The great mathematician Archimedes is reputed to have said “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world”. If you think of the web as that lever, I am sure that used wisely, this lever can move our maths students.
There is a huge amount of information available on the web to support a rich, engaging maths program at all year levels. Everything from problem based challenges, simulations and tutorials created by inspired teachers and students to inspirational classroom blogs. So much to help you tranform learning and teaching.
SIMULATIONS
Investorville a simulation game based on the Australian Property Market.
Spent – a simulation game based around the lives of the homeless – can you budget and make ends meet?
TUTORIALS
Kahn Academy – to quote their web site “With a library of over 2,700 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 240 practice exercises, we’re on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.”
Maths Train by Eric Marcos – heaps of great videos about everything maths with many done by students.
SOME GREAT BLOGS FROM CLASS TEACHERS
http://mathsashford.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/152/
Northschool.com/maths is a site created by Robert Sbaglia, a year 5&6 teacher as Castlemaine North Primary School. He has created an online resource that enable students to work in a very independent and personalised way through a huge variety of maths challenges – all linked to the VELS progression points. So much work – and he shares it with us all.
technomaths.edublogs.org– A fantastic site by Britt Gow who teaches Year 6/7 Maths students at Hawkesdale P12 College, Victoria. A wealth of wonderful resources and lesson ideas
mrvaudrey.wordpress.com – Some amazing maths lessons here, including the famous “mullet ratio”.
Maths in the Middle – a great blog designed to share ideas for teaching maths in the middle school
Reflections in the Why – a beautiful blog of one teachers thoughts about transforming maths education special emphasis on using picture story books – with lots of examples.
PROBLEM SOLVING
The Maths Association of Victoria has a great section on problem solving with lots of links at this site:
GAMES/ CHALLENGES AND ACTIVITIES
NRich – great site that has lots of puzzels an activities for students from early to middle years.
The University Of Waterloo’s “Museum and Archive of Games” is a great resource with so many possible uses – well worth a look.
BBC – Dimensions aims to show the human scale of events. It takes important places, events and things, and overlays them onto a map of where you are. and has two sections: “How Big is it Really?” and “How many Really?”
- “How Big is it Really?” overlays historical events, important places and things over maps –this can be anywhere in the world or over kids own home town. so you can get a physical appreciation of the distances involved.For example – how big would the moon be if it was centred over Alice Springs, London, or anywhere you want to try?
- “How Many Really?” compares the number of people involved in key historical events or situations to the people kids know through Facebook or Twitter.
Mathematics in Movies is a collection of video clips from popular movies and television shows in which references to mathematics are made
The Australian Bureau of Statistics “bringing data to life” with lots of information and resources using real data including classroom activities and resources.
Real World Maths. Want to move beyond textbooks for maths to engage your student? How about harnessing the power and potential of Google Earth. This is a terrific resource from Google that has a huge range of suggestions, lesson plans, tutorials and resources for using Google Earth in your maths program
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PODCASTS TO INSPIRE!
Maths class needs a makeover.Ted Talks are always inspiring and this one by Dan Meyer only takes 11 minutes. It provides a lot of food for thought, including “why this is an amazing time to teach maths.” – I love his idea that “maths is the vocabulary for your own thoughts” – must be music to a maths teachers ears!
MATHS VIDEOS AND GAMES.
As their website tells us “Math Snacks are short animations and mini-games designed to present mathematics in a very different way. In fact, we hope these snacks don’t look like traditional math at all. Math Snacks give students, especially those who don’t particularly like math, another way to look at math concepts.”
They are fantastic and they are created by the American National Science Foundation so you can be confident about their content. Suitable for middle school and above – they are a lot of fun too.
You can get them from their blog (the link is above ) of by searching YouTube
Great site for older students full of quirky animations about …as they say..numbers and stuff. I like the one that explains maths jokes.
Brushes, Paint & I.C.T. 