Mr. L's Math » Website Resource

Make Math a Fun Summer Activity – Guest Post by Alexis Montgomery

Bill Lombard — Mon, 31 May 2010 21:06:33 +0000

Alexis Montgomery

The following is a Guest Post from Alexis Montgomery, who is a content writer for Online Degree, where you can browse through various online degree programs to find a college that suits your needs.

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Some kids are born to do math. They see the numbers on a page or a blackboard and it’s like you’re suddenly speaking their language. Others don’t seem to be able to wrap their brains around it at all. And some kids, even those with a head for numbers, may lose interest. Studies show that girls, in particular, tend to give up on mathematics sometime in middle school, whether from a lack of interest or because they become discouraged. But it’s practically guaranteed that pulling out a math book in the middle of summer vacation to do a little brushing up will bring about strong resistance from even the most dedicated pupil. So how can you keep kids on track over the long summer months without having to chain them to a desk?

The answer is online. Math, like any other subject, can be fun, especially if you make it into a game. Kids may not know it, but their brains are hard-wired to learn as much as possible from a very young age. And while they may dull their senses with TV, they can spring right back if their mind is adequately engaged. And there are a ton of online resources to help them (and you).

FunBrain is a great site for grade school and middle school kids. It has a math section (among other subjects) and you can find games by grade level and age, a handy option that is not available on many sites. If your fifth grader finds the math from his own level too easy, move him up. If he is struggling, have him return to previous exercises first to gain confidence and prepare for the harder stuff.

Another good website is Math Playground, which offers practice for younger kids, but it also caters to the high school set with algebra and trigonometry games. It may be a little more work to find the right math for your child (as it is categorized by type, rather than age or grade level), but there are a lot of options to keep it interesting, from basics like flashcards and word problems to games like Guide the Gecko (through a land of fractions) and The X Detectives (solving algebra puzzles and working with graphs). They even have links to other websites with more fun games and activities.

Play Kids Games is another one geared for younger kids, but it offers games with more of a story to them, so it may be a bit more engaging than, say, flashcards.

Whatever math level your child is at, there is sure to be a website that caters to their particular needs and interests. Using your computer as a teaching tool is a great way to get kids to see math as something fun, rather than a chore. And keeping them on track throughout the summer can make a huge difference when they return to school in the fall, not only in their retention, but in their excitement level. There’s no reason that learning math can’t be educational AND fun, and you’re sure to find both online.

GeoGebra has just received the prestigious Tech Award

Bill Lombard — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:18:34 +0000

Markus Hohenwarter receiving the Tech Award in Education for GeoGebra

More kudos for GeoGebra; I continue to share this wonderful open-source software program with others and watch them experience the joy as they see mathematics come alive with power and creativity. My students experience this on a regular basis.

From the Tech Awards website: http://techawards.org/

“The Tech Awards program inspires global engagement in applying technology to humanity’s most pressing problems by recognizing the best of those who are utilizing innovative technology solutions to address the most urgent critical issues facing our planet. People all over the world are profoundly improving the human condition in the areas of education, equality, environment, health, and economic development through the use of technology. It is the goal of The Tech Awards to showcase their compelling stories and reward their brilliant accomplishments.

The Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.

GeoGebra is open-source software available for free through the Web that enables users to dynamically experiment with mathematical concepts.

Technology can play an important role in learning mathematics. Teachers and students alike often depend on interactive technology to learn about and experiment with math.

The dynamic mathematics software GeoGebra addresses all levels of education by joining arithmetic, geometry, algebra, and calculus. It features a very clean, easy-to-use interface. Since the tool is open source, a large user community has emerged to create interactive online materials for specific subject matters or a particular educational level. Having been translated into over 45 languages, it continues to expand to offer equal information access across the globe.”

Download GeoGebra and share with others at: http://www.geogebra.org/cms/

20 Free Resources for High School Math Teachers

Bill Lombard — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:48:13 +0000

Karen Schweitzer

The following is a Guest Post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online colleges for OnlineColleges.net.

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Are you looking for new ways to present advanced mathematical concepts to your high school students? The Internet offers many free online resources for lessons, games, activities, and interactive whiteboards that math teachers can use to engage students and enhance teaching. Here is a list of 20 free resources for high school math teachers to explore:

NCTM – NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) offers lessons, practice problems, and teaching tips for high school math teachers. Teachers can also find professional development resources, journals, books, and news for educational mathematics.

TeAchnology – This comprehensive online teacher’s warehouse offers free lesson plans for use in high school math. TeAchnology also features worksheets and rubrics.

The Math Forum – The Math Forum is a huge math site that provides math resources for teachers of all grades. The site can be used by high school teachers to find lesson plans, activities, games, manipulatives, books, calculators, and more.

Math-Videos-Online.com – Teachers can use this site to find educational teaching videos for explaining difficult concepts in algebra, geometry, probability, and more.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives – The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives offers web-based concept tutorials to help with math teaching. These concept tutorials or virtual manipulatives allow your student to actually work with and visualize relationships.

Illuminations – Illuminations is an excellent site for finding activities, lessons, and standards for your math classroom. The site also features links to more than 700 math resources on the web.

Mathematics Lesson Plans – This lesson plan site features downloadable lesson plans for K-12 students. The lesson plans for high school math cover geometry and algebra.

FREE – FREE (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) offers over 100 resources for teaching algebra, geometry, data analysis, and number operations. Within this site, you will find activities, modules, lesson plans, advanced methods, and instructional units.

TheTeachersCorner.net – TheTeachersCorner.net provides math lesson plans, games, and worksheets for high school math. Teachers can also use this site to connect with others through message boards, bulletin boards, and a teacher’s lounge.

BGFL – This interactive whiteboard site features activities for high school teachers to use in their classroom. Just a few of the resources listed are Angle Estimator, Graph Generator, and Explore Co-ordinates.

Topmarks – Topmarks provides free online interactive whiteboard resources for use in algebra, statistics, geometry, and measures. Through this site, teachers can also find resources for K-12 literacy, science, biology, history, religious studies, geography, art, and music.

MathSwap – Just as the name states, MathSwap is a free place for math teachers to swap lesson plans and activities. The lessons are presented in downloadable PDFs and cover grades 7-12.

Awesome Library – The Awesome Library offers discussions, games, lesson plans, projects, and worksheets for high school math. Within the pages of this site, you can find resources for algebra, calculus, data analysis, graphing, and trigonometry.

Education World – Education World features over 400 lesson plans, activities, games, and more for advanced math. Just a few of the math concepts featured on this site are algebra, trigonometry, geometry, probability, and statistics.

Interactivate – The Interactivate site is a good place to find free online lessons for your high school math classroom. The site features 98 different lessons for numbers and operations, geometry, algebra, statistics, probability, and more.

Mathway – With over a million problems already solved, Mathway offers a way for your students to compare and understand solutions to difficult math problems. Within this free beta site you can find solutions and graphs for basic math, pre-algebra, algebra, trigonometry, pre-calculus, and calculus.

Math-Play.com – Math-Play.com features free online math games for algebra and geometry. This site also provides interactive, logic, and elementary games.

Wired Math – Wired Math offers free online games, exercises, and answers that teachers can use with their freshman students. The games are provided for number sense and numeration, linear relations, geometry, and algebra.

Wolfram Mathworld – The Wolfram Mathworld site is a comprehensive mathematics resource for teachers to find examples of concepts in algebra, calculus, geometry, probability and statistics, and topology.

Math.com – Although this site was designed for students, there are plenty of free resources for math teachers including worksheets, lesson plans, and formulas.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online degree programs for OnlineDegreePrograms.org.

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Karen has also written the following guest posts for Mr. L’s Math:

http://www.mrlsmath.com/website-resource/20-free-online-math-games-for-students/

http://www.mrlsmath.com/website-resource/free-online-math-courses-for-teachers/

http://www.mrlsmath.com/website-resource/20-free-math-resources-for-classroom-teachers/

Algebra Activities that Reach the Kids and Teach the Standards

Bill Lombard — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:34:56 +0000

I will be presenting a session at the California Math Council’s conference in southern California on 7 November, 2009 with the title of this blog article. I’ve included a link below to the conference presentation.

This session will cover several pedagogical topics that have made my students successful learners, including Conceptual Layering, as well as snippets of three popular Teacher to Teacher Press activities that illustrate these topics.

I’ll also be presenting another session about GeoGebra, the free open-source software program that is gaining wide acceptance across the country; this session will focus on addressing mathematics standards.

Here’s the link to the Algebra Activities file:

Algebra Activities that Reach the Kids and Teach the Standards

Martin Gardner – For Decades, Puzzling People With Mathematics

Bill Lombard — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:54:29 +0000

Martin-Gardner

Martin Gardner has published over 70 books and is the chief person responsible for the widespread interest in recreational mathematics. He turned 95 on 21 October, 2009 and celebrated by publishing another book. He authored the Mathematical Games column in Scientific American for 25 years. He quite possibly has introduced more people to the fun inherent in mathematics than any other person. I currently have twelve of his books, and occasionally reread one and get enthused about his topics anew.

The New York Times ran a special article on this special person recently. For more information about Mr. Gardner, see this article from Wikipedia.

First North American GeoGebra Conference – Ithaca, New York

Bill Lombard — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:08:36 +0000

The First North American GeoGebra Conference will be held 27-28 July, 2010 at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York.

I’ve been honored to be a part of the Scientific Committee for this conference. This committee has the responsibility of reviewing conference proposals. I’m looking forward to an interesting experience seeing how others use the powerful program, and also what’s in the future for this creative software.

The website above has just been created and will be updated as information becomes available. Mark you calendar for an exciting two days with fellow GeoGebra enthusiasts!

20 Free Online Math Games for Students

Bill Lombard — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:24:41 +0000

Karen Schweitzer

The following is a Guest Post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online colleges for OnlineColleges.net.

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Interactive math games can make it easier for students to grasp some of the more difficult or tedious concepts in math. The Internet is a good source of free interactive math games for students of all grade and skill levels. Here is a list of 20 math games and sites for K-12 students to explore:

APlusMath – APlusMath offers a wide range of mathematics games that cover subtraction, multiplication, division, and addition. The games are designed mostly for elementary school children, but may be useful to middle school students as well.

Gamequarium – This interactive education game site features games for K-12 graders. These games cover everything from addition to time math and serve as a helpful resource for students who are struggling with various math concepts.

Math Playground – The Math Playground features several interactive and challenging math games that students can use for improving and testing their skills. Teachers can also use several of these games with interactive whiteboards.

BBC – The Bitesize games offered by BBC are perfect for math beginners or elementary children. The games cover numbers, space, shapes, and measures.

AAA Math – The AAA Math site has a comprehensive collection of interactive games that can be used to master mathematic concepts. The games cover basic math, algebra, geometry, and graphing and are well suited to K-8 students.

Funbased Learning – Within the Funbased Learning site, students can find games and lesson plans for algebra and chemistry. The algebra games are graphing games for beginner to expert learners.

Coolmath4kids.com – Coolmath4kids.com offers a wide variety of games, brain benders, and jigsaw puzzles for improving children’s math skills. The games teach addition, subtraction, long division, multiplication, factions, and much more.

Cram Web – The Cram Web game site provides challenging games for geometry and math. The games can be timed or not and cover multiplication, division, subtraction, and addition.

Sheppard Software – Sheppard Software, an educational game site, has math games that students can use to study basic operations, place value, telling time, early math, and pre-algebra. This site also features number balls games that cover algebra I and algebra II.

SoftSchools.com – Students can find a nice collection of educational games and online practice for math at SoftSchools.com. The math games cover addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and geometry. The games are fit for pre K through middle school children.

Hooda Math – Hooda Math provides interactive geometry, arithmetic, and logic games for elementary and middle school children.

Solve My Math – With free logic games and mathematic puzzles, Solve My Math is a great place for students to have fun while improving math skills. The games are designed to simulate imagination while improving understanding of mathematical concepts.

Wired Math – The games and exercises provided by Wired Math are designed specifically for older students. Within the site, users will find games and follow up exercises for algebra, geometry, and linear relations. The games can be enjoyed online and are also compatible with interactive whiteboards.

Math-Play.com – The Math-Play.com site features games that students can use for practicing math at home or at school. The games cover elementary and middle school material as well as some high school concepts.

The Problem Site – The Problem Site features free math games and educational puzzles that are perfect for elementary students. The interactive games are a fun learning tool and support multiple players.

Numbernut.com – Whether you’re a basic or advanced math whiz, Numbernut.com has something for you. This site provides games for beginner to advanced level students.

Arcademic Skill Builders – Arcademic Skill Builders offers arcade games that teach students basic mathematical concepts. Just a few of the games on this site include Drag Race, Tug Team, and Ratio Stadium.

ClassBrain.com – This online game site features challenging math games that work to improve students’ basic math skills. Students can find games for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, coordinates, and ratios.

LightingReflex.com – LightingReflex is a fun interactive math competition where students can compete with others worldwide. The competitions offer five different areas for building your mathematics skills.

Geometry of the Ancients – Geometry of the Ancients is a free online interactive game provided by LearningWave that covers the basic concepts of geometry. This game is a great way to improve basic skills as well as critical thinking.

KenKen for Teachers & Students – a Harvard Professor Speaks Up

Bill Lombard — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:00:17 +0000

From the official KenKen site:

A lot of people are puzzled. They can’t believe that KenKen, something so delightfully addictive, so FUN, has an educational pedigree. It’s true. KenKen has academic benefits — from increasing numeracy skills and logical thinking to developing concentration, perseverance and stamina — and it has its roots in a Japanese classroom, thanks to an innovative and far-sighted educator Tetsuya Miyamoto.

And from a Harvard educator:

“I first saw KenKen in the Boston Globe in November 2008. By the time I’d finished the first puzzle I’d become completely smitten … itching to get hold of more puzzles. I couldn’t wait to show the puzzle to the math teachers in the course I teach as part of the Math for Teaching program I direct in Harvard’s Extension School. As a math teacher I’m always thinking about what it takes to capture and keep people’s attention in classes. KenKen attracts people no matter what their math background. It’s concise and elegant, and inspires people to use their mind in mathematically sophisticated ways they might not have thought possible!”
– Andrew E., PhD, Director, Math for Teaching, Harvard

If you haven’t tried KenKen yet, the beginning of school is a great time to begin. Your students will thank you, and the experience will pay dividends for years to come!

Google SketchUp – Add Spice to Your 3D Geometry Lessons

Bill Lombard — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:34:10 +0000

Google Sketchup - image from Wikipedia.org

Here’s another computer tool to bring alive 3D geometry in your classes – you may even encourage students to explore a career in design, construction, architecture, or landscaping!

You can use Google SketchUp to create, modify and share 3D models.

It was designed to be easier to use than other 3D Computer Assisted Design (CAD) programs. SketchUp can also save “screenshots” of the model in common graphics formats.

Dozens of video tutorials, an extensive Help Center and a worldwide user community mean that anyone who wants to make 3D models with SketchUp, can.

Every SketchUp model is made up of just two things: edges and faces. To build models in SketchUp, you draw edges and faces using a few simple tools that you can learn in a small amount of time. It’s as simple as that.

Because you’re working on a computer, everything you create in SketchUp has a precise dimensions. When you’re ready, you can build models that are as accurate as you need them to be. If you want, you can print scaled views of your model. You can use SketchUp’s Paint Bucket tool to paint your model with materials like colors and textures. You can use the Dimension and Label tools to add dimensions, annotations and other details to your work.

Here’s the website to take a look at Google Sketchup.

Math Students Tackle Cryptography – a New Codemaking & Breaking Curriculum

Bill Lombard — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:12:44 +0000

Vera Pless, Janet Beissinger, and Bonnie Saunders

The following is taken from a web article found on the Chicago Tribune website:

A team of University of Illinois at Chicago professors has crafted a math curriculum based on cryptography, the science of making and breaking codes. They were recently awarded a five-year, $2.5 million National Science Foundation grant to turn the lessons into an after-school program to be used across the nation.

Janet Beissinger and fellow UIC professor Vera Pless sought to harness that natural intrigue when they co-wrote “The Cryptoclub: Using Mathematics to Make and Break Secret Codes,” a 2006 narrative introducing middle school students to mathematical concepts through the encryption and decryption of codes.

As the story unfolds, students use math basics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and factors to create their own codes — as well as crack the codes crafted by their peers.

Some problems are as simple as shifting letters of the alphabet or substituting numbers for letters. Others involve complicated patterns based on exponents or division with remainders.

Beissinger said lessons in code breaking help students realize that math is an evolving field with real-world applications, not just a set of equations scrawled out in a notebook.

“Math isn’t an old subject that’s all figured out,” she said. “There are new things to discover, and they’re important things.”

Here’s a couple more resources for the classroom teacher:

The Secret World of Codes and Code Breaking

Breaking the Code – The Mathematics of Cryptanalysis

The Cryptoclub: Using Mathematics to Make and Break Secret Codes (Amazon source of the paperback book by Beissinger and Pless)