Fundamentally Fixing Math Education
Meeting for the week of May 20 - May 26, 2019
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Fundamentally Fixing Math Education
Speaker: Conrad Wolfram
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page.Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time.Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Here’s a message from President-Elect Tzviatko:
Greetings Rotarians and Guests,It's almost time for the RI Convention. We will be organizing a member meetup for everyone from our club who will be in Hamburg. If you plan on going and I haven't emailed you please send me a note at tzviatko@siliconvalleyrotary.com.If you are visiting us as a guest today and you'd like to meet us at the Convention, please let me know!This week's speaker will be of special interest to those of us with passion for tech, data, education and the web. Conrad Wolfram will be talking to us specifically about math and how to think about teaching and learning math in a new way. Cool stuff.Enjoy the program and don't forget to leave a comment below.
Sincerely,
Tzviatko
President-Elect, Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
Guests, we are happy to have you join us this week!
As we see it, our flexibility as an online, asynchronous club allows a special type of service to Rotarians around the world: we make it easier for anyone to strive for and maintain 100% attendance. That keeps you engaged with Rotary's events and ideas, and provides a moment of inspiration for devoting your creativity, talents, and resources to good causes.You are certainly not required to pay anything in order to attend our meetings. However, if you would like to make a small contribution to our service efforts, you are welcome to do so in our secure Happy Dollars section down the page. This could be what you normally pay at your own club's meetings for lunch, for example. Any amount is welcome, but first and foremost, we're happy you've joined us, and hope you will share with others who we are and what we do to help inspire Service Above Self.And don't forget to fill out our attendance form so you get an email you can pass on to your club's secretary!
Weekly Funny with the Lady of Laughter (LOL)
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Yvonne Kwan, our “Lady of Laughter!”
I've been watching a slew of food documentaries recently (thanks, Netflix!), which means we're due for some delicious jokes this week!
What do you get from a pampered cow?Spoiled milk!
Why did the apricot ask a prune to dinner?Because he couldn't find a date!
Did you hear about the carrot detective?He got to the root of every case!
Weekly Inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
On California’s Mammoth Mountain, the powder is great, but the risks are real. When large snowfalls and intense winds merge into avalanches, things get risky on steep slopes. To keep thousands of skiers and snowboarders safe high in the Sierras, ski patrollers like Matt Seibert fight off dangerous avalanches using a not-so-secret weapon: World War II-era cannons.
World of
Rotary EcoClub offers diversity, variety
Learn more at https://blog.rotary.org/2019/04/16/rotary-ecoclub-offers-diversity-variety/
Through a Rotarian's Lens
Sometimes a photo can capture an amazing moment. In this section Member Keith Marsh shares his incredible photography!If you'd like to submit a photo for this section please contact Keith.
I grew up in Northern Idaho and spent my summers during High School and College working in the harvests of green peas and wheat. The Palouse area of Eastern Washington and Northwest Idaho is one of the richest growing areas in the World. Summer thunder and lightning storms are common and create spectacular images.
Coffee With a Rotarian
A natural part of Rotary is the networking and the fellowship you get out of meeting other Rotarians. Coffee With a Rotarian is a monthly program of our club where we match participating club members for one-on-one virtual (or in some cases in person) coffee meetings, so they can learn more about each other. This program is organized by member Tzviatko Chiderov.
This week we have Tanya from Atlanta, GA, USA reporting on a chat with Ferheen from Santa Clara, CA, USA.
Ferheen means "happy." Her parents picked the perfect name for her because she has great positive energy. She smiled and laughed the whole time we spoke. She would be great at doing one of my past gigs that involves having a stage name (*wink, wink*). Ferheen is preparing to start medical school in the coming years so she can become a gynecologist. We discussed how the healthcare system is in need of compassionate doctors instead of doctors who primarily want status and money. I expect to see her on "The Doctors" one day discussing groundbreaking techniques in gynecology. Ferheen, who is from the Bay area, lived in Japan for three years. I have enjoyed all of my coffee talks, but I had the most fun with Ferheen. We gave each other a big virtual hug and now we are obsessed with and love each other.
We encourage all club members to participate in Coffee With a Rotarian. You can sign up here!
Service Report
Tell us about service you’ve done recently in your community.Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
On the first meeting of every month, we feature service reports from club members for the previous month. Thanks for your service everyone!
For Members Only
Club Announcements
Haven't joined the conversation on Facebook yet? Consider joining the conversation by signing into our club members-only Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/rotarysiliconvalley/
Our Events & Projects
We hold our meetings online, but we do regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of the events and service projects listed here.
Also be sure to join our Meetup Group for automatic calendar updates and to RSVP for our events! These are open to all guests as well!
Upcoming Events:
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)More events coming soon! All events are open to guests, unless otherwise mentioned. Feel free to join us! If you ever have questions, please email inquiries@siliconvalleyrotary.com
What would you like to do?
Hey Members! Let us know what you want to do by posting in our members-only Facebook Group (if you don’t have access, please request it with Webmaster Mitty). Remember, you’re only taking advantage of the full impact of Rotary when you’re stepping up to get involved.
Happy Dollars: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!This section is usually updated on the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Rory Olsen made a $20 donation.Great weather here in Houston.
Brian Liddicoat made a $15 donation.Super-proud of my 7th grade son Richard: worked really hard this year and got an academic award last night for a good GPA all year.
Anonymous made a $10 donation.
Monique Ziesenhenne made a $25 donation.My daughter graduated from LSU Health Sciences and is an RN! Please donate to polio plus.
Anonymous made a $50 donation.I'm happy to have found the eClub of Silicon Valley. I have enjoyed the last 4 weeks of meetings and the wonderful presentations.
Share your happy dollars thoughts with us and help with doing good around the world.
Selected Comments
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select a few comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are the comments selected from last week’s meeting.
Heather Shaw said:Keith thank you again for sharing your wonderful pictures and makes me want to revisit YosemiteCharmaine thank you for sharing your insights. It has given me some tools for my next difficult conversation
Helena Pleinert said:A particularly nice presentation! Very relevant in all areas of life...
ShagsCA said:What a treat - three videos!! Not a coffee drinker, but that was a fascinating and inspiring story. And Nate - your tours are always interesting, for sure. Great program - thanks again, Charmaine!
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!
Program: Fundamentally Fixing Math Education
Speaker: Conrad Wolfram
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others. Special thanks to member Roger Plested for leading our club's Programs Committee in finding us amazing speakers each week.
This week's speaker is Conrad Wolfram, a physicist, mathematician, and technologist. He is Strategic Director and European co-founder/CEO of the Wolfram group of companies - described as the ‘Computation Company’ and uniquely operating at the intersection of computation, data and knowledge. Wolfram technology and consulting solutions drives innovation in data analytics, software development and modelling from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, in industries as diverse as medicine, finance and telecoms. Wolfram technologies include Mathematica software, the Wolfram|Alpha knowledge engine (powering knowledge answers for Apple's Siri), Enterprise Private Cloud and the Wolfram Language.Conrad is also a leading advocate for a fundamental shift of maths education to become computer-based or alternatively introduce a new core subject of computational thinking. He founded computerbasedmath.org (CBM) and computationalthinking.org to drive implementation of this change. The movement is now a worldwide force in re-engineering the STEM curriculum. Conrad regularly appears in the media to talk about subjects ranging from the future of the web to 21st century education. He holds degrees in natural sciences and maths from University of Cambridge,
Additional ResourceYou can learn more about Conrad's work at:
Share your thoughts or ask our speaker a question in the comments at the bottom of this meeting page!
Upcoming Program Recording Schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always https://zoom.us/j/5104080000. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
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