Lunch and Learn kicks off season

Phil Blatt (L.) chats with Mike Sequeira (R.), COCC math department chairperson at Lunch and Learn class. Bill Handy and Neal Wineman are in background (L.-R.).

A jam-packed Lunch and Learn class was treated to Mike Sequeira's masterful presentation "Pictures of Numbers" at the Thursday, October 3, opening of the Central Oregon Community College local education series.

Sequeira, who chairs COCC's math department, presented visual displays of graphic materials used in books, newspapers and popular media that sometime distort information.

"What is really true?" asked Sequeira. "We see graphical information every day and have to be more critical in interpreting this material. Also, it helps to know how information is displayed and what to look for."

Using examples from pain relievers, bottled water and accident statistics, he demonstrated "slanted" or misleading information.

Some information is just poorly presented and difficult for an observer to absorb.

On a more positive note, he showed clear examples of good visual information transfer. A map of the Sea of Japan, where water levels coincided with blue shadings -- lighter for shallower, darker for deeper waters, was an excellent example for easy interpretation.

An outstanding example of positive visual information transfer, perhaps the best statistical graph ever made, was the map made by Charles Minard of the losses suffered by Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign of 1812.

Starting with an army of over 400,000 men, Minard showed the end result after a bitterly cold winter of only 10,000 troops remaining. Six layers of data are presented in this astounding graphic example.

Sequeira gathered much of his data from the works of Edward Tufte, a leader in the field of information design.

An enthusiastic crowd was left with a homework assignment by Sequeira -- to gather graphic examples and bring them to his next presentation on Thursday, November 14.

His main topic that day will be "Pictures of nouns and verbs."

This was the opening of an eight-week mathematics-oriented L&L series.