Math Links for Week Ending March 20nd, 2015

Last week I pointed out a blog post from @d_martin5 about assessing without percents. This week it was pointed out that he was featured on CBC radio where he talks more specifically about this idea. Thanks to Michael Leiff for this one. Listen below
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/promoting-failure-in-health-care-math-without-percentage-marks-and-should-alberta-join-the-u-s-1.2991087/math-without-marks-1.2991219

I learned about a new blog Math = Love from a few different people this week. It's part of this NPR story that is part of their series on the best 50 teachers in the US. Listen at the link below. And you can see a sample of what she has on her blog with the following posts
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM2P
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/03/09/376596585/the-teacher-who-believes-math-equals-love

The first one is an I Have, Who Has game that is dealing with concept of connecting words to expressions. If you don't know about these types of game, the premiss is that everyone has a card with a question and an answer. One student asks their question and the student who has the answer claims it and asks their question. This continues until you come back to the first person.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://mathequalslove.blogspot.ca/2015/03/trying-out-i-havewho-has-for-first-time.html


In this activity there is a nice mix of using dice, Desmos, foldables and portable whiteboards to look at properties of lines. This takes the tediousness out of just graphing lines.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM2P
http://mathequalslove.blogspot.ca/2015/02/rolling-dice-for-point-slope-form-and.html


And finally an interactive notebook (INB) on slope.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM2P
http://mathequalslove.blogspot.ca/2015/02/finding-and-interpreting-slope-inb-pages.html




A couple of of related activities from the Making Math Meaningful blog. Related in that they both use Smarties as the catalyst. The first takes the idea of ratios, rate and linear relations to predict the price of a large box of Smarties. The second one is trying to estimate the amount of air within a Smartie box.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
http://marybourassa.blogspot.ca/2015/02/smarties-part-i.html
http://marybourassa.blogspot.ca/2015/02/smarties-part-ii.html






A couple dealing with making algebra meaningful from Jon Orr. The first one does it by connecting the idea of adding and subtracting polynomials and multiplying polynomials.... with Dora! In this 3Act task we use Dora as a unit of measure to simulate a polynomial.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
http://mrorr-isageek.com/?p=3811




In grade 12 Data Management we have to talk about probability distributions and when we do that we talk about Bernoulli Trials. That is, given the probability of failure for any individual experiment, what is the probability of failure after n experiments. That being said, it is always good to have real examples to go with mathematical concepts so here is some data on hard and flash drive failures (something that many of us have experienced first hand).

A 2013 study by cloud storage company BackBlaze looked at 25 thousand drives and found that around 5 percent failed during the first year and a half, most likely due to manufacturing defects. They were then largely stable until the fourth year, when the failure rate rose to 11.8 percent. 74 percent of drives lasted beyond the fourth year.

Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/hard-drives-ssds-flash-drives-how-long-will-your-storage-media-last/

There has been a lot in the media as of late about the song Blurred Lines being a rip off of a Marvin Gaye song. So that being said, from Wired Magazine comes the attempt at answering the question "How many songs are there?" That is, given the finite number of sounds that can be produced and the number of ways those sounds could be arranged, how many different ways could you do that. Combinatorics and Wired to the rescue. Take a look here
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/many-different-songs-can/

I have shown links about the Monty Hall problem before. I like this one because it highlights how the female columnist that made it popular was correct in her analysis yet all the professors who attacked her were wrong.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://priceonomics.com/the-time-everyone-corrected-the-worlds-smartest/

The second one from Jon Orr is also about simplifying polynomials and it's based on this Mad TV skit. Totally great application of algebra (and a funny skit). Check out the entire activity here
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
http://mrorr-isageek.com/?p=3790

You have all seen TED talks but you may not know there is also the TED Radio Hour. This is a radio show that picks a theme and then highlights several TED talks on that theme with interviews with the TED speakers. Recently they had a radio hour on math called Solve for X. In it they covered topics as diverse as why we use x as our main variable in algebra to the mathematics of drumming and love. See the full video of the mathematics of love below and click on the link to hear the entire radio show
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/388518439/solve-for-x

These things show up on my Facebook Feed. I like them because they take patterning and put it in a friendly palatable format that most people are willing to try out
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P

Math Links for Week Ending Feb. 27th, 2015

Giving students feedback that is timely is important for helping them learn from their mistakes. Giving them enough assessments so that they can actually learn from those mistakes is also important. Another nice thing that can be done to help students is to help them to become more self aware of their problems.Doing all of these things on a frequent basis is tough. Part of the problem is that, often, when teachers give written feedback, students ignore it while focussing only on the mark. In fact, there are studies that suggest that if you really want students to gain from written feedback, then only give them written feedback. They found that when students were given a mark & feedback that was just as effective (ie not effective) as just giving them a mark only in improving student learning (students were often only interested in the mark and would just ignore the written stuff if there). That being said, Amy at the Square Root of Negative One blog seems to have a workflow that takes care of all of that. Assessments that students self grade, comment on and correct before the teacher even sees it. Check it out here
Curriculum Tags: All
http://squarerootofnegativeoneteachmath.blogspot.ca/2015/02/giving-immediate-feedback-without.html

I like graphic organizers. And although there isn't just one way to attain prime factorization, this graphic organizer can help when students do.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://mathfour.com/arithmetic/prime-factorization-graphic-organizer










I like this activity from SlamDunk Math. They spend a lot of time attacking the curriculum from many angles and repeatedly throughout the year (they call this spiralling through the curriculum). I used to do something just like it to talk about linear relations and modelling. And here is the results of their activity. In this activity the point is to try to determine how much rope is needed to tie a knot (or conversely how does the length of the rope change with every knot tied?). That is, as you continue to tie knots in a rope, that rope becomes shorter. So you collect data about the number of knots and the length of the rope. Then repeat with a different thickness of rope. Check out their data at their site. The last time I did this it was with my MAP4C class. You can see my data set here. Update March 6th. Jon Orr has put his spin on it. Check it out at this link here
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MFM2P, MAP4C, MDM4U
http://slamdunkmath.blogspot.ca/2015/02/ropes-of-different-thickness-and-equal.html


I was actually surprised a bit by this activity in that my first instinct was to say that the relationship would be non linear. Spoiler alert. It's linear (when I thought about it, it made sense). The relationship in question is the connection between the side length of of a square and it's diagonal. Check out the video and all handouts at the Tap Into Teen Minds blog.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MFM2P, MAP4C, MDM4U
https://tapintoteenminds.com/2015/02/19/connecting-relationships-multiple-strands/

Animated Gifs are pretty popular on the web. And IFL Science had a post on some animated gifs relating to math. Some of them are good others, not. Some of them fit Ontario curriculum, others not. There are 21 all together. Check them out at this link but here are a couple to get you started.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MFM1D, MFM1P, MCR3U, MDM4U
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/math-gifs-will-help-you-understand-these-concepts-better-your-teacher-ever-did

Math Links for Week Ending Jan 2nd, 2015

Any time there are resources about assessment then I'm happy. This isn't specifically a resource about assessment but there are bits at the end that relate. It's a talk from Dan Meyer about making math more like video games. My favourite part is talking about the craziness of just adding math problems to an existing game and thinking that kids will dig it. But the main points are below and expanded upon in the talk. Take a look.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2014/video-games-making-math-more-like-things-students-like/

Why not continue with Dan Meyer. This one where he points out a great real world opportunity to connect to systems of equations. This time dealing with the controversial movie The Interview and purchase and rental sales.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2014/the-new-york-times-doesnt-know-any-math-teachers/

Many of you may have played War as a kid (with cards, that is). Here is a version that could be used as a review for trig and logs in Advanced Functions. Already made, ready to go.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
http://intersectpai.blogspot.ca/2014/12/war-what-is-it-good-for.html







Growth mindset is the big idea in education lately and here is a teacher resource that will help students along with realizing how a growth mindset can be beneficial to them. It uses a combination of online and paper & pencil forms. Take a look
Curriculum Tags: All
http://whenmathhappens.com/2014/12/09/growth-mindset-reports/





A couple from Mike's Math Page. And if you are not familiar with it then the short version is Mike working out math problems with his kids (and they do some pretty high end stuff). This first one is a neat problem that asks what is the area of the shaded area which you could probably hammer out using Pythagorean theorem but he does some neat things with some 3D printed pieces to find a more elegant solution. Take a look
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/a-cool-geometry-problem-shared-by-tina-cardone/

I like using geoboards when talking about similarity. So it is no surprise to me that I like this little activity.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, MPM2P, MFM2D
http://untilnextstop.blogspot.ca/2014/12/a-fun-lesson-on-similarity.html

Here is a good video that could be used when talking about vectors if you want to relate to the whole swimming upstream/downstream situation. Plus it's a good time to remind you of the site 101 Questions. Go the link below to ask your own question and see what questions others have asked about this same video.
Curriculum Tags: MCV4U
http://www.101qs.com/582-escalator

A second one from Mike's Math Page originates with this video but his treatment could dealing with the sum of squares could be used when talking about series calculations. Of course if you just use this video then you can talk about the proof of why a pyramid's volume is one third of that of the prism of the same base and height.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MCR3U
http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/adding-up-perfect-squares-with-snap-cubes/

Matt Parker makes part of his living as a standup mathematician and can be seen in some of the Numberphile videos. He has just published a new book: Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension. Here he does a talk with some of his favourite bits from the book. I like the part about the adding machine made of dominoes or how check sums and bar code scanners relate to Sodoku puzzles. And he starts by having the audience cubing two digit numbers and correctly guessing the cube root based on their result (a pretty simple trick if you want to impress your students)
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_1irrPVt4M

Outlier humour. Awesome
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U, MAP4C
http://36.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md8t1kpBtz1rr362xo1_500.png

Math Links for Week Ending Jan. 31st, 2014

Do you need a Mile of Pi? That is, would you like to print out over 40,000 digits of pi so if you stretch them out end to end, it will be a literal mile long? This zip file will do it. Sure its 3500 pages long but hey that's only 7 packages of paper. And if you don't want so many pages, this Pi strip is a bit more manageable but only has 1000 digits.
Curriculum Tags:All
http://www.think-maths.co.uk/mileofpi

Need a practical use for statistics? How about gaming the system on the OK Cupid site. There is way more of the data in the actual Wired Magazine (yes the paper copy!).
Curriculum Tags: MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/01/how-to-hack-okcupid/



It's true, Indiana once tried to legislate that Pi would be 3 instead of 3.14159..... For this and other funky Pi facts you can also listen to this awesome radio show by Simon Singh (which is part of this bigger series).
Curriculum Tags: All
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/remember-the-time-indiana-almost-passed-a-law-declaring-pi--3


Need some real world data about Twitter. Just type your hashtag into this site and you will get 24hr worth of data on it.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://www.hashtags.org/how-to/tips/tracking-hashtag-data/




Some really good stuff on authentic assessment from Grant Wiggens. Some of the characteristics that resonate with me are :

• They do not rely on unrealistic and arbitrary time constraints 
• They offer known, not secret, questions or tasks 
• They are not graded on a curve, but in reference to legitimate performance standards or benchmarks 
• They involve transparent, de-mystified expectations 
• They identify (perhaps hidden) strengths [not just reveal deficits]

I think I may have a long way to go to get there but its good to have some guidelines. Thanks to Chad Barett for this one.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/authenticity-in-assessment-re-defined-and-explained/

It seems that on a regular basis there are new videos produced dealing with the Fibonacci numbers. Here is latest. Its well produced. For an entire course on the Fibonacci numbers you might want to watch this (which is one of 5 videos from this Stanford iTunes U course) or if you want to learn about Fibonacci himself, read this.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9d1mxgZ0ag

I always like when data is put into perspective. Here is a neat way to represent 200 calories.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMGUmcveQeg

Math links for Week Ending May 24th, 2013

New twitter feeds I'm following @Whatifnumbers and @WolframFunFacts. What if Numbers is the twitter feed of the blog What if where they take a way out concept and do the physics based on it. The feed is all the numbers that he discovers along the way of creating each post. Some neat stuff. The Wolfram Fun Facts are tweets strictly about interesting searches on Wolfram Alpha. For example check out this one about how many times the characters show up in Antony and Cleopatra.
https://twitter.com/WolframFunFacts
https://twitter.com/whatifnumbers
Curriculum Tags: All

The idea of comment only grading is something that Dylan Wiliam talks about. It is very intriguing as a lot of the research seems to suggest that you get the most gains in student performance from comments
rather than grades. John Schammel does a good job of reminding us of this practice with this blog post.
http://thescamdog.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/comment-only-marking/
Curriculum Tags: All

A tricky combinatorics problem. How many ways can 8 horses cross the finish line if you include ties. The thing that makes this tricky is that ties are included.
One thing I like about this post is the idea of first trying a simpler problem
http://samjshah.com/2013/05/14/an-animal-problem/
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U


Need some multiplication practice for your students. There are many online games out there. Try this one out. I dare you to do so on the Impossible level. Thanks to Mark Esping for this one
http://www.imathgame.com/ChromeMultiplication.php
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8

Need some big numbers about the fast food industry? Try this video from the YouTube channel The Infographics Show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyVFGpg17hw
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U

You can never have enough infographics. This one actually takes famous movie quotes and turns them into graphics. 

http://flowingdata.com/2010/03/08/data-underload-12-famous-movie-quotes/

Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MDM4U, MBF3C