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General Math
Mathematics can be said to be the science of patterns. These patterns
can be real or imagined, visual or mental, static or dynamic, qualitative
or quantitative.
Mathematical patterns can be found everywhere--in the physical universe,
in the living world, or even in our own minds.
Sample some of the following activities to learn more about mathematics.
Places To Go
The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out
about math
WebMath
Visit the Discovery School and use their great WebMath section. You can
choose from different math subjects and even enter your own math problem
to find a step-by-step tutorial of how to solve that problem.
SchoolHouse
Rock
Spend time at this cyber schoolhouse and listen to the audio file of that
catchy Multiplication Rock tune that used to be a part of Saturday morning
television.
FunSchool
Travel to the FunSchool and find math games and activities.
MathMagic on
the Web
Travel to the land of MathMagic and learn how students can participate
in these online math activities that range in difficulty from kindergarten
to 12th grade.
MegaConverter
Travel back in time to places where they used talents, konas, okas, and
other ancient measurements. Use this online converter to find out equivalent
weights and measures. Ancient measures are just one of the categories
at this useful site. Others include area, density, energy, force, wind
chill, and many more.
Lemonade
Stand
Visit this lemonade stand in cyberspace and learn about the mathmematics
and economics of supply and demand.
Mayan
Math
Travel to ancient Mesoamerica and spend time with the Mayans. They developed
their own unique method of mathematics that was centered on a base number
of 20.
Tower
of Hanoi
Visit the imaginary Tower of Hanoi. The Tower of Hanoi is really a puzzle
that was invented by the French mathematician Edouard Lucas in 1883. In
looking for a solution, students learn the basics of algorithms.
A
Chronology of the SI Metric System
Travel back to 18th century France and learn about the origins of the
metric system.
Roman
Numeral Conversion
Visit ancient Rome and learn about their system of notation. Roman numerals
are still used today for a few purposes such as numbering pages and some
dates. The common basic symbols are I (1), V (5), X (10), L (50), C (100),
D (500), and M (1000). From this site, you can easily convert back and
forth from Arabic to Roman numerals.
NCTM
Illuminations
This Thinkfinity
website, created in conjunction with the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics), provides a wealth of resources
designed to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics.
Patterns in Mathematics
Mathematics might be described as the “the science of patterns.”
As this site illustrates, however, patterns are much broader—they
can be observed in logic and words as well as numbers. They can be sequential,
spatial, temporal, and even linguistic. The NCTM recognizes the importance
of patterns in its publication Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for
School Mathematics (1989): “Patterns abound in our world. The mathematics
curriculum should help sensitize students to the patterns they meet every
day and to the mathematical descriptions or models of these patterns
and relationships.” 
People To See
Ask
Dr. Math - Elementary Level
Ask
Dr. Math - Middle School Level
Ask
Dr. Math - High School Level
Get to know Dr. Math. He runs a question and answer service for math students
and their teachers. Questions are submitted to him via a web form. Don't
miss the archives of previously asked questions and answers. It is a mathematical
treasure. Ask students some of the same questions submitted to Dr. Math
and then compare their answers to his.
Biographies
of Women Mathematicians
Meet women who have made a contribution to the science of mathematics.
MathStories.com
Hang out with Harry Potter, the Three Little Pigs, and Huckleberry Finn.
This fun site has math story problems based on children's books. You'll
also find seasonal/holiday-related math story problems. The goal of this
web site is to help students in grades 1-8 improve their math problem-solving
and critical thinking skills. It has over 4000 math word problems for
students to solve.
The Glossary of
Mathematical Mistakes
Meet people who make mathematical mistakes such as advertisers, the media,
reporters, and politicians. You can read about the "Mistake of the Month"
and browse through the archives of great, past math mistakes.
Scientific
American: A Century of Mathematics
Meet the people who have influenced the science of math over the past
century.
Stanley
Park Chase
Meet Dexter the dog. He has buried his tasty bone in Stanley Park, and
students can use their multiplication skills to help him locate his dinner.
U.S. Metric
Association (USMA), Inc.
See the people at the US Metric Association. Find out if they're disappointed
that the United States never officially adopted the metric system even
though most of the other countries of the world use it.
The
Abacus : The Art of Calclulating with Beads
Meet the ancient Babylonians who probably developed the first abacus.
This all-encompassing site has excellent information about the history
of the abacus as well as instructions on how to do abacus calculations.
Read about a contest that was held that pitted an abacus expert against
someone with a calculator.
Biography
of Leonardo Fibonacci
Get to know Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci. He was an Italian mathematician
who developed the famous Fibonacci pattern.
Measurements
Converter
Chat with your favorite student. If they are worried about spending 2
hours doing homework, tell them that 2 hours is only .0833333 days or
.0002282 years or .0000023 centuries. This interactive website converts
not only time, but also volume, speed, temperature, weight, and others.
Things To Do
MathMagic
Sign your class up to participate in a MathMagic activity. MathMagic is
a K-12 telecommunications project developed in El Paso. It provides motivation
for students to use computer technology while increasing problem-solving
strategies and communications skills. MathMagic posts challenges in each
of four categories (K-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12) to trigger each registered
team to pair up with another team and engage in a problem-solving dialog.
When an agreement has been reached, one solution is posted for every pair.
MathMastery
Explore this site whose goal is to helpstudents, teachers, and parents
learn, practice, and understand essential math skills.
AAA Math
Find 25 different math topics from addition to statistics. Each topic
has its own interactive practice and challange games.
Online
Pattern Blocks
Discover the wonderful patterns and designs that can be created with this
online pattern program. You will find four shapes on the left of the screen
that can be dragged into the working area. Which patterns could be repeated
over and over again in the plane?
Math
in Daily Life
According to this site, "When you buy a car, follow a recipe, or decorate
your home, you're using math principles. People have been using these
same principles for thousands even millions of years, across countries
and continents. Whether you're sailing a boat off the coast of Japan or
building a house in Peru, you're using math to get things done." Help
students discover the ways that math can help us in our daily lives.
MathGoodies
Browse through interactive math lessons, homework help, worksheets, puzzles,
message boards, and more. This site has over 400 pages of free math activities
and resources for students, teachers, and parents.
National
Center for Education Statistics:Crunch
Choose "Challenge" from the menu to find a math teaser of the week. Scrolling
down the page will reveal the answer to the teaser, and you can browse
through past teasers as well. From this site, you can also take an online
quiz called "Mathematicians
Are People Too" to learn about famous math individuals.
Math
Mayhem
Let students practice their math skills with these fast-paced online math
activities. This is part of the LearningPlanet site that also has activities for other curricular areas.
Cool Math 4 Kids
Play Arith-Mattack and see how many math problems you can answer correctly
in 60 seconds. This engaging site has many other online math activities
in a variety of areas.
AIMS
Puzzle Corner
The goal of the AIMS Puzzle Corner is to provide teachers with a variety
of interesting puzzles that can be used to create an online mathematical
learning environment. Explore these monthly puzzles. Solutions to the
puzzles appear the month following the puzzle's introduction.
Professor Freedman's
Math Help
Find ten ways to help students reduce math anxiety.
WWW
Unit Converter
Use this interactive site to quickly and easily make conversions for area,
length, density, temperature, volume, speed, etc.
The
Prime Pages
A prime number is a positive integer that is not divisible without remainder
by any integer except itself. The numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, and
19 are prime numbers. Have students discover the one hundred largest known
primes.
21st
Century Problem Solving
Help students gain a logical, consistent approach to problem solving that
applies across the curriculum and at all grade levels
What
Good is Math?
Help students find out how math can aid us in our everyday life.
Word
Problems for Kids
Find dozens of word problems for students in grade 5 through 12.
Cook
Metric
Mix up a batch of Metric Brownies. You'll need 60 ml of butter, 240 ml
of white sugar, and 56 grams of unsweetened chocolate. You'll also need
to find
out what to do if the recipe indicates to bake the brownies at 180
degrees centigrade.
Necklace
in a Box
Solve a math mystery.
Making
Patterns
Make patterns with this online interactive tool. It is great for creating,
comparing, and viewing multiple repetitions of patterns.
MegaMathematics
Locate games and activities to use with lessons on graphing and other
math concepts.
UBUYACAR
Participate in this problem-solving project where students must calculate
what their annual salary would have to be in order to afford a car.
Fibonacci
Numbers and the Golden Section
Fibonacci numbers follow a pattern or sequence like 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,
13, 21, 34 where each term is defined as the sum of its two predecessors.
Discover how this pattern occurs in nature. People who like Fibonacci
numbers are serious about those numbers and sometimes join the Fibonacci
Association and read the periodical, The
Fibonacci Quarterly so that they don't miss one iota of current Fibonacci
information.
Math.Com
Send students to get help in many areas such as math practice, test preparation,
study tips, etc. This site calls itself "the next best thing to a great
math teacher." Teachers can find lesson plans and classroom resources.
Smile
Program Mathematics Index
Explore this ollection of almost 200 single concept lessons. These lessons
may be freely copied and used in a classroom but they remain the copyright
property of the author.
Brain Teasers
Find weekly math puzzles to use with a variety of grade levels. It's part
of Houghton Mifflin's Education
Place.
FunBrain
Play Math Baseball, MathCar Racing, Place Value Puzzler, Soccer Shootout
(a fraction game), Measure It, and other online math games.
A
Dictionary of Units
Figure out the calculations you have to perform to convert meters into
yards. This site is full of equations for many kinds of conversions in
the areas of length, area, volume, mass, temperature, density, pressure,
speed, etc.
Helping
Your Child Learn Math
Refer parents to this U.S. government publication that helps students
explore math in their daily lives. It's part of the U.S.
Department of Education of website that has many helpful publications.
Metric
System Unit System of Measurement
Learn the basics of the metric system
Free
Worksheets
Need emergency math assignments to leave for a substitute? This site has
thousands of free, printable worksheets. It's part of the SchoolExpress site that also contains many printable puzzles and crosswords.
Pi Trivia
Game
Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The
ratio is the same for all circles and is approximately 3.1416. Use this
site to test your pi knowledge with 25 pi-related questions.
Interactive
Mathmatics Online
Choose activities in the areas of algebra, geometry, calculus, etc.
Elementary Problem
of the Week
Solve weekly math problems.
Cut
the Knot : Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles
Try out dozens of interactive puzzles and games in many different areas
and levels of math. This is part of the Cut
the Knot website that contains many other math activities as well.
A+ Math
Help students improve their math skills with interactive flash cards and
math puzzles.
Aims
Education Puzzle Corner
Aims Education posts a student-oriented math puzzle to its site each month.
Solutions to the puzzles appear the month following the puzzle's introduction.You
can choose from the Puzzle of the Month for 2000 or select puzzles from
previous years back to 1995.
Mathematics
Lessons
Choose from a dozen engaging mathmatics activities in the areas of geometry,
calculus, algebra, etc.
Common
Equivalent Weights and Measures
Find out metric and US equivalents to common units of measurement. For
example, if you live on a hectare of land, you will want to know that
it is equivalent to 10,000 meters^2 or 2.471 acres. And if you pick a
peck of peppers, you can find out that it is equivalent to 8.809 liters
of peppers or 8 quarts of peppers.
Math
League
Use this help resource for students in grades 4 through 8. Choose from
topics such as ratio and proportion, decimals, whole numbers, exponents,
fractions, positive and negative numbers, etc.
Family
Corner : Figure This
Print math brochures (in great pdf format) that cover a variety of math
challenges that parents and children can work on at home. These are Many
of the printable challenges are also available in Spanish.
Department
of Mathematics : John Handley High School
Find pertinent math poetry, math lesson plans, a problem of the week,
and math jokes.
PI
by Harvey L. Carter
in "The Lure of the Limerick" by W.S. Baring-Gould
Tis a favorite project of mine
A new value of pi to assign.
I would fix it at 3
For it's simpler, you see,
Than 3 point 1 4 1 5 9.
Have students write their own math poetry.
Help
for Math Anxiety
Outline tips for students to help them be successful with math tasks.
Venn
Diagrams for Boolean Logic
Whether students realize it or not, they are using Boolean logic when
they search for information in most internet search engines. Help them
understand the process the goes on "behind the scenes" in search engines.
MathRealm
Discover MathRealm, an online mathematics learning environment featuring
lessons, exploration activities, tools, and a learning community. MathRealm
is also a class management system that allows educators to create an online
syllabus that links directly to lessons and activities, develop tests
and worksheets, and track the performance of individual students.
SCORE Mathematics
Choose "Real World Mathematics" from the menu to find a collection of
practical math activities.
Math Central
Find resources from this website where mathematics educators can share
teaching ideas and lesson plans.
Fun School
Early
Childhood Where Learning Begins : What Is Mathematics?
Guide parents to concepts to help their children with early math literacy
such as problem solving, communication, reasoning, and connections.
Teaching
Mathematics in the Middle and Secondary Schools
Find 25+ lessons geared around a variety of mathematical topics.
Teacher Resources
Online activities are a listing of internet
sites with fun, interesting, and educational tasks attached to each one.
(You can learn how to use this WWW
Activities tool created by UEN for Utah educators).
Virtual Field Trips are teacher and student-created
tours of curricular topics. (You can learn how to use this UEN Virtual
Field Trip tool created by UEN for Utah educators).
Lesson Plans/Webquests
Bibliography
- Alexander, Ruth Bell. Number Jugglers Math Game Book . New York :
Workman Publ., 1998.
- Alice in Numberland : Fantasy Math. Alexandria, Va. : Time-Life for
Children, 1993.
- Atkins, Robert A. Essential Math : Basic Math for Everyday Use. Hauppauge,
N.Y. : Barron's, c1994.
- The Case of the Missing Zebra Stripes. Alexandria, Va. : Time-Life
for Children, c1992.
- D'Amico, Joan. The Math Chef : Over 60 Math Activities and Recipes
for Kids. New York : J. Wiley, c1997.
- Devlin, Keith J. Mathematics, the Science of Patterns : Rhe Search
for Order in Life, Mind, and the Universe. New York : Scientific American
Library, c1994.
- Fisher, Ann Richmond. Listen up! Math : Activities to Improve Math
and Listening Skills.Cathage, IL : Teaching & Learning Company,
c1994.
- From Head to Toe : Body Math. Alexandria, Va. : Time-Life for Children,
c1993.
- Gardner, Robert. Math in Science and Nature : Finding Patterns in
the World Around Us. New York : Franklin Watts, c1994.
- Gardner, Robert. Math & Society : Reading Life in Numbers. New
York : Franklin Watts, 1995.
- The House That Math Built : House Math. Alexandria, Va. : Time Life
for Children, c1993.
- How Do Octopi Eat Pizza Pie? : Pizza Math. Alexandria, Va. : Time-Life
for Children, c1992.
- King, Andrew. Exploring Numbers. Brookfield, Conn. : Copper Beech
Books, 1998.
- King, Jerry P. The Art of Mathematics. New York : Plenum Press, c1992.
- Kogelman, Stanley. The Only Math Book You'll Ever Need. New York :
HarperCollins Publishers, c1995, 1994.
- Look Both Ways : City Math. Alexandria, Va. : Time-Life for Children,
c1992.
- MacNeal, Edward. Mathsemantics : Making Numbers Talk Sense. New York
: Viking, 1994.
- Maganzini, Christy. Cool Math : Math Tricks, Amazing Math Activities,
Cool Calculations, Awesome Math Factoids, and More. [Los Angeles,
Calif.] : Price Stern Sloan, c1997.
- Motz, Lloyd. Conquering Mathematics : From Arithmetic to Calculus.
New York : Plenum Press, c1991.
- The Mystery of the Sunken Treasure : Sea Math. Alexandria, VA : Time-Life
for Children, 1993.
- Piccirilli, Richard S. Mental Math : Computation Activities for Anytime.
New York : Scholastic Professional Books, c1994.
- Play Ball : Sports Math. Alexandria, Va. : Time Life for Children,
c1993.
- Pterodactyl Tunnel : Amusement Park Math. Alexandria, VA : Time-Life
for Children, 1993.
- Right in Your Own Backyard : Nature Math. Alexandria, Va. : Time-Life
for Children, c1992.
- Salvadori, Mario George. Math Games for Middle School : Challenges
and Skill-builders for Students at Every Level .Chicago : Chicago Review
Press, c1998.
- See You Later Escalator! : Mall Math. Alexandria, Va. : Time-Life
for Children, c1993.
- Seiter, Charles. Everday Math for Dummies. Foster City, CA : IDG Books
Worldwide, c1995.
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