This Email Message from QTS Training - Offers the Opportunity to Participate in Interesting Dyslexia Research in terms of Visual Persistence

Hello - I am writing to fellow members of the Harvard ALPS 'Teaching for Understanding' forum, to ask if you could spare a few minutes to take part in our online research experiment.
 
We are exploring the idea that people with longer than average Visual Persistence experience more difficulties with reading (tiredness, poor comprehension and visual disturbances - letter reversals, parts of letters or words missing, etc.) than people with shorter Visual Persistence.
 
Visual Persistence is an interesting feature of our perceptual system. If we are exposed briefly to an isolated visual image (a letter of the alphabet for example), the image of the letter persists in our visual awareness for a period of around 40 - 250 milliseconds after the stimulus has been removed from view. When we are presented with a rapid sequence of images (such as when reading text or tracking movement) a backlog of mages can build up resulting in multiple letter images persisting simultaneously. The brain resolves this perceptual conflict by paying more attention to some images and ignoring others. In the literature, this phenomenon is called 'masking' because of the way images can be masked by both previous and subsequent images. This can result in a range of perceptual distortions which make it harder for some students to extract meaning of text.

We have found that all our dyslexic students have a visual persistence score near the high end of this natural range, and we are interested to see how visual persistence correlates to ease of reading in a range of different professions.
If you would like to take part in the experiment - this is what we would like you to do.

Click on this link www.gts-training.co.uk  read the warning for anyone sensitive to flickering images, and click on the Start button which will display a cycle of letters and words. You control the speed of the display (between 20ms to 300ms) with a scroll bar. Take a note of 1) the speed at which you start to feel you are making an effort to read the display, and 2) the speed at which you start to experience visual distortions (dominant letters, greyed out letters, etc.). Stop the display, fill in and submit the short online response form.

Thank you for your attention - and please encourage others to take the test and submit a form.
We will not contact you again unless you opt to join our mailing list (an option on the response form).

John Evans
Graphical Thinking Skills
The Visual Persistence tester is written in JavaScript and runs in your browser so there is no security risk to your computer or network

David Brown
Mathsoul Math Posters & Maths Posters

www.mathsoul.com
www.mathsoul.co.uk
www.mathsoul.co.nz

David@mathsoul.com

Virtual Reality Learning Inspires Bored Maths Minds

A 6 inch thick user manual before you can start should sort of the men from the boys, and the women from the girls.

Read about it here - amazing what a bit of context can do for mathematics.

David
www.mathsoul.com
math posters and maths posters to engage and energize

Mathsoul Enews
 

Latest Release Mathematics Quotation Poster
 

This poster, called Enormous Usefulness, is designed primarily to emphasise the fundamental importance of mathematics to the natural sciences - linking classroom mathematics with life outside the mathematics classroom. For those interested it also provides a potential starting point for discussion about whether mathematics has been discovered or invented.

How to Purchase - Webshop, Email, or Fax

1. Use the Mathsoul posters webshop. At the webshop this Enormous Usefulness poster can be purchased as part of the Set of 5 Mathsoul Well-Said quotations posters shown below (click here), or as a poster on its own (click here).

2. OR, simply send an email, (or fax to +64 9 929 3331), with all your order details.

Special 5 + 1 Offer (this week only)
 

As a Mathsoul Enews reader, your order for this Set of 5 Well-Said posters will be shipped with a same-size free bonus poster (your choice from whole range which bonus poster if you specify, otherwise our choice). To specify your choice for the bonus please input the name of the bonus poster you have chosen in the 'order comment' box during checkout, or in your email or fax order detail.

Benefits
 

Displaying this Enormous Usefulness poster (and the others in the series) on your classroom walls can 'put more soul' into your classroom learning environment, and will help to engage & energize your students for superior learning outcomes.

Remember all Mathsoul mathematics posters are customised to your location in terms of language (math posters and maths posters), units (metric and imperial), and currency ($, £, €, Yen, Peso). They are printed with durable pigmented inks and supplied ready laminated ready for immediate use by busy teachers. Expect no less!

It has been very exciting to see the Mathsoul posters business going from strength to strength during its first 8 months of trading; and hearing enthusiastic comments and reports back from many customers. Posters from Mathsoul have now been purchased by teachers in many countries, and are now helping to create even greater learning environments for students around the world.

Finally - here is the link again to order the full set of 5 Well-Said Mathsoul mathematics posters (if done this week by Enews readers, then with a free bonus poster too).

Your questions and suggestions are always very welcome (click).

Warm Regards
David Brown
David@Mathsoul.com
www.mathsoul.com
Mathematics Posters to Engage & Energize
Fax +64 9 929 3331
Phone  +64 9 449 2244 

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Mathsoul Posters Enews Issue 1 - Quotations Posters - February 11 2009.

Hyperbolic, Parabolic, and Eliptic Geometries

Well if the sum of the measures of the angles in a triangle is less than 180 degrees in hyperbolic geometry, and equal to 180 degrees in parabolic geometry, and more than 180 degrees in elliptic geometry - does this cover all cases?  Or are there still more meaningful geometries such as any where perhaps the sum of the measure of the angles of a triangle varies across all these cases?

David@mathsoul.com
www.mathsoul.com
Educational Mathematics posters, maths posters and math posters - to engage and to energize.

"Mathematics is the Queen of the Sciences,"

according to Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 to 1855).

A teacher queried yesterday whether this poster would go well in their math classroom since the queen has naked shoulders.   

Although at the same time the teacher absolutely loved the poster, saying "I think it's beautifully artistic, the lighting, the shapes and colors."

This queen poster was intended to be noticed, and is part of a series that links teenage classroom math with the world outside. It was not intended however to be morally controversial.  

But what do you think - is this 'beautifully artistic' / 'naked shoulder'  Queen mathematics poster OK for your child's math classroom?

Love it , or Loathe it?

David
Founder Mathsoul Posters