Do you want the true answer or the right answer?

Iris found another mistake in her most recent math "benchmark" test.

Her school gives multiple choice assessment tests at the beginning of each trimester to determine the appropriate class assignment and then to determine if students mastered the material. This is in addition to the state-mandated tests that they will take at the end of April. The textbook publisher writes the tests. But, as Iris has already pointed out in Error! Error! Error!, the publisher is fallible.

On her last pre-Algebra benchmark test, there was a picture of an equilateral triangle and the kids are supposed to select which choice describes the figure. Both equilateral and isosceles triangles were possible choices, but saying both was not an option.

Iris had a dilemma. The true answer is both as all equilateral triangles (all 3 sides and angles the same) are also isosceles (at least 2 equal sides and angles). But the test implied that there was only one right answer.

Which should she choose?

She had to guess. In the end, she decided that the test-writer didn't realize that all equilateral triangles are also isosceles so she had better select equilateral.

Then she came home and told me about it.

Then I emailed her math teacher, who was very annoyed with the publisher for making such a bone-headed mistake. (Do the publishers employ copy-editors?)

The teacher said that all the tests would be hand-checked so that kids were not penalized, and that they would flag that question when they used the test in subsequent years. She didn't mention alerting the publisher about the mistake.

That's too bad. So I am alerting Holt, Rinehart and Winston right now that there is a problem with their California state Mathematics Course 2: Pre-Algebra materials.

Perhaps you would like to hire my ten-year-old to copy-edit for you? She's been a proven beta-tester since she was five.

Don't miss Stanley Fish's classic gem, The True Answer and the Right Answer. I do like cranky and opinionated done well. ;-)

I agree that kids need to learn the distinction between the true answer and the right answer to get along and get along in our society. But, as Hopeless but not serious pointed out in I never really liked marshmallows, we lose something as well, when we bring up kids to perform the 'right' way.

The maker's dilemma

I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have acquired for making stuff. It's really quite scary. But, occasionally, I am really happy that, when the urge to create strikes, we have enough to do just about anything.

Iris used to play imaginative games with another girl in first grade and her teacher suggested that I invite the girl over to our house to play. She mentioned that the play dates should always take place at our house because things at the other girl's house were quite rough*.

During one play date, I suggested the girls paint. Iris has two craft carts full of supplies--one for painting, another for scrap booking. We set up the paints and papers and I let the girls at it. When I walked by again, the guest asked if she could have another sheet of paper.

I pointed to the stack and told her to help herself. She painted another and then another. Iris got bored and read a book while her friend painted. I overheard them talking.

The guest asked Iris what happens when she uses up her supplies. Iris told her that I buy some more. The other girl was stunned.

I was reminded of this incident when I came home with this skort from the Lands' End clearance rack. Iris said that it fit, but she would not wear it so plain. She wanted an asymmetrical motif on the front.

I got out my stencil books and paints. None of them were what she had in mind. Then I remembered a Japanese pattern book that had some simple, but bold embroidery motifs. She found the perfect one immediately.

All I had to do was scan the motif and display it with Picasa. I moved the size slider bar until it was enlarged to just the right size. Then I traced it onto a piece of printer paper using the computer screen as a lightbox. I transferred the motif to the skirt using carbon tracing paper and a plastic Hera marker while Iris rummaged around in my tin of embroidery floss, looking for the perfect shade of blue.

I showed Iris how to do a back stitch and she went at it with surprising perseverance. When she got tired and went to bed, I finished the last ~20% for her. The project was conceived and executed in one evening because I had all the supplies on hand.

Another morning, I decided to make the Star Fragments quilt out of the book, Flying Colors. I've been dragging this poster from one home to another since 1983. I saw the George Costakis collection at Lousiana.dk and was completely blown away by the saturated colors and composition. The poster is faded now, and I wanted to put something really bright in its place. I found everything needed to complete the project in the sewing room.

I thought about cropping out the clutter, but then decided against it. There are so many commercial images of clutter-free perfection, I felt like it would be a public service to show what an actual house with children looks like.

(Lest you remark that I only have one child, have you met my husband yet? Yes, that is the Lego NXT set I wrote about in What Do Automobiles and Spacecraft Have in Common? while guest blogging for the Atlantic Technology site. Iris made that Duplo rainbow when she learned the colors of the rainbow--and their order--in kindergarten. We keep that around to remind us that red goes on the outside and violet goes in the middle. The rainbow sits on a set of nesting boxes that she used to play with as a baby. No, the stuff diet is not going well. Why do you ask?)

After I bound the quilt, I put it through the washer and dryer. While I was waiting for that to finish, I made this charity quilt top. Sometimes, I just want a brainless project that is ready to go. I always keep a few 7-minute quilt top kits stored in Ziploc bags in the sewing room. It took considerably longer than 7 minutes.

In other news, I finally recovered my ironing table. The old cover was so stained and ripped. The padding also needed new augmentation as it had compressed to the point where you can see the impressions of the metal grill underneath. I was really happy to find the perfect fabric, this sturdy African printed cotton, in my collection.

20 years ago, I had a heat-sensitive mahogany dining table that required a cotton insulator pad under the table cloth. I got rid of the table, but saved the pad--for 20 years. I must have known that I would need to recover an ironing board someday.

Using the old cover as a pattern, I cut and hemmed the replacement cover. I tried to thread a piece of string around the edge the same way as on the old cover, but I used the only thin string I had, crochet cotton. It lacks the tensile strength to allow me to gather up the cover taut. It snapped immediately, sending me to the fabric store to buy some polyester cord. I found polyester cord, but some more fabric also came home with me.

I did take a trunk full of stuff to Goodwill and another trunk load went to Iris' cousin. While we cleaned up her room, Iris found some neglected but well-loved toys. While I was taking the boxes downstairs, she built an assemblage, complete with Snap Circuit sound effects.

So her floor was clear for like, 10 seconds.

* I had previously mentioned that we moved into what realtors euphemistically call a "neighborhood in transition". The other girl was an old timer family that people like us are pushing out. She lived with her grandmother, who couldn't afford the rents here any longer. A few months later, they moved a mile to the east, where rents are lower, but the homicide rate is 10 times higher and the elementary school has a ~90% poverty rate (vs ~20% here).

Our neighborhood school was full up and she was unable to get an inter-district transfer. She attended another school for one year before she was able to get readmitted to our neighborhood school.

By then, she had completely changed. She became very quiet, didn't play imaginative games any more and had become obese. The changes occurred in just one year.

People in that neighborhood are scared to let their children play outside. Several children have been shot in gang cross-fire in recent years. Check out the excellent LA Times interactive homicide map to see the disparities. We live sandwiched between gang warfare on one side and a resort-like beach community where homes sell for $2-20 Million.

Meanwhile, we are cozy inside our home, but we are up to our eyeballs in tools for creating.

High-energy physics, p-values and the sporting life

Eric sends this link:

When you look at the data it's not some disagreement with the Standard Model, it's a nicely formed bump in the distribution that looks really like the kind of bump you'd get if a new particle was being exchanged in this process," said Fermilab's Dan Hooper. "There's a 0.1 percent chance that this is a statistical fluke. Other than that possibility that lingers, this is the most exciting new physics we've learned about in my lifetime.

Eric adds this comment:
There you have it: There is only a 10^-3 chance that this is not the most exciting new physics in his lifetime. Gosh I'd love to fade that action. Hooper suggests 1000-to-one odds, so surely he'd jump at the opportunity to put up a mere ten grand against my one grand.


BMGM adds this comment:
I think it is really sad how "new" particles are discovered whenever particle physics funding is imperiled. In this era of limits to science funding, I think it would be wise to have rational discussions of science and funding priorities.

There are actually some good uses for particle physicists outside of the academic realm. But do we need so many? And how do we match the graduates to those job openings? Or perhaps there are more optimal academic paths to train for those jobs?

I'm not just talking about "accelerator fodder"--the armies of cheap graduate students needed to run particle accelerators and sift through the data. I am also critical of ballot-box initiatives that direct science funding to trendy topics like breast cancer and stem cell research. They are worthy of research, but are they worthy of the huge sums (relative to other fields) spent on them? Students (necessarily) follow the funding and these highly politicized allocations of science funding skew our nation's available talent base for decades.

I am off to bed. Perhaps I will wake up to a functioning government?