Math Links for Week Ending Sept. 11th, 2015

This is an older site but I was just reminded of it. I love interesting representations of data and in this case, not only do you have that interesting representation but you have it with a bit of health commentary. Sugar Stacks is a site that basically shows how much sugar is in various items by stacking sugar cubes in front.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://www.sugarstacks.com/

Mary at the Making Math Meaningful is always sharing an array of stuff and since it's the beginning of the year she has an activity that covers multiple posts. The premiss is based on an old story of a seagull trying to drink some water by dropping pebbles into a jar. She then goes on to have students raising the level of water in a cylindrical glass by dropping marbles into it. They then have to use that info to predict how many marbles are needed to get the water to the top. A great linear relations activity.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MFM2P
http://marybourassa.blogspot.ca/2015/09/mpm2d-day-0.html
http://marybourassa.blogspot.ca/2015/09/mpm2d-day-1-crow-pitcher.html
http://marybourassa.blogspot.ca/2015/09/mpm2d-day-2-testing-our-models-starting.html

I like this tactile tweak from the Math = Love blog. Students have to be able to classify numbers and we know that natural numbers, are also whole numbers which are also integers and they are all real numbers. So why not show that with nesting boxes? Then give the kids cards to sort
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8

http://mathequalslove.blogspot.ca/2015/09/algebra-2-skill-1-classifying-real.html


Another post from Math = Love highlights several posts that share math versions of the game Taboo. If you don't know what that game is the premiss is that you are given a card with a math word on it. Your job is to get your partner to say that word but you cannot say the other given words on the card. Check her post out for several sets of Math Taboo cards already created by others.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://mathequalslove.blogspot.ca/2015/09/math-taboo.html?m=1

This isn't really a TED talk but it was done at TED. It is an interview with the mathematician Jim Simons who turned his powers to the stock market and started a hedge fund that basically made him rich.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.ted.com/talks/jim_simons_a_rare_interview_with_the_mathematician_who_cracked_wall_street?language=en

and for a more extensive interview, look to this Numberphile video
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNznD9hMEh0

A number of posts from Yummy math focus on images (see what I did there) that relate to proportional reasoning. Check them out
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P

The first one is done in the form of a Three Act task
http://www.yummymath.com/2015/how-many-times-bigger/

This one takes an old ice cream add and asks how that would compare to now. I like that there is an index calculator to show the difference in what the dollar was worth.
http://www.yummymath.com/2015/wow-only-10-cents/

And the last one asks if the percentage upgrade is worth the extra cost.
http://www.yummymath.com/2015/should-i-buy-the-big-one-2/