MathsClass

Recently my online focus has shifted to my network of sites. This network is about making the essentials for maths teaching easier to find and more accessible.

MathsKit is a page of all those everyday resources.
MathsLinks now has over 500 online activites for maths, all categorised.
My new site, MathsFaculty is for maths teachers to share. I suspect that everyday, teachers waste time searching for, and if they don’t find, creating resources. Let’s fix that by sharing.

Each week, I’m going to use this blog to summarise what has been added across these sites.

* “This Week” is more like “recently” for this first review.

This week on MathsLinks:

Exploring Gradient in Google Earth and Autograph

12 May 2012

Derivative Calculator

7 May 2012

The Scale of the Universe 2

29 Apr 2012

Radian Measure (TANTON Mathematics)

29 Apr 2012

Projectile Motion

29 Apr 2012

Projectile Motion Applet

29 Apr 2012

Projectile Motion

29 Apr 2012

Red dragonfly mathematics challenge

27 Apr 2012

Slope Dude

27 Apr 2012

My Triangle, James Blunt on Sesame Street

25 Apr 2012

Powers of Ten

24 Apr 2012

This week on MathsFaculty:

I recently received an email from the AAMT:

National Mathematics Day is Friday 18 May and looks at codes and code-breaking — to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing.

The AAMT have a number of code-breaking exercises on their web-site: National Mathematics Day 2012.
Which reminded me to share the file below. I made this earlier in the year for a Year 7 enrichment maths program. The interactive Excel file contains six code-breaking activities.

Each year I use the TV Show, The Biggest Loser, as an application of percentages – here is a worksheet for 2012 setting out the contestant data that your students can use to perform some calculations.

I’m completing this activity earlier than normal this year, so the data is from earlier in the competition.

Also look at the 2011 version for a suggestion to do this as a computer task.

I recently used the “Locker Problem” in a Year 7 Maths Enrichment class (mixed ability). Here are some resources I used:

James Tanton’s very timely videos:
Video 1: The Demonstration
Video 2: The Explanation

There’s a widely linked Java applet
The Locker Problem
but it doesn’t work correctly for me (on a Mac).

And another visualization on Connected Mathematics.

This is not an easy problem, but hopefully by looking at the first 10 people, they may pick up on the pattern.

I’ve updated the Quick Quiz app on MathsStarters.

The app now has three quizzes, Mixed (+, −, ×, ÷), Measurement (metric unit conversion) and Percentages (common percentages).

Underneath the hood, I’ve made it easier for me to add new quizzes.

Whilst you can use the mouse to navigate through the questions and answers, you can also use the Page Down key. That is the same key used to forward slides in PowerPoint… so a remote control like this one from Jaycar can also be used.

Always happy to hear suggestions for quizzes, or feedback about problems (I haven’t had a chance to test this widely yet).