Vedic Mathematics Newsletter No. 101


A warm welcome to our new subscribers.

Vedic Mathematics is becoming increasingly popular as more and more people are introduced to the beautifully unified and easy Vedic methods. The purpose of this Newsletter is to provide information about developments in education and research and books, articles, courses, talks etc., and also to bring together those working with Vedic Mathematics. If you are working with Vedic Mathematics - teaching it or doing research - please contact us and let us include you and some description of your work in the Newsletter. Perhaps you would like to submit an article for inclusion in a later issue or tell us about a course or talk you will be giving or have given. If you are learning Vedic Maths, let us know how you are getting on and what you think of this system.


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This issue’s article “My First Workshop” is from Nathan Annenberg a retired math coach, now an active part-time math consultant working for a private university that sends him out to reinvigorate math programs in the New York City public schools.


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NEWS
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TEACHER TRAINING COURSE IN THE PHILIPPINES

The first Vedic Mathematics Teacher Training Course in the Philippines conducted by the Vedic Mathematics Academy, UK in cooperation with the MSC Institute of Technology recently ended and was a huge success with 21 students passing, 3 of them with distinction.
In his congratulatory message to the newly accredited teachers, Trainer Sir Kenneth Williams said he was delighted to see the interest and enthusiasm for Vedic Mathematics. “There is such a need for a more unified and enlightened approach to the teaching of mathematics nowadays, and this is what the Vedic system can offer,” Williams added.
One of the course participants, Emmanuel Nadela, former chairman of the Mechanical Engineering department, CIT University in Cebu City has this to say:
“Vedic Math can enrich not only Math education in the country (Philippines) but the whole educational system as well. This is because Vedic Math teaches the students how to think and maximize their brain power vs. the calculator. The more they develop their brain power, the more they gain self-confidence. And the more they believe in themselves the more they become successful in their studies.
 
“I would highly recommend this course not only to my co-teachers but to parents as well.”
 
Most participants also expressed their willingness to join the Vedic Mathematics Association of the Philippines so that they can help promote VM not only among teachers but also among parents who in real life are the children’s first teachers.
 
Because of the very encouraging responses, more courses, including the Advanced Diploma in Vedic Mathematics course will be offered in the future.
 
The next Teacher Training course is scheduled to start on June 6, 2015. You may send your inquiries to Virgilio Y. Prudente at or 0917 500 4763/ 0928 506 4518



TEACHER TRAINING COURSE IN NEW DELHI

A Vedic Mathematics Teacher Training course has also just ended in New Delhi, India. This was also immensely successful with 4 students, 2 getting a distinction. It was started on 15th Feb 2015. It is so successful that all of them have started teaching Vedic Maths. Next batch is planned to start from 15th June 2015. Duration: 9 Weeks
Mode: Classroom Coaching. Frequency: Two sessions of 3 hours per week
Venue: Mind Mantras, 53/6 first floor, Vedic Marg, Ashok Nagar, New Delhi -110018.
Contact details: Kuldeep Singh - Mobile 09999996279, Email :



NEW COURSE ON APPLIED MATHEMATICS

This shows applications of Vedic Mathematics in some areas of Applied Mathematics. It is a 2-week online course and you can see details here:
http://courses.vedicmaths.org/Applied%20Course.asp



NEW COURSE ON CALCULUS

This course approaches Calculus in a new and simple way. Far from being a difficult subject it is seen to be delightfully easy. Only a knowledge of graph work, gradients and basic algebra is needed, so anyone (including children) who have covered that work can take the course or parts of it. The 4-week course starts on 29th June and you can see further details here:
http://courses.vedicmaths.org/Calculus%20Course.asp



COURSES AT THE VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY

Since we now offer several courses a new area has been started which you may like to take a look at. The main page is here:
http://courses.vedicmaths.org/Online%20Courses.asp
You can see the seven courses available and how they are related to one another in a single diagram.



THREE  NEW ONLINE JOURNAL ARTICLES

1) ‘Vedic Mathematics’ by Dr S. K. Kapoor. This shows that the organization  format of Ganita Sutras runs parallel to the organization format of Sakala Rig-Ved Samhita, the source Vedic scripture.

2) ‘Extension of Method of Computing Squares of Two Digit Numbers’ – by Rohan Chandra. This shows an easy way to square 2-digit numbers when the last digit is over 5.

3) ‘Power of Numbers’ by Sanjay Dixit. Finding powers of two, three and four digit numbers using the binomial theorem.

See:
http://vedicmaths.org/resources/journal-of-vedic-mathematics



CROWNING GEM COURSE

This course shows how to find powers and roots of numbers and solve quadratic, cubic etc. equations – all with a single application of the Vertically & Crosswise formula. The course is continuously open so you can join any time.
http://courses.vedicmaths.org/PRE%20Course.asp



VM CONFERENCE IN BANGKOK

This is scheduled for 29th, 30th June 2015 as part of the 16th World Sanskrit Conference. Several papers will be presented and discussed.
http://conference.vedicmaths.org/2015-06%20Bangkok%20Conference.asp
We will bring you the details after the event.



TALK WITH 700 TEACHERS AT SAN PABLO CITY, THE PHILIPPINES

Virgilio Y. Prudente, President of the MSC Institute of Technology and a Certified Vedic Mathematics Teacher was recently invited to speak at the plenary session of the 3-day In-Service Training (INSET) of Math Teachers in the Division of San Pablo City, Region IV-A, Philippines last April 29, 2015.

Speaking before 700 elementary and high school teachers, Mr. Prudente showed how the Vedic vertically and crosswise method of multiplying multi-digit numbers when taught in the early grade levels will greatly help students when they begin to take up algebra especially in multiplication and division of polynomials.

Examples finding the products of 2nd degree or even longer polynomial using one line solutions which were later verified using the digit sum methods were widely appreciated.

The participants were particularly amazed when polynomial division using binomial divisors was shown.

The talk started with a short discussion of the history, features and Sutras of Vedic Math.



"THERE'S A MATH TEACHER IN THE HOUSE" – from Veronica S. Prudente

My sister and I have conducted 2 seminars for parents and teachers (1 this April and 1 just last Saturday, May 16). It's called "There's a Math Teacher in the House" and the seminar is day-long, from 9 am to 5 pm.  

We hope to empower the parents to help their children learn Math or at least love Math. Topics discussed included learning styles, Subtraction by Nikhilam, Creating Zeroes/ Completing the Whole, Base Multiplication, Operations on Fractions, Using the Average (Difference of 2 Squares), Pythagorean Theorem, and Multiplying by 9s and 11s.
 
We had 6 participants last April and 31 participants yesterday. Most, if not all, had a great time learning the techniques. Some were very happy that they can finish 30 items correctly given a limited time. Our emphasis for the talk was to create a strong number sense and promoting natural maths, using methods that are innate to us.
 


RICK BLUM IN THE NEWS

http://www.thevillagesdailysun.com/news/in_todays_daily_sun/article_d4d1c1c2-fd0a-11e4-89af-a39b0181f5b4.html



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CORRESPONDENCE
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From Dr.Prabha Rastogi
This newsletter has provided a nice platform to study and spread the ancient knowledge of mathematics to the world. It is not only useful for arithmetic calculations but higher level also. Quadratic and cubic equations can also be solved easily using vedic maths. There are many methods of finding squares of numbers.
                                                                                                                            


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ARTICLE for VM Newsletter 101
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My First Workshop

by Nathan Annenberg

Today I led my first workshop since graduating all your courses. It was at a Holiday Inn located in a small resort town halfway from NY City to the Canadian border. The sponsoring organization is an association of teachers of prison inmates in New York State. Months earlier, I had applied to lead two workshops: 1) Using VM to empower  teen inmates to pass the TASC (Test to Assess Secondary Completion) i.e. a high school equivalency exam   2) the second was using VM to master the 4 basic operations (for prison inmates who have not reached TASC readiness level) Unfortunately, due to schedule issues, I was given the basic ops workshop only (but I made sure that was not the last word).

        I was given 1 hour 15 minutes to accomplish a heady goal - showing how VM can enrich the learning of all 4 operations. I knew this would not be nearly enough time to do what I wanted, so I taught the general  cases only, and left the special cases out.

1) To motivate the teachers of the truly slower inmates, I showed a purely tactile-kinesthetic way to master the times tables - no intimidating mechanical rote memory here! Up to 5 X 5 - I introduced my self-discovery array method as I had described in my book. Instead of spoon-feeding the student to passively absorb different arrays for the times facts, he is given a certain composite number amount of counters (beans, bingo chips, etc.) He is responsible for finding all the arrays that work  i.e. all rows the same - no extra counters left, and form his own number facts. From there, we deduce out the 4-fact families. You then sprinkle in some prime numbers to see the contrast, i.e. the impossibility of getting more than two factors: itself and one, which should also be self-discovered.
2) Above 5 X 5 - counters will start getting cumbersome - so I introduced the Russian Peasant finger multiplication. That went over really well, though I was surprised. a few grown adults had to do it a few times with my intervention to really get it.

        We then hit each of the 4 operations with VM. (I isolated out the beginning times table activities because I knew that when I started VM multiplication per se later in the workshop - it would be a huge effort - so better get the foundation out of the way first.)
        Addition - I stressed left-to-right thinking, and began with expanded notation addition, to develop place value awareness. Then I switched to Vedic carrying, first written out, then purely mental, with the written out part as a referent, or perhaps umbilical cord to precede final independent purely mental solving.
       Subtraction - Classic bar-number stuff, but first I did prelim activities of the concept of a negative number. I pushed hard how VM saved all the trouble of crossing out and borrowing. The class really came alive when I got to “all from 9 and the last from 10” for consecutive bar digits.
       Multiplication- I revisited above 5 X 5 this time with the Multiply near base 10, in this sequence: deficiencies only, excesses only, then mixed deficiency with excess. They were ecstatic. I then did this sequence: 1 digit X 2 digits, then 1 digit X 3 digits, first left to right expanded notation, then left to right Vedic carries, then finally purely mental with VM. Only when I was sure there was some mastery and confidence with mental VM multiplying with one of the factors as 1 digit, did I switch the class to “vertically-crosswise” for 2 digits X 2 digits. By now, I dropped the expanded notation transition, and was totally in VM. Some of the slower teachers needed time to mentally get that double crosswise step, so I assured them that they could practice writing that part until the mental got easier. (I had to be careful not to lose them.)
        Division: I started with one-digit short division - not purely Vedic, but I good way to transition to VM, because it was horizontal in orientation. I then started flag division, and stressed to them the amazing convenience of splitting up the divisor into two separate digestible pieces. They REALLY liked that. I originally was going to make this a four-phase sequence.
1) Low ones digit for complication free VM flag division
2) Higher ones digit - midrange  (ex 3 through 7) which would lead to inevitable negative partial differences. Avoid by deliberately lowering the quotient digit by 1 (or perhaps more) so partial difference is positive
3) Midrange digits again, but this time embrace the negative partial digit and divide - not scary at all since you are adding (i.e. subtracting a negative)
4) Finally - very high ones digit - 8 or 9. Simply turn divisor into its bar number version

        Alas, my 75 minutes ran out after phase 2.

        Results: As luck would have it (good luck), one of the conference organizers had been sitting in the classroom for most of the session. She came up to me after it was over and immediately asked me if I could come again next year. Of course I accepted.
       There were 12 participants, each given an evaluation sheet to fill out. Using 5 criteria, they checked 1 for excellent   2 for good, 3 for fair, and 4 for not satisfactory
9 of the 12 gave me perfect ones. Even with the other 3, my average per criterion was 1.23.
                      There was also a comment section after the numerical evaluation. I was really touched when some said it was the best course of the entire 3-day event. You see, I was working under a handicap. I had asked for a large white board with dry-erase markers. Instead I was given a smaller bulky pad of chart paper with permanent markers. I made the best of it, but one student commented they should have given me an overhead projector. One other teacher who had not given me all ones commented “slow down!” I must admit - I did cover a huge amount. These were the only negative comments I got. Many of the other instructors had fancy software-driven Smartboards, and PowerPoint like presentations. This was not enough to overtake the power of the VM I was sharing, and with zero technology.

             I mentioned earlier that I would have the last word on the cancelled TASC workshop. As everyone was preparing to leave, I asked how many wanted to learn TASC also. Almost all raised their hand. I gave them my email address and told them if they asked me, I would upload to them all my preparatory notes for that workshop. I also asked them how many wanted to continue learning VM? Almost unanimous hands up.
I was relaxing after the workshop in the motel before my long drive back to New York City. One of the participants dropped by and told that the inmates he deals with have such low self-esteem. He continued that with my VM workshop, he finally had a weapon to overcome this obstacle. He was so grateful. (I remember Rick Blum telling me similar experiences with his workshops.)

 All in all - a pretty satisfactory experience.


End of article.
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Editor: Kenneth Williams

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19th May 2015