teaching machines

Blackbox 1

Consider the following mysterious black box. It gobbles up values entered on the left, and spits out some result on the right. What’s going on inside it? Here’s a hint: it solves a problem that you likely solved often in middle school math classes.

Convert a C++ Exception Into a Java Exception

In Madeup, I needed an exception to propagate from C++ to Java to PHP. I was pretty certain the conventional exception mechanics wouldn’t support this, especially the leap from Java to PHP, but I think I’m wrong. On the C++ side of the JNI bridge, I catch the exception and then throw it back to Java […]

Wisconsin Teaching Fellowship Project Question

I’m participating in the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars program. This program aims to foster real scientific research on teaching and learning, an area that is typically snubbed by tenure committees at schools bigger than my own. Each fellow or scholar proposes a research question, deliberates with a team of others, spends a year studying the […]