http://gatornet.chapin.edu/11

Mr. Bergen, The Chapin School, New York City (USA) e-mail: 11@chapin.edu

Intro

  • The goal of this Web page is to promote communication and projects in math, science and computers amongst 11 year olds around the world.
  • Here are 11 questions to try if you are an 11 year old ... we will be compiling and posting answers using initials (not names)
  • these questions about math, science and computers are hard (on purpose) but it will be fun to compare answers and help each other as we communicate around the world
  • e-mail to 11@chapin.edu but please "be safe" and do not give me your name ... just give me your 3 initials (mine are SBB) and your hometown and country
  • if you are a year or two over age 11, you are "close enough"
  • if you are a teacher of 11 or 12 year olds, I would love to connect with you via e-mail or SKYPE

Part One: A Survey

I would love help from generous people around the World in translating this survey section into other languages
  1. At what age did you start IM-ing? If you have not yet starting IM-ing, please put "not yet"
  2. At what age did you start using e-mail?
  3. Can you name the first 11 prime numbers?
  4. Can you explain what the number PI is?
  5. Can you name 11 HTML commands?
  6. Do you know 11 friends age 11 who do NOT have Internet access at home?
  7. Do you know Excel well enough that you can produce this sample spreadsheet on your own in 11 minutes? Click here
  8. Can you type the word names for 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 in under 11 seconds? For example, if you do it English, it would be "one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven" in under 11 seconds? If not, how many seconds does it take? How many other languages can you do this in?
  9. Can you multiply a two digit numbers by 11 in your head, e.g. 11x25 or 11x61 or 11x53?
  10. Can you name 11 objects that move (e.g. person, turtle, car, bike, plane, jaguar) and state how fast each one moves in miles per hour or preferably kilometers per hour?
  11. Can you explain the "paradox" why some stars we see every night in the sky may have exploded 11 years ago or more?
Click here for a partial summary from my 59 NYC Chapin students
Click here for one survey from Australia

Part Two: A Photoshop Project

  • Each of the residents at the Boston Home with multiple sclerosis will be requesting a Photoshop picture with a background photo taken in another country.
  • My students at Chapin (yes, most of them are 11 or close to 11) will be connecting as e-penpals, e-Webpals and SKYPE-pals with 11 year olds in other countries
  • If you teach 11 year olds and want them to collaborate on this project, we at Chapin would love to work with you and will send you quality pictures of the Boston Home residents so that your students can do the same project!
  • Our goal is to create these pictures for the Boston Home residents via collaboration and teamwork amongst 11 year olds living in different countries.
  • We hope to complete this project by no later than the 11th of May 2006 at 11:11am ;-)
  • Here are samples before we added the "around the world" spec: Alvin | Claudia | Colleen | Dianne | Don | Helen | Richard

Click on Each Picture to Listen



many more videos and high resolution JPEGS will be posted ... permission from the Boston Home for most not all people . .. .

See the EWG Web page at http://gatornet.chapin.edu/~EWG/ for this info:

  • Ann wants to go to Marrakesh.
  • Colleen wants to go to Trinidad and Tobago.
  • Dave wants to go to Plumose England.
  • Duncan wants to go to East Berlin.
  • Janice wants to go to Lombok Island in Indonesia.
  • Linda wants to go to Machu Picchu.
  • Steve wants to go to Tuva in South Sibera (Richard Feynman).

The Plan: Together We Will

  • We will identify the places around the world where our Boston Home partners want their photos
  • We will learn more about these places using www.wikipedia.org and other sources
  • We will find e-mail addresses of teachers there
  • We will connect with 11 and 12 year olds there and ask them for a specific photo
  • We will use SKYPE to talk with teachers and students
  • We will get another 30 or 40 residents from the Boston Home to make similar requests
  • We will learn Photoshop skills for making these composite pictures
  • We will share our progress with other 11 and 12 year olds around the USA and around the world who collaborate on the project

Links

  • Click here for a Web page of country codes
  • Click here to go to www.altavista.com to use the trick that Alan November showed many of us on 11/11 for finding e-mail addresses for academic institutions (ac) in a specific country on a specific topic

  • Click here for the 59 Web pages of the 59 students who are in 6th grade at Chapin this year
  • Click here for the Web page of the Boston Home
  • Click here to learn more about MS
  • Click here to learn more about my involvement with MS and the Boston Home
  • Click here to go to the Web page of Alan November. Listening to Alan November at a Mohonk Computer working shop helped inspire me to create this Web site.
  • Click here to go to the Web page of Thomas Friedman, author of the book The World is Flat. Listening to this book on audio inspired me to produce this Web page. Click here to listen to Mr. Friedman who spoke at MIT on how he came to write "The World is Flat" and his thoughts on the first six chapters (one hour).
  • Click here to learn more about SKYPE or to download it. SKYPE is a free program that allows you speak to others around the world

Projects from Other Schools

  • Wilbraham & Monson Academy (Wilbraham, MA) ... ... Center for Entrepreneurial and Global Studies ... posted on ISED ListServ by Rodney LaBrecque, Head of School 11/05 ... click here or click here
  • Posted on ISED listserv 12/4/05 ... click here

Some Trivia About the Number 11

  • One of my favorite students of all time was born on 11/11 ... I met him in 1994 .. he was in 11th grade the year I met him ... he introduced me to one of the best pieces of software that I have ever used ("First Class" which has 11 bytes in it if you count the space) ... he had been helping to run the Boston Computer Society bulletin boards since he was age 11
  • One of my favorite math tricks involves multiplying by 11 ... 11 x 45 = 4?5 where ? is the SUM of the two outside numbers ... you can click here to read more of my favorite math tricks ... Click here to hear my 11 trick!

    To subscribe to the PODCAST, please copy and paste this info below into the SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST menu choice under ADVANCED in iTunes

    http://gatornet.chapin.edu/11/Tricks.xml

    plan B: get involved in PCAST (note to self)

  • The number 11 makes many math people think of the symbol || for parallel lines ... if the world is truly flat, then perhaps our future lies in the math, science and technology skills of the students around the world who are now 11 years old ...by the way the || symbol was chosen by Robert Recorde from Wales in the year 1557 who said that "noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle" ... click here or here for more info about Robert Recorde
  • November is the 11th month of the year and Alan November spoke to many of us on November 11th at 11:11am in Mohonk NY (USA)... coincidence? I don't think so!

Testing 1/6/06
  • Click here to download the MP3 file that I created about the 111 trick
  • If you wish to subscribe to this as a podcast, please go to iTunes and under the ADVANCED menu where it says SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST, type in the URL of http://gatornet.chapin.edu/11/mbb.xml and see if it works!

 

Last updated 1.06.05

This page overseen by Steve Bergen (bergen@chapin.edu)