which I can do, but...)?

Thanks.

--Alison Snieckus 13:53, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)02:53, 11 February 2009

Good question. I'm still in my process of understanding CC licenses and their relashionship with Copyrighted content. Let's ask the experts.

  • See this Nellie's video. (Great conference regarding to Copyright Laws. Some technical issues. Dr. Bob Diotalevi starts talking by minute 20).
  • Perhaps this link to OER Handbook can bring some enlightenment.


BTW, demonstration of "what is" and "what is not" for some concepts it's a very good aid for learning. Maybe we need some refinement on our Quality Assurance considerations. :) Please feel free to improve our main page.

Saludos. Gladys Gahona.--chela5808 15:17, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)04:17, 11 February 2009

Hi Everyone,

WikiEducator subscribes to the free cultural works definition.

In practice this means that we cannot use content which carries a non-commercial (NC) or non-derivatives (ND) restriction.

We can use:

  • Content in the public domain
  • Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)
  • Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike (CC-BY-SA) or
  • Gnu Free Documentation License (GFDL)

provided we attribute in accordance with the requirements of these licenses.

What to do if you find content you would like to use, but cannot due to license restrictions:

1. Provide an external link to the relevant content (not ideal because then our resources are dependent on non-free content) 2. e-Mail the copyright holder for permission to release an instance of the content on WikiEducator under a CC-BY or CC-BY-SA license. Upload a copy of the permission release on the relevant image page or create a link to the copyright release permission. 3. Source alternate content that uses a free content license 4. If possible -- create your own version and release this under a license that meets the requirements of the free cultural works definition :-).

You can find out more about our interpretation of the meaning of free content in this tutorial. Our community values are rooted in the essential freedoms derived from the free software movement.

Cheers

Mackiwg (talk)11:33, 12 February 2009

Thank you very much Wayne,

A very claryfying comment. Guess I should read once more the tutorials :).

Cheers Gladys--chela5808 19:21, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)08:21, 13 February 2009
 

Wayne, Thanks for clarifying -- I had read the definitions of free content and understand and agree with the mission, but was feeling unsure of myself. The 4 options under "what to do if..." really help. I'm going to pursue #2, if I can find a way to contact the owners. Maybe Statistics Canada will release the Canadian dollar example.

If not, I'll settle for reusing just the "idea."

--Alison Snieckus 00:25, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)13:25, 13 February 2009
 
 
 

Issues regarding to generating PDF

This discussion will host issues about "Download as PDF" feature.

Note. This comments were moved from main page; a thread is needed to keep track of this important topic:

  • Some images are resized when page is converted to PDF. See: MathGloss/A/Algebra
  • System fails to generate PDF for this page: MathGloss/B/Base_2_Numeral_System. Can't manage these LaTeX codes: \begin{align} ... \end{align}.
  • Tables are lost when page is converted to PDF. See: MathGloss/S/Standard_deviation.
  • Alison: I changed some styling to the table. I works on screen, it also works on PDF but table seems not to understand some CSS codes. Complex LaTeX Formula is also lost. Fixed
  • PDF Manager still can't manage "DIV" tag, CSS properties/attributes.
Chela5808 (talk)02:59, 12 February 2009

Including Tables

I used the "insert table" button on the page editor to create a data table for a pie chart. See MathGloss/P/Pie_Chart. I fumbled around a lot trying to figure out how to use tables, studying the ones that you had done...., but decided I needed a pre-formatted way which seemed to me should be the button. I don't mind the missing divider between col 1 & 2, but it does need an ending border (after col 3). Is this a tech issue or did I mess it up in editing? I'd like for the button to create a nice looking table so I don't have to fuss with the coding details. Thoughts?

--Alison Snieckus 00:25, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)13:25, 8 February 2009

I can see all borders. Table is great. Do you still see missing dividers?... which browser are you using?

class=wikitable makes our life easier. I love personalising tables but obviously it takes little more time to create personalized tables.

(I love your examples. I'm absolutely learning from you. Thanks a lot)


Gladys G.--chela5808 05:28, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)18:28, 8 February 2009

I use Firefox. I checked again and they are still missing for me. I'm not going to worry about it.

But I see that you took out the "pie picture." That picture is great. OK, maybe it's not a good example, but it brings some fun to the page. Could we put a smaller version at the top near the definition?

Probably I'm not a fan of personalizing tables because I still really don't know how to do it. I tell my kids all the time to be careful of deciding that you dislike something (e.g., like all of math) because it may be that you are just frustrated that it's hard and you can't figure it out. Once you are good at something, you might not "hate" it.

You're welcome. It's a two-way street -- I'm also learning a ton from you. Glad we have the opportunity to collaborate.

--Alison Snieckus 18:55, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)07:55, 9 February 2009

Do you know what's my "golden moment" (this is an spanish expression) while teaching math?

When learner exclaim:

Is that it? So easy? I though it was much more difficult!!!

That's why I love teaching math, kids, boys and even adult people, realise math is not the "monster" they presumed.

Go for tables, they are waiting for you!

Pie picture is great, just though there was a duplicity, but you are right. Example is funny. Let me re-size it. :)

Cheers, Gladys G.--chela5808 13:39, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)02:39, 10 February 2009

Alison,

Regarding drawing tables,

Have you seen ABE Math Tutorials/Logic? There are sections of this tutorial that have truth tables, such as Using truth tables. You can see how to draw a table if you click one of those pages' "edit" tabs, and then you will find the code for how to draw a table. That's another way to draw a table besides using the button. Hope this helps. --AFriedman 16:08, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

AFriedman (talk)05:08, 10 February 2009

Anne, Thanks for the tip. I checked them out -- very helpful. I think I've got the basics now.

I see you live in NYC. Very close to me (I'm in NJ), although I don't get up that way much.

Thanks again for the help.

--Alison Snieckus 02:31, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)15:31, 10 February 2009
 

Those "golden moments" are the whole reason for working with kids! Glad you like the idea of adding the pie picture somewhere else. I look forward to its reappearance. Then I'll email a link to the page to my sons to get their thoughts on our work!

--Alison Snieckus 02:21, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)15:21, 10 February 2009
 
 
 
 

Alignment of Numbers in Tables

I was just looking back at the table in the example in pie chart and I noticed that the numbers are left justified. I'd much, much prefer them to be right justified. I looked around (OK, only a tiny bit) to see if I could find an example with right justified entries, but didn't find one. Do you know how to do it?

Also, can you recommend a good reference to help a beginner learn how to personalize tables?

--Alison Snieckus 19:04, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)08:04, 9 February 2009

Please see: Help:Tables

I've also been working on personalising tables. Please see "Horizontal aligning content in cells" in page User:Chela5808/Tables. I transcribed an article (from wikipedia) of sortable and collapsable tables.

If you can't see the codes, just switch to edit mode.

Cheers. --chela5808 14:21, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)03:21, 10 February 2009

Help:Tables...right, couldn't be more obvious. Also good idea to keep track of reference info and stuff you've figured out in a testing laboratory. I'm starting to see how the table connects to the code. Also, I see how the different formatting in the long jump table works -- use a double slash to delineate when cell entries for a row are all on one line.

Thanks for fixing the alignment. I totally get how you did it. One global command (right justify) and then overrides inserted for each row label.

Thanks.

--Alison Snieckus 03:03, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)16:03, 10 February 2009
 
 

Stat Examples

Wondered what people think about using examples for the stat definitions that include background info for the dataset. If we are aiming this glossary for ages 5-18 then the info provided should be particularly useful for users with unsophisticated understanding of math. I'm wondering if these learners have an easier time understanding concepts when the examples are based in real data. This approach could be used for all of the statistics (and maybe also probability?) definitions.

See MathGloss/S/Standard_deviation for an example of a "reality-based" example.

Thoughts?

ASnieckus (talk)11:52, 6 February 2009

I actually prefer designing examples as close to reality as possible.

The approach on your example is perfect. Let's show the math's beauty and how useful is for solving real situations.

I fixed the large formula in order to make it easier to manage.

I apologize in advance for any grammar mistake. I am improving my english, but sometimes I think in spanish. The good news are "Math is a universal language" :-). I'll appreciate all grammar corrections you do.

Cheers, Gladys Gahona--chela5808 16:49, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)05:49, 7 February 2009

Glad you agree about realistic examples. I'm not crazy about the long jump example, but it does the job. I saw your break-up of the long formula. I knew it needed to be done, but my LaTeX is coming along slowly and I needed a bigger block of time to attempt it. Your steps seem just right. I added some more English instruction (your English is fabulous -- I wish I were as fluent in Spanish, I'm just barely a beginner).

I wanted to put each step in the example into a numbered list. I think beginners will find that easier...step 1, step 2... But I can't get the list markup to work. Any thoughts on why it doesn't work? Do we need to use a workaround with math formulas (because of the new line issues)?

--Alison Snieckus 20:14, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)09:14, 8 February 2009

Wiki list markup only works on continuous lines. In this case numbered list must be forced by hand.

Cheers. --chela5808 05:46, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)18:46, 8 February 2009

I figured that might be the case. Thanks.

--Alison Snieckus 18:45, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)07:45, 9 February 2009
 
 
 
 

About field Suplementary Definitions

This is a duplicate of the comment posted in Alice's Talk Page.

Hi Alice,

Great... we are building a great team for a great project!!

I read your post at Google Groups. You're absolutely right. We need to build the basement for further math projects. That's the point, and the main reason for first developing this project.

I've been testing the "Download as PDF" feature for the Math Glossary pages(the link is at the left-down corner of the WE side bar). This feature generates PDF files for one or more pages you decide. See also box "My collection" right under the search box. This is a powerfull tool for converting content to a portable file. I've been experiencing some issues regarding to the field "Supplementary definitions" which is actually a template. I decided to remove this field until the PDF Generator can deal with it. The tech team has told me it's going to take a few months. So for this moment, we only have three fields: Definiton, Examples and Web Resources.

Any comment you put in the Talk Page section of Math Glossary in order to improve the project will be highly appreciated. :-)

Take a look at the sister project: Math Tables and Formulas. We have a section for Statistics.

Wellcome aboard.

Chela5808 (talk)14:21, 4 February 2009

I tried the pdf function. Really nice looking result. I tried it on the standard deviation entry and realized, sadly, that the table doesn't show. I like the table as a way to list the data in an example. Maybe there's a workaround. Thoughts?

It might be a good idea to make a list here on the main talk page of the outstanding issues with the pdf function related to the mathgloss. We could note the workaround and then as they are fixed you can cross them off (I've enjoyed seeing these in other places -- real sense of accomplishment).

I briefly checked out the tables and formulas a bit ago. I'll study it some more and leave some thoughts over there.

I'm really enjoying this collaboration.

--Alison Snieckus 18:46, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)07:46, 5 February 2009

Great!

PDF Generator, its not working 100%, fails to convert some images to same size in the PDF files. This issues will be solved by the Tech Team. We perhaps have to wait a few months, WE will move to a more powerfull server, and meantime they will work on fixing up some apps issues (e.g. PDF Generator).

ToDo/Issues List is a good idea. Feel free to start it

Cheers,

Gladys. --chela5808 19:04, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)08:04, 5 February 2009

You got to it before I did! I added the bit about not printing tables.

--Alison Snieckus 22:53, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)11:53, 6 February 2009
 
 
 

Data data data

So, I'm a scientist and you guys have some great math resources building here. I was wondering if there were specific data types that may be of use in some sort of math/science interphase project? By way of example I have very simple primary-school projects such as Snow_graphing; I'm also part of the team generating environmental data from several Vermont streams here. My elementary educators are about to start their next set of 11 lesson plans; I could offer extra credit for any folks who make a strong mathematical connection based upon some of your learning objectives aimed at primary-school. Let me know if any of this may be of interest. Dmccabe 01:39, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Dmccabe (talk)14:39, 4 February 2009

Hi Declan,

Your proposal sounds very interesting.

Alison, let me introduce you to Declan. He is doing an inspiring job, he's involving his students and other teachers to WikiEducator. Declan works with kids of elementary and secondary grade. He's also administrator of WE and a very pro buddy. I have learned lots from Declan.

I am sure we can collaborate in a math/science project. What do you think Alison?

Cheers, Gladys G. --chela5808 04:39, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)17:39, 4 February 2009

Hi Declan, I think you were the first to post on my user talk page. There was a greeting and some instructions which all made sense to me, but I didn't get at first that the line underneath starting with Dmccabe... was for the person that put it there? I kept wondering how your "tag line" got there. Did I put it there (cause I had already happened across your user page)? hehe. By the way, I help my son do biological sampling with the New Jersey Streamwatch program.

Well the first thing that comes to mind is real datasets. I was working on standard deviation last night and wondering about whether to include a more realistic example that would have a description of where the dataset came from. Statistics is all about interpreting data, so it seems to me having examples that have real meaning would be better for people trying to learn the concept.

Is the snow graph based on a set of data points? Are there datasets from the macroinvertebrate collections?

I think there's good potential for the collaboration. Thanks.

--Alison Snieckus 18:30, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

ASnieckus (talk)07:30, 5 February 2009
 
 

Getting Involved

Hi Gladys, I'd like to get involved with your mathgloss project. I added to the page on arithmetic mean last night. I see on the main page that there are a few people working on the glossary. I will add my name to the list. I'm wondering where to have discussions about issues. I was surprised to see that this discussion page is empty (at least it is on my end). Interested to hear your thoughts. Alison Snieckus aka ASnieckus

ASnieckus (talk)08:44, 4 February 2009

Hi again Alison,

The project started on December 30, 2008. We are now 4 people, and I hope we grow as new people find the project interesting for their own purposes.

We've had communication via email which is great but not the wiki-way. You are right, lets use the Talk Page for discussions.

BTW I saw you asked Anil about the gray number. It's a count for the number of times the title of the post has been used. :-)

SYA

Gladys Gahona.--chela5808 00:33, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)13:33, 4 February 2009

Hi Gladys & Alison,

You're a cluster! Congrats....! Randy Fisher 00:51, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Wikirandy (talk)13:51, 4 February 2009

Hey Randy,

Thank you!!!

Alice, this is Randy... THE WIKIRANDY :-)

You should visit his page and projects. Wow...

Cheers

Gladys Gahona.--chela5808 01:25, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Chela5808 (talk)14:25, 4 February 2009

Yeah, wow. VERY inspiring. --Alison Snieckus 04:13, 4 February 2009 (UTC) ...Woot, figured out the signature thingy!

ASnieckus (talk)17:13, 4 February 2009