The jobs in the future will be very different from the jobs now.  Mathematics and data science can be a big part of everyday life in future.

https://www.thisisinsider.com/how-jerry-marge-selbee-won-the-lottery-2019-1

image from CBS News

why it might pay off to major in Math and actually learn something in the process 🙂

Relevant Snippets

In 2003, Jerry made a run to their old store and saw a brochure for a new lottery game called Winfall. Jerry, who majored in math in college, told “60 Minutes” he realized within just minutes that he could almost guarantee making a profit.

He explained this was because the winnings rolled down every time the jackpot reached a cap of $5 million. Unlike lottery games like Mega Millions, where the jackpot keeps growing until someone matches every single number, with Winfall, if the jackpot reached $5 million and no one drew a ticket with all six winning numbers, people with tickets that had five, four, and three winning numbers could cash in.

The Selbees said that over the nine years they played Winfall, their group won a total of $26 million and they made about $8 million in profit before taxes.

This is awesome!

It’s a good tradition to celebrate the importance of education and good way to get children to look forward to school 🙂 probably see if I can implement the idea for tuition.

https://www.babble.com/parenting/celebration-first-day-of-school-in-germany/

IMAGE SOURCE: THINKSTOCK

The Chemistry and Physics Crash Course was successfully concluded over the June Holiday.

I believed everyone understood better how to approach the 2 subjects and had help with kickstarting their revision for O levels.

A different approach during the crash course was used to tackle the 2 subjects which I am sure helped them better make sense of and consolidate the huge amount of information and content found in the 2 subjects.

Chemistry and Physics Crash Course

Goal: Broad overview to consolidate 2 years syllabus and using another different approach to better understand the subject

Venue: Classroom in Sembawang (7 mins walk from mrt)

Date: 6 june (physics) 13 june (chemistry)

Timing: 10am to 4pm (1 to 2pm lunch break)

Pricing: 35/hr

20% off for both if you bring a friend, 30% off if you bring 2 friends)

So I was watching Avengers Infinity War and heard of Thanos’s plan to kill half of the universe. That got me to thinking about probability and I was inspired to write out some questions for my students. Questions and answers are below. Have fun!

Questions

Answers

1) Loki has a 90% chance of resurrecting every time he dies in a movie. Given that Loki has already “died” twice in previous movies, what is the probability he will resurrect from dying in Infinity War?

Answer: 0.9 All death events are independent
Real answer: Depends on how many fan girls want him back

2) The Avengers must work together successfully to have the only chance to defeat Thanos. Given that Starlord has a 10% chance of not letting his emotions get the better of him, Spiderman has a 40% chance of not acting like a teenager and obeying Stark’s orders, Hulk has a 50% chance of not sulking and being able to transform when needed. What is the chance of Thanos being defeated?

Answer: Probability Thanos is defeated = 0.1 x 0.4 x 0.5 = 0.02
Real answer: We are all going to die or rather half of us are going to die

3) Given that the power scale of a character is inversely proportional to the chance of dying while fighting against Thanos. Thor has a power scale of 10000 and has a 20% chance of dying. Iron man has a power scale of 8000 and Black Panther has a power scale of 1000. Is iron man or black panther more likely to die in a face off against Thanos?

Answer: Black Panther
Let p represent power scale and d represent chance of dying
p α 1/d   => p k/d => Sub (10000, 0.2) into the equation => 10000 = k/0.2 => k = 2000
for iron man p = 2000/d => sub 8000 => 8000 = 2000/d => d = 0.25 = 25% chance of dying
for black panther p = 2000/d => sub 1000 => 1000 = 2000/d=> d = 0.50 => 50% chance of dying
Real answer: Iron man. Disney will never let Black Panther die when it brought in a box office revenue of $1.3 billion worldwide $$$

4) Given that there are 5 people in your family including you, if Thanos snaps his finger with the infinity gauntlet to kill half of the universe randomly, what is the probability all 5 members of your family survive?

Answer: Thanos wants to kill half of the universe. So for every 2 people, 1 person will die.
So chance of dying is 0.5
Probability all 5 members in the family do not die = (0.5)⁵ = 0.03125
Real answer: It doesn’t matter. Knowing the odds will not change the outcome in any way.

5) Given that Gamora gives Thanos 10 possible locations for the soul stone to try to slow him down.

1. What is the probability that Thanos will find it on his 5th try?
2. What is the probability Thanos will not find the stone in the first three tries?

Answer:

1. Probability =9/10 x 8/9 x 7/8 x 6/7 x 1/6 = 0.1
2. Probability = 1 – (1/10 + 9/10 x 1/9 + 9/10 x 8/9 x 1/8) = 0.7

Real answer: Space stone will allow user to be in multiple locations at once (especially since Thanos has the power stone to power the space stone. Nice try, Gamora)

6) Thanos kept his six infinity stones in his right pocket during his retirement. He also put 5 of his chocolates bars in the same pocket in case he gets hungry. What is the probability that he will pick out 2 chocolate bars in a row without looking?

Answer: Probability = 5/11 x 4/10 = 2/11
This question is without replacement.
Real Answer = 1. he can easily feel if object is spherical or cuboid, genius!

7) Thanos love the number 6 so he decides to use the reality stone to alter all dice rolls in the universe to show the number 6 with a probability of 40% and the other numbers equally likely to appear. What is the probability of 6 appearing at least once in 2 dice rolls now?

Answer:
Method 1: (probability both are 6) 0.4 x 0.4 + (probability 1^st dice is 6, 2^nd dice is not) 0.4 x 0.6 + (probability 1^st dice is not 6, 2^nd dice is 6) 0.6 x 0.4 = 0.64

Method 2: 1 – (probability that six does not show up in both throws) 0.6 x 0.6 = 0.64
Real Answer: All maths teachers are going to have to change their answers in the mark scheme now

8) You want to go watch Avenger Infinity War with a friend. Given that you have 10 male friends and 10 female friends and 80% of males like and will watch the show and 50% of females like and will watch the show. what is the probability the friend you go with is a girl?

Answer: There are only 8 guys and 5 girls that want to watch.
Probability of picking a girl will be (number of girls/ divide total number of people) = 5/13
Real answer: Just ask the one you want to go with 😊

9) Bonus Question for Lower Sec Science: Given that when Thanos snaps his fingers to kill half the universe in a random order and Gamora who he loves as daughter dies as a result, what scientific attitude is he displaying?

1. Curiosity
2. Perseverance
3. Open mindedness
4. Integrity

Answer: Integrity
Real answer: He is not fit to be a father

Due to the evolution of bacteria with respect to our bodies natural defense mechanism, travelling forward in time could kill you, and travelling back in time could kill everyone.

Although unable to be tested, it is an interesting thought. 🙂

https://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/474525392/attention-students-put-your-laptops-away

Relevant Snippets
“And a study has shown that the fact that you have to be slower when you take notes by hand is what makes it more useful in the long run.”

“When people type their notes, they have this tendency to try to take verbatim notes and write down as much of the lecture as they can,” Mueller tells NPR’s Rachel Martin. “The students who were taking longhand notes in our studies were forced to be more selective — because you can’t write as fast as you can type. And that extra processing of the material that they were doing benefited them.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/the-symbolism-of-elon-musk-sending-a-car-into-space/552479/

so much to be excited about 🙂

Why I Left Silicon Valley, EdTech, and “Personalized” Learning

Relevant Snippets

“It was isolating with every child working on something different; it was impersonal with kids learning basic math skills from Khan Academy; it was disembodied and disconnected, with a computer constantly being a mediator between my students and me.”

“Hyper-individualization does precisely what the emerging body of research says it does and more: it isolates children, it breeds competition, it assumes that children can learn entirely on their own, and it dehumanizes the learning environment, reducing the human experience of learning down to a mechanistic process, one where children become the objects of learning as opposed to the subjects of their own educational narrative.”

“But technologists know that good technology is only built to fulfill needs that didn’t previously have solutions. Curiosity, compassion, and a love for learning are needs that are already accounted for. They are accounted for by teachers–not computers.”