A Really, Really Cool Website For Students Who Think They Hate Math The best resource for a student that thinks they hate math is a great teacher. But what about the best resource for that teacher? Beyond an active imagination, ability to relate to students, and an incredibly strong content knowledge themselves, it may not get much better than Numberphile . While the site is simple a crudely interactive graphic with links to videos, it has, in one fell swoop, creatively curated some of the most compelling and engaging “problems” in mathematics. Fantastic resource for bell ringers, test questions, math project-based learning ideas, or as a model for students to curate their own curiosities about the incredible–and poorly marketed–world of mathematics. It’s also, incidentally, a YouTube channel as well, from which we’ve taken a sample video below.
10 Unusual Ways to Explore Math I confess. I never really liked math. I played the school game well so I received pretty good grades, but after I passed the test (even after receiving an A in most cases), those rules, theorems and facts didn’t stick around for very long. The problem was everything was drilled into me, or as I like to think now, drilled out of me. I’m so excited that now, as an adult, I have the time and opportunity to get to know math all over again with my kids. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to take subjects traditionally taught in schools, one subject each week, and show you how they can be looked at in unusual ways. Here’s a list of ten unusual ways to look at math. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Do you have any ideas about how math is connected in unusual ways to your world? Did you like this post? Photo Credit: fdecomite
Mathletics – what’s it all about? | nhowie As a newly appointed Mathletics Lead Educator I thought I’d jot down a few points about why I thought we use this system. Mathletics (from 3P Learning) is an online Mathematics programme that we have used at BIS since 2006 with all out KS1-Ks3 (Years R-9/K-8). There are two sides to it for a student. The first is the curriculum side, which can be tied to UK/US/AUS and other curricula for a student in any year/grade (so the majority could be doing tasks related to the year you are teaching, though a teacher can individually set a students to a different year if this is necessary). Curriculum use of Mathletics The other is a more fun-based educational side, the “Live Mathletics” in which students compete against others in a timed (1 minute) answer as many questions as you can (though 3 strikes and you are out). Live Mathletics In my ICT lesson we had been working on a topic that we’d just completed, following 3 weeks of work and still had 15 minutes of the lesson left.
Dan Meyer Image by DavidErickson via Flickr There are some really great blogs out there written by maths teachers who really care about their practice. I enjoy reading their posts as they share their insight and ideas and think about how it could improve my own teaching. There is wheat and there is chaff out there. f(t) Written by the highly witty and entertaining Kate Nowak, I love this blog for lots of reasons. I find her blog a useful way of ‘keeping the big picture in mind’ rather than becoming obsessed with the details all the time. Keeping Math Simple One of the best blogs I have found discussing pedagogy in maths teaching. “This blog isn’t about making math easy because it isn’t. There are regular blogs about using Geogebra effectively in teaching maths. Typical of the quality and thought provoking posts on this blog is “Teaching algebraic thinking without the x’s“. An insightful blog, regularly updated that is well worth your attention. Math for Primates Mathematics and Multimedia dy/dan Cheers!
Math for Teaching Mathematics and Multimedia Blog Carnival #2 Hook, Line and Linker Welcome to the second edition of the Mathematics and Multimedia Blog Carnival. One of the new developments is that I am giving a title to each edition of the carnival. The title of second edition: Hook, Line and Linker . The Number 2 Before our reading spree, let us first know what is so imporant about the number 2: is the first positive even number and the only prime number that is even. is equal to (1+i)(1-i). is very special because 2×2 = 4 and 2+2 = 4. Fermat’s Last theorem: the equation xn + yn = zn has no integral solutions when n is greater than 2. Goldbach’s Conjecture: Every even number greater than 2 is the sum of two prime numbers. And the killer trivia: It takes 2 to tango (grins). Mathematics Entries Content Mathematics First, let’s have some useful basic math. Who says conditional probability is hard? American? David Pilarski or Mr. And some serious math. John D. Murray Bourne has a very clear explanation about the concept of Riemann sums posted at squareCircleZ.