Ubalblog

[  Mood: Confused ]
[ Currently: Getting ready for bed ]
I am currently attending a math teacher’s workshop at the University of Waterloo. For the next three days I am going to learn how to better integrate problem solving into my math class.

Tonight, after supper, all of us early arrivers were taken for a tour of the Perimeter Institute (PI). This is a place where academics gather to think about and discuss theoretical physics. No experimentation, they just think and talk.

This is a place that Charlie from Numbers would feel at home.

The building has been created to facilitate this kind of activity. A significant amount of the wall space has been painted with blackboard paint. This means that as you meet your friend Olga in the lounge, you can use a nearby wall or cupboard to illustrate your concept with an equation or drawing.

There are also other areas to help foster this freeflowing thought. Comfy seating has been arranged in conversation groupings that would make a designer from HGTV swoon. There are fireplaces, pooltables, artwork and expresso makers abound. There is also a baby grand piano, a gym, a basketball court, a library, and a ball hockey court.

This is the geek paradise.

The thought is that by allowing for such conversation, the physicists and other thinkers that come here will be coming up with the theories that we will prove correct in 100 years.

As part of the tour we got a lecture explaining how quantum computing works. I began to wrap my head around it a bit by the end of the lecture, but let me tell you, my brain hurts.

Fascinating stuff.

The institute holds public lectures and open houses, so if you are ever in Waterloo (that’s in Ontario, about 1.5 hours from Toronto), make a point of stopping in.