Math Links for Week Ending Nov. 22, 2013

A new portal to house resources for K-12 mathematics has just been released. Mathies.ca is a site that houses resources for parents and students. Some are just another place to give light to things that have been around (Gap Closing, Homework Help etc) but there are also new applets available as well. Over the next few weeks I will be highlighting some of these apps. In the mean time you can look for yourself.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://mathies.ca

I really like this post on modelling sinusoidal motion. Some interesting dialog about proper modelling situations. I like the idea about having students guess the graphs of height fro various situations. And I love the animated gif of the different shaped Ferris wheel.
Curriculum Tags: MCF3M, MCR3U
http://rationalexpressions.blogspot.ca/2013/11/the-double-ferris-wheel.html



Its worth mentioning visualpatterns.org again, if only to point out that there was a slick redesign to the site. Take a look at the over 130 patterns (and even add your own).
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://www.visualpatterns.org/

I am always looking for good data sets. If you are not familiar with the game show Deal or No Deal then I think you may have been living under a rock (ha ha). Its one of those shows that is easy to play and has versions all over the world. An added bonus is that its a treasure trove of probability based math. That being said the someone has collected information about the 215 episodes that have aired in Australia. Things like the case picked, the case with the biggest prize, the deal made and other anecdotal info. For more ways to analyze it take a look at the Learn and Teach Statistics Blog. To make things a bit easier on you I have also put the data in a CSV, Google Doc and a Fathom file.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://learnandteachstatistics.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/analysis-of-deal-or-no-deal-results/

From the I Speak Math blog comes a great idea. Using games in math is a good idea. Here they have started to compile different games that could be used in a math class. Most of these can be adapted to any grade level. Maybe you have one you would like to add, you can edit the document and add it on your own. Have fun.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://ispeakmath.org/2013/11/18/math-games-collection-on-google-docs-add-your-game-today/

Hey, what good is data if you can't use it to find Waldo? Well someone has looked at where Waldo has been and came up with a strategy for doing just that. Finding Waldo. Thanks to Mark Esping for this one
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://www.slate.com/2013/11/where_s_waldo.html


Having difficulty in math is pretty commonplace. But sometimes we as teachers might not have an idea of what that is life (as a math teacher, likely you were good at math as a kid). Having that empathy is good for helping students through it. To get a sense of what having difficulty in math is like, try these simulations.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/mathdiffs.html

I really like this visual representation of the series 1³ + 2³ + 3³ + ..... It really shows how a visualization can help you understand a situation. The neat thing about this is that it could be used in grade 7 or 8 patterning as well as grade 11 series. Thanks to the Lets Play Math Blog for this one.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MCF3M, MCR3U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJqv7xKOaVs

Math Links for Week Ending Mar 8, 2013

I am usually not an advocate of politically charged statistics without references but it is my understanding that this data isn't too far from the truth. The thing that makes this really nice though is that it is a really good example of data visualization and perception
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C

A few weeks ago TI announced the new iPad app for nSpire. At the time it wasn't available in Canada. That has changed. Now you can get it here in Canada and if you act now (by March 10th) you can get it for the special discounted rate of $4.99 (regular price is $29.99). So don't delay. Watch a video demo here. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ti-nspire-cas/id545351700?mt=8

Curriculum Tags: All

This is a great site for real time Earthquake data. Put in your parameters and then it spits out a table with all the relevant data about earthquakes in your search parameters. You can then copy and paste the data into Excel or Fathom with only minimal massaging. Here is my Fathom file of the 2011-2012 earthquakes.
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/form?t=101650&s=1&d=1
Curriculum Tags: MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C

Another fun source of data is Wolfram Alpha. For example you can, for example, get data about the popularity of your name. For example, here is the data on my first name, David.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=david
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C

Also from Wolfram Alpha is some pictures drawn with functions. I like the Rolling Stones the best as it contains the symbol for Pi (look closely)
http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2013/01/08/mathematics-as-an-art-form-visualizing-equations/
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U

Speaking of Pi, check out my Pinterest page on Pi day since its coming up next week
http://pinterest.com/davidpetro314/pi-day/
Curriculum Tags: All

Lists are great time wasters. So why not a list of awesome videos about Math. This time from the social media site Mashable.
http://mashable.com/2013/02/19/8-cool-applications-math/
Curriculum Tags: All

Here is a nice picture of a kids project that is a great representation of the amount of sugar in drinks. Its not perfect (eg the bags used are different sizes) but that could be a point of discussion.
http://i.imgur.com/pzqfmru.jpg
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U