Themepark

patterns
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

A Chronology of the SI Metric System
Travel back to 18th century France and learn about the origins of the metric system.
Lemonade Stand
Visit this lemonade stand in cyberspace and learn about the mathmematics and economics of supply and demand.
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.
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.
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.
NCTM Illuminations
This 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.
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.
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.

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People To See

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.
Ask Dr. Math - Elementary 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.
Ask Dr. Math - Middle 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.
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.
Biography of Leonardo Fibonacci
Get to know Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci. He was an Italian mathematician who developed the famous Fibonacci pattern.
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.
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.
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.
Scientific American: A Century of Mathematics
Meet the people who have influenced the science of math over the past century.
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.

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Things To Do

21st Century Problem Solving
Help students gain a logical, consistent approach to problem solving that applies across the curriculum and at all grade levels.
A+ Math
Help students improve their math skills with interactive flash cards and math puzzles.
AAA Math
Find 25 different math topics from addition to statistics. Each topic has its own interactive practice and challange games.
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.
Common Equivalent Weights and Measures
Find out metric and US equivalents to common units of measurement.
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.
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.
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.
Department of Mathematics: John Handley High School
Find pertinent math poetry, math lesson plans, a problem of the week, and math jokes.
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.
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.
Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Section
Fibonacci numbers follow a pattern or sequence where each term is defined as the sum of its two predecessors. 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.
FunBrain
Play Math Baseball, MathCar Racing, Place Value Puzzler, Soccer Shootout (a fraction game), Measure It, and other online math games.
Making Patterns
Make patterns with this online interactive tool. It is great for creating, comparing, and viewing multiple repetitions of patterns.
Math Central
Find resources from this website where mathematics educators can share teaching ideas and lesson plans.
Roman Numerals
Explore and learn all about Roman Numerals and Numbers using this Roman numeral converter, chart, videos, games, quizzes and interesting facts.
Math Problems of the Week
Solve weekly math problems brought to you by the Math Forum.
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.
Mathematics Lessons
Choose from a dozen engaging mathmatics activities in the areas of geometry, calculus, algebra, etc.
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.
MathMagic
MathMagic provides motivation for students to use computer technology while increasing problem-solving strategies and communications skills. MathMagic posts challenges to trigger each registered team to pair up with another team and engage in a problem-solving dialog.
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.
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.
Professor Freedman's Math Help
Find ten ways to help students reduce math anxiety.
KS2 Bitesize Math
Explore this collection of of Math games and activities.
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.
WWW Unit Converter
Use this interactive site to quickly and easily make conversions for area, length, density, temperature, volume, speed, etc.

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Teacher Resources

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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.
  • Sperling, Abraham Paul. Mathematics Made Simple. New York: Made Simple Books, 1991.
  • Zeman, Anne. Everything You Need to Know About Math Homework. New York: Scholastic, 1994.