About

Author: Jim Olsen (James R. Olsen)

Brief author description: I teach at Western Illinois University & have a great wife and 3 great children. I consider myself a Christian, family member, teacher, athlete, and scholar.  I taught HS math in the public schools for 10 years. I have been a teacher educator in the Mathematics Department at Western Illinois University since 1994.  More Info on Dr. O here.

Purpose of this Site: The purpose of this site is to post information related to 2D and 3D  diagrams, figures, models, and visualization.

Title of this Site: B3D = The Beauty of Three-Dimensional Visualization.

Intent: Visualization (in 2- and 3-dimensions) is very useful in school and in life.  Visualization abilities, like number sense, is now something that can be learned in a short period of time and is hard to teach directly.  Visualization (like number sense) abilities are gained over time by noticing things.  My intent is to post information on this site that will help people notice things – thereby improving visualization abilities.

I’m not-throwing-stuff-at-the-wall Disclaimer: This website will grow gradually and may never be comprehensive. This is to be carefully curated. (For a wall with stuff on it look at my Pinterest or here or here.)

Intended Audience: This site is created for anyone from elementary students threw adults and mathematicians who have a love for the three-dimensional (and to a lesser degree, the two-dimensional–borderline pun).

Initiation Date and Aspiration: This site was created April 2015.  I have been making web pages since 1999 (see other webpages below). I expect to maintain this website off and on for at least the next 8 years.

Blog Aspect: I do not have a great need to regularly have a platform to ‘say my piece.’  However, it is useful, from time to time, to discuss current trends in mathematics education. Therefore, this site will include occasional weblog postings related to mathematics education. I welcome comments from viewers.  (My twitter account will have a more steady stream of quips, comments, and links.)

Some of My Beliefs: In 2014 the NCTM published a book, titled Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All.  I believe (support) the 8 Mathematics Teaching Practices and the 5 Guiding Principles for School Mathematics. These (best) teaching practices and guiding principles can be seen in the Executive Summary.

What this is Not: This is not a list of lists of resources. Lists of lists are important and have been created by others and myself) elsewhere.  (See websites below.)  I intend for this site to be focused on math.

Social Media: I use (in somewhat decreasing order of significance)

Some of my other webpages and projects:

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