benjamin dickman
@benjamindickman.bsky.social
1.4K followers 410 following 2.6K posts
K-12 math educator 🪄♾️ Brookline to Nanjing to NYC Amherst College BA Fulbright Program x2 (🇨🇳+🇵🇭) Teachers College, Columbia University PhD past BU Wheelock (postdoc, Math Edu) cocreated original word game: #FiddleBrix http://tinyurl.com/bmdmaths
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benjamindickman.bsky.social
my favorite #sensemaking excerpt

from:
Kegan, Robert. The evolving self: Problem and process in human development. Harvard University Press, 1982.

preview in google books:
books.google.com/books?id=SP3...

not overtly about 'mathematics' per se but w/e
#iTeachMath ♾️ #MathSky 🧮
screenshot of text beginning "these days my daughter" and ending with "parenthood, friendship, and love"
benjamindickman.bsky.social
just lmk if/when you have more! there's no way these are the only 20 non routine quadratic problems accessible to alg ii & precalc students!
benjamindickman.bsky.social
yeah you had the geometric approach I'd say (imagining reflections) and then a lot of quadratic stuff I've tried to do as student challenges involves thnking flexibly about the algebraic representations, i.e., can if be solved in standard, vertex, and factored form? those are the other three above!
benjamindickman.bsky.social
this is what is linked via Desmos thru twittxr, no alt text atm bc it's screenshots of text but these are four methods I believed (at some point) could work
benjamindickman.bsky.social
idk which was the easiest but definitely not that one lol

i think a few observations are helpful, like that f(1) is the sum of the coefficients, or that, from the vertex, quadratics go over one "up" a, then over one "up" 3a, then 5a, 7a, etc (ofc it's down if a<0) and that h is b/w two equal values
benjamindickman.bsky.social
that's the dream 🙏🏻✨

fwiw i think problem 15 is my favorite
benjamindickman.bsky.social
Bill Gates (often lauded for dropping out of school) says it's the perfect teacher or w/e, now SK got that spondulix HEAVY
benjamindickman.bsky.social
there's a related problem that says to prove e.g.

x(x+1)(x+2)(x+3) + 1

is always a square

since 2025 = 45², one could wonder if there is a nice solution in x for this year ... but there is not lol

finding the factorization can be done by pasting into Wolfram, but doing it by hand is fun-ner!
benjamindickman.bsky.social
definitely random!! some are much "easier" than others

some of them have sample solutions in the folder with them, but i think i can remember or re-solve if you or others get too stuck on any

and something like the last one can be changed to ...=2025 or 2026

lmk if you spot/make similar fun ones!
Reposted by benjamin dickman
benjamindickman.bsky.social
1pm Thursday is great timing for this session!

(if, unlike me, you're at NCTM Atlanta)

👇🏻
jedediyah.com
Getting pumped to present at @NCTM.org 2025!

Come to an awesome workshop on "Mathematics for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence". We'll play with dynamical systems and filters, feature engineer some classifiers, and talk about how not to AI.

#NCTM2025 #NCTMATL25 #mtbos #IteachMath #NCTM
Mathematics for Machine Learning and Artificial Intellgience
Jedediyah Williams, PhD
NCTM Atlanta 2025
Image in center of slide is a graph with the minimum spanning tree highlighted. What is the math for AI and ML?
Discrete, Stats, and Computing. 
Logic, Linear Algebra, Graph Theory, Set Theory, Combinatorics, Difference Equations, Recursion, Iteration Two images of a cake, before and after filtering RGB pixel values. 
Two histograms display the RGB distributions before and after the filter. Try isolating different objects with the filter. 
An RGB filter has sliders for red, green, and blue minima and maxima. An image shows the moon with robotic hardware before and after the filtering.
benjamindickman.bsky.social
1pm Thursday is great timing for this session!

(if, unlike me, you're at NCTM Atlanta)

👇🏻
jedediyah.com
Getting pumped to present at @NCTM.org 2025!

Come to an awesome workshop on "Mathematics for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence". We'll play with dynamical systems and filters, feature engineer some classifiers, and talk about how not to AI.

#NCTM2025 #NCTMATL25 #mtbos #IteachMath #NCTM
Mathematics for Machine Learning and Artificial Intellgience
Jedediyah Williams, PhD
NCTM Atlanta 2025
Image in center of slide is a graph with the minimum spanning tree highlighted. What is the math for AI and ML?
Discrete, Stats, and Computing. 
Logic, Linear Algebra, Graph Theory, Set Theory, Combinatorics, Difference Equations, Recursion, Iteration Two images of a cake, before and after filtering RGB pixel values. 
Two histograms display the RGB distributions before and after the filter. Try isolating different objects with the filter. 
An RGB filter has sliders for red, green, and blue minima and maxima. An image shows the moon with robotic hardware before and after the filtering.
Reposted by benjamin dickman
Reposted by benjamin dickman
benjamindickman.bsky.social
my favorite #sensemaking excerpt

from:
Kegan, Robert. The evolving self: Problem and process in human development. Harvard University Press, 1982.

preview in google books:
books.google.com/books?id=SP3...

not overtly about 'mathematics' per se but w/e
#iTeachMath ♾️ #MathSky 🧮
screenshot of text beginning "these days my daughter" and ending with "parenthood, friendship, and love"
benjamindickman.bsky.social
reviewer 2:
that's 5 words lmao
benjamindickman.bsky.social
[digging through my twittxr archives]

do you want non-routine quadratic problems?

here are 20 💌:
www.desmos.com/calculator/d...

cc. #iTeachMath #MathSky #EduSky #AlgebraSky
Particular Parabola Problems
www.desmos.com
benjamindickman.bsky.social
[profession: math education]

👻 standards by learning style 🎃
unenthusiast.com
In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/
hammancheez.bsky.social
"The chancellor approved it"
benjamindickman.bsky.social
11 minutes, i'm rejecting this post bc "i before e except after c"
benjamindickman.bsky.social
same #2solve ... saw the right suffix for word 2 early but not the right prefix!

kept trying to solve w these words; alas!:

01000010 01010101 01010010 01001100 01000101 01010011 01010001 01010101 01000101 00100000 01000010 01010101 01010010 01000111 01000101 01001111 01001110 01010011
benjamindickman.bsky.social
it's often the second car from the front, it's labelled, anyone working on the train will know which car; it's no talking at all which is good for me (other people will sometimes engage in loud phone convos, not my favorite tho maybe palatable if you have headphones on). it's a thing 😆
benjamindickman.bsky.social
decide whether you want to be on the quiet car... I always am because otherwise ppl are yapping away.

window seats often have easier access to outlets and the view.

i saw the other response about the bathroom quality - in my exp they're good and plentiful and way better than a bus with 0.

enjoy!!
benjamindickman.bsky.social
two photos from the dead bird in the years of our Lorde 2019 & 2018
screenshot from twitter about singing mahna mahna screenshot from twitter about singing mahna mahna
benjamindickman.bsky.social
We sing this every year when learning about the L-tromino induction proof (it requires one monomino).

I even sing it in Algebra II with monomial.

Parents and families hate this one trick!
benjamindickman.bsky.social
similarish (?) Sat #2solve if you switch the plosives:

01010000 01001001 01000011 01001011 01000101 01010100 01000101 01000100 00100000 01000100 01010101 01001101 01000010 01001100 01011001 00100000