April 27, 2011
I’m Dr. Gordon Hamilton. I’m a mathematician who found a passion for K-12 mathematics classrooms. There is nothing I enjoy more than visiting classes, talking to teachers, stumping students and having them stump me.
I’ve spent three years full time as the resident mathematician in a private school in Calgary, Alberta, Canada which is where I learned about the greatest problem that teachers face: “How to deal with the spectrum of student ability?” The Math Pickle site and all of my professional development workshops aim to help teachers solve this problem.
As well as a mathematician and educator I am also a board game designer and founding member of the Game Artisans of Canada. I design many games for K-12 mathematics classrooms so these two worlds overlap.
As if that wasn’t enough, I’m also a full time husband and father to two pre-schoolers. If you think teaching 30 kids is difficult - try teaching two ;)
About the project
Math Pickle is a professional development site for K-12 mathematics teachers. It uses videos to showcase fantastic problems that deserve to be in every classroom.
The particular emphasis of the site is on inviting students, even young kids, to work on unsolved problems in mathematics. Gordon writes: "My goal, together with the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, is to establish $1,000,000 prize money for each of 13 unsolved problems of mathematics - one for each grade K-12. The prize money to be split between the person who solves the problem and their most inspirational K-12 teacher."
