I totally dropped the ball last week when I missed Sunday without introducing you to another math spouse. Here are this week's spouses: Spouses of Mary Somerville This is Admiral Greig, Lieutenant Greig's dad... I couldn't find any pictures of him so this will do. Married Lietuenant Samuel Greig, a cousin, in 1804. He didn't believe women should be academic. Mary studied without his knowledge. He died in 1807. They had one son together. Dr. William Somerville Married in 1812 to another cousin, Dr. William Somerville. She was his second wife and he her second husband. Inspector of the Army Medical Board and member of the Royal Society. Physician for the Chelsea Hospital from 1819 on. Encouraged Mary's studies in all fields. They had 3 daughters and 1 son. He died in 1860. 12 years before Mary. Source: Wikipedia

I don't know about you but every time I see this meme, shared on Social Media, my blood boils. I think it says a lot about our current culture and state of education but that is for another day. Instead I want to talk about how much we use Algebra and don't even think about it. I would love to hear if you have examples to add to my list. When you calculate the time you need to leave your house or need to wake up so that you make it to your destination on time...  ALGEBRA! When you perceive the distance to something you are trying to grab or the location something will drop if it is thrown or falls. This is a calculation that even a 16-month old baby is capable of doing instinctually. It is also  ALGEBRA! When you channel your inner Kobe to make a garbage can shot from across the room. Your brain is calculating the distance to the can, air resistance, the weight of the trash, the trajectory, and the force required. But your calculations don't stop there. Your brain is also e...

A few years ago, I came across the blog post, The Mathematicians Project: Mathematicians Are Not Just White Dudes , and I was inspired.  I took this idea and challenged my math peers at the high school I teach at to try and incorporate more mathematicians in their daily lessons. I then created a project for my classroom based on this blog post. I want to share with you my version of the project as well as examples from a student (with permission) during 2020 quarantine. Feel free to take use as is or change for how you need it. I would love to see how you adapt it for your classrooms as well as any student examples. When I first did this project the kids clamored to be the first to get the "big names" (Einstein, Euler, Turing) although I did notice my students of color took more time to find mathematicians like them. I had Brahmagupta and Mary Jackson chosen that first year. I also noticed the ladies in my class mostly chose women (Emilie du Chalet, Hypatia, Sally Ride). I h...

In addition to my daily Instagram posts, I want to use the blog to feature cool maths and maths adjacent things. Because I am a maths teacher I will also feature classroom ideas too. Let's start with Mathematician Spouses. I will feature a different one each Sunday.  First up, the 2 wives of Albert Einstein . Mileva Marić Einstein Elsa Einstein Löwenthal Einstein Born December 19, 1875 in Titel, Austro-Hungarian Empire (Present Day Serbia) Died August 4, 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland Parents were Milos Maric and Marija Ruzic-Maric Married Albert in 1903 and they were divorced in 1919 a few months before he married Elsa. Three Children with Albert: Lieserl (she may have died or was given up for adoption, it is unknown), Hans Albert, and Eduard "Tete." Second woman to finish a full program of study at the Department of Mathematics and Physics at Zurich Polytechnic. Was a peer of Albe...

Hi! I’m Megan McLean, a Math and Engineering teacher at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Washington. I’ve been teaching for 13 years. In that time, I have taught in the US and also in South Korea, which was an amazing experience. In my former life, I was a Mechanical Engineer having gotten a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Idaho (GO VANDALS!). I became a teacher because I wanted to inspire students to see themselves as mathematicians and to help develop in others the love I have for math. A couple years ago, I realized that whenever I would talk about the mathematicians who created the math we were doing in class, there were a lot of similarities in the people that I was displaying on the board. In my class, no two students were alike. But every mathematician I was displaying looked the same. Not long after that, I attended a talk from an engineer from Turkey. She spoke about how, as a female engineer from the Middle East, that she was often not taken serious...