It is nice to see that Desmos is not sitting on their laurels. You might have seen me mention some of the work that @mathycathy & @mjfenton did when they made some. But now Desmos has created their Activity Builder making it possible to to create your own interactive activities that students can then access via your teacher account at teacher.desmos.com on student.desmos.com. Thanks to @marybourassa for this one.
Need a place for quality activities to help you teach math? Look no further than the newly created repository of activities arising from the MTBoS.This was the products of a session run by @marybourassa and @alexoverwijk of this year's Twitter Math Camp. On this site, anyone who has created an activity can post it using this link http://bit.ly/MTBoSactivity But to see all of the activities submitted so far, use the link below. http://bit.ly/MTBoSbank
Here is a neat little way to make transformations of functions tactile. Use pipe cleaners
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MCR3U, MBF3C, MCF3M, MHF4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7HRlcz-jtM
How many chess games are there? Well we can't tell exactly but there are a lot. Numberphile has tried to quantify the number and in the process touch on topics like patterning, powers and exponents and combinatorics. So check it out
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P, MDM4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km024eldY1A
I have posted this in May when I did it but the "official" video has come out. This is my Ignite talk from this year's OAME on fun things about Pi. You can get my actual slideshow at http://bit.ly/petro-ignite-2015 which will have all the related links. And then don't forget to check out everyone else's video at the link below. That is, Amy Lin, Alex Overwijk, Matthew Oldridge, Kyle Pearce, Ron Lancaster, Marian Small, Dan Meyer, Jonathon So, Mary Bourassa, Nora Newcombe, George Hart, Don Fraser, and Sunil Singh. Thanks to @AmyLin1962 for posting these
Curriculum Tags: All https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYmB4P-NnvCMmrVoREJIszXka8O_AZmC1
I always like the idea of basing what we teach on research. Consider this scenario:
"Jack takes a coin from his pocket and decides that he will flip it 4 times in a row, writing down
the outcome of each flip on a scrap of paper. After he is done flipping, he will look at the flips
that immediately followed an outcome of heads, and compute the relative frequency of heads on
those flips. Because the coin is fair, Jack of course expects this conditional relative frequency to be
equal to the probability of flipping a heads: 0.5. Shockingly, Jack is wrong."
As it turns out the reality is that there is only a 40% chance of getting heads. Read about the research here and try the experiment on your own in your class. Though you could relate the idea of flipping coins could be done in the earlier grades the context here is about conditional probability so it probably works best in Grade 12 Data Management
Curriculum Tags:MDM4U http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2627354
Though it has been around for a while, I just stumbled across it. The Poetry with Mathematics blog does, just that. Intersects poetry and mathematics in both fun and serious ways. Check out their offerings here:
Curriculum Tags: All http://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot.ca/
Here is a loaded question: Is Math Important? This is what these 5 panelists discussing over the course of an hour or so. They make their case for (and against?). I was hooked as soon as I heard Steven Strogatz started with takedowns (kind of) of the standard reasons to say "Yes". Take some time to watch and listen. Thanks to @profkeithdevlin for this
Curriculum Tags: All http://video.pbs.org/video/2365521689/
I love cool uses of data. Here is a dynamic visualization of sunset/sunrises created realtime from scraping Instagram for images tagged with #sunset or #sunrise and then mapping them onto the globe. Check out the link below to see the dynamic visualization.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/29
I really like this very simple tweak to questioning that @k8nowak has on a recent post. She was having trouble with students not answering questions about other student's work. She got around it by changing the question she asked to "would you explain your understanding of Bianca's Solution?" I like it because it is a little more friendly than "Does anyone have any questions about Bianca's Solution?"
Curriculum Tags: All http://function-of-time.blogspot.ca/2015/07/a-magical-incantation.html
The Nardo Ring is a circular test track in Italy and here is a 3Act task on a problem about two cars driving around in it. Certainly any class dealing with circumference and rates could make use of this.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P http://whenmathhappens.com/2015/07/08/nardo-ring/
It's summer time so why not have a mathematical parody about factoring quadratics. Thanks to @k8nowak for this one
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P, MCF3M, MBF3C, MCR3U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhSjD5nLkjY
When ever I see a fountain I see a quadratic. This time, at the corner of Queen and University in Toronto, it was a great paraboloid.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P, MCR3U, MBF3C, MCF3M https://twitter.com/davidpetro314/status/621116745428901888
You might have seen these memes on the Internet about never needing to use algebra, well here is a nice little post about why you need it every day.
Curriculum Tags: All http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/use-algebra-time/
Recently it was Tau Day (June 28th) and Vi Hart has created a (sort of) new video in homage to it. She has been doing a lot of work with this 360 degree video recording device and used it for this video. If you have an Android phone watch this video on that and see what happens as you move the phone around. If not then drag around the video to change your perspective (it might not work here, you might have to actually go to YouTube to see it.
Curriculum Tags: All https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3xOB-Bigc8
I don't miss a chance to say how good the activities that they are creating out of teacher.Desmos.com are and one of my faves is the Polygraph app. This one let's students play a "Guess Who" type game in pairs (each on their own device). They have their own premade ones (linear, quadratic and quadrilateral topics) but a new feature is that now you can create your own sets. As they say in their blog post: "Trust Teachers". That is, listen to what they are saying and asking for and we asked for customizable Polygraphs. So that is out now. Take a look. Thanks to @marybourassa for pointing to this one.
Curriculum Tags: All http://blog.desmos.com/post/122854798480/polygraph-custom-edition
Understanding data is so important now more than ever. We are generating more data now than we ever have. So the folks at the Five Thirty Eight blog have started a new podcast: What's the Point. On it they discuss the good, the bad and the ugly about "big data". So far they only have a few episodes but in them they talk about the importance of Data (Ep 0 - with Nate Silver), using data in science (Ep 2 - with Neil Degrass Tyson) and how New York City has used data to their advantage (Ep 3)
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/introducing-fivethirtyeight-newest-podcast-whats-the-point/
And to finish of a "somewhat" balanced article on the benefits of discovery vs drill and kill. It seems this University of Winnipeg prof is always saying to drill them is the best. And it is funny that her headlines come from saying discovery is the problem for lower math scores but then quietly says that she has no proof of this. Some nice stuff from Dan Meyer and Cathy Bruce here on the discovery side as well.
Curriculum Tags: All https://ca.news.yahoo.com/old-school-math-teachers-debate-best-methods-scores-080010219.html
Another nice one for probability is this TED-Ed video on a simple probability game with dice. I love that the answer is counter intuitive. But this would be a good lesson when talking about fair games and depending on how you handle the math could be done in grades as low as seven and up to twelve. And don't forget that on the TED-Ed site there are follow up questions and teacher resources to go along with the video. Thanks to Mike Lieff for this one.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-last-banana-a-thought-experiment-in-probability-leonardo-barichello
This is cool (and creepy). This abandoned Ferris Wheel just continues to spin on its own from the wind. You could easily model a nice trig functions problem off of it. Thanks to Xui Bai Li for this one
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MHF4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Hj0Z23qys
If you are talking about surface area then this might be a neat little clip to show. The Mythbusters attacked the "It went over like a lead balloon" saying by making a balloon from lead and showing that it will float. Thanks to Jake Parlette for this one
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, MPM1D, MFM1P, MBF3C, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZSkM-QEeUg
A couple of tasks from @mathletepearce dealing with direct and partial variation. The thing I like about these is that even though the context might be a little contrived ("Sir why not just measure one iPad at the beginning, man?") they are basically presented as a puzzle and way more interesting than just a table of values. And even though I think these fit the ideas of direct and partial variation pretty much right on the nose, I could definitely see doing this with grade 7 or 8 classes when talking about patterning (as an extension as the numbers are not whole numbers)
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P https://tapintoteenminds.com/3act-math/tech-weigh-in/ https://tapintoteenminds.com/3act-math/camera-paper-weigh-in/
Mary at the Making Math Meaningfull blog has been presenting at the Exeter conference and has been posting stuff on her blog. Much of it she has posted before but on this one she talks about a marble rolling activity that can be used to model non linear relations. The premiss that students roll a marble down ramps of varying heights to see how far the marble will roll then use that data to make a prediction. Pretty simple but effective activity.Download the handout here and check out the post at the link below
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P http://marybourassa.blogspot.ca/2015/06/exeter-conference-day-4.html
I love the fact that on the last day of classes @MrOrr_Geek had his students do their own estimation challenges (in the style of @Mr_Stadel). Check out this post where he has examples of their videos from filling containers to covering stuff with stickies and then creating Explain Everything files to document them
Curriculum Tags: All http://mrorr-isageek.com/final-assignment-estimation-challenge/
And of course that means it's a good time to include a post from @Mr_Stadel on an activity he thought of (but hasn't tried) on how fast you can cover something with stickies. It covers rates and area (and possibly data collection and modelling). Check it out.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MFM1P, MPM1D http://mr-stadel.blogspot.ca/2015/06/fastest-sticky-sticker.html
A couple of neat challenges from @DailyDesmos. Both of them use some of the advanced function notation features that allow you to use families of functions. One of them is linear and the other is periodic.
I always like videos that give examples of quadratic relations and those that show projectile motion are the funnest. Here you will see a truck jumping 200ft and there are some nice side views so if you wanted to you could do some modelling using something like Tracker or have a discussion similar to what Dan Meyer does here.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P, MCR3U, MCF3M, MBF3C https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZdI9qUJzno
At the Tap Into Teen Minds blog, @mathletepearce has been doing some work with Knowledgehook and although I don't know if this is a direct result of that work but they have released their Gameshow app and it looks kind of cool. I especially like the fact that it is linked directly to Ontario (and other provinces) curriculum. It kind of works like Kahoot in that kids are answering MC questions, though one thing I like better about this compared to Kahoot is that there is more control over the timing of the questions. Here the timer doesn't even start until 75% of the students answer so that is a little less anxiety causing for those who freeze up when there is a time limit (they call that their Dynamic End Timer). But all the questions are linked directly to expectations and right now, for Ontario, they have questions for gr7-10 in math. Check it out.
Curriculum Tags: All https://knowledgehook.com
Though it's called the Most Controversial Facts in Math, they are less controversial but certainly neat. From The Monty Hall problem to Benford's law there are a lot of cool bits. Though mostly probability based, they are all fun
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-controversial-math-problems-2013-3#
I love RowGames and it's always great when someone creates one and shares it. In this case it's two. One for distance between points and the other for the midpoint. A rowgame is when students are paired up and given the same worksheet with two columns of questions. One student does one column and the other does the second. The nice thing is that in each row, the answers for each column are the same. So this is a self checking worksheet. If the students get the same answer that means they did it correctly, if not then one or both made a mistake.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D https://laviemathematique.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/distance-and-midpoint-formula-row-game/
Though the post claims this is about integers on a number line, I would argue they are whole numbers since we don't venture into the negatives. Regardless this is a pretty slick way to have students estimate on a number line and check their answers. The image doesn't do it justice. Go to the site and try it out.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8 http://blog.keycurriculum.com/zooming-intgers-magnifying-the-number-line/
Though I can honestly say that I have never taught in my underwear, I am sure that some students might be ok with @PietroBosselli_ doing so. This math teacher is also a super model and you can read an interview with him from @AlexBellos. Honestly, I have to say my favourite part was when he gave an honest answer about being able to multiply 43x67 in his head:
"...not as quickly as people would usually expect. Somehow people who don’t do maths think that mathematicians spend their days calculating numbers in their head. Well, sorry to disappoint, maths goes a bit beyond addition and multiplication."
I have always loved this proof. A cool way to connect infinity to algebra (and I think blow kid's minds).
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MFM1P, MPM1D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT1sIVqonE8
And here are the extras for the above video. This part probably has a more close relationship to calculus when you talk about infinitesimal sums and the limit of the sum of a series
Curriculum Tags: MCV4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJiVhfR_XVE
Here is a video that has an Olympic cyclist powering a toaster. Later in the video they compare how many of these cyclists would be needed to power different things. So this could be used as a good rate related question.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4O5voOCqAQ
I have been having some discussions with @mathletepearce about these types of Facebook posts that seem to be so appealing whereas if you just gave them to students as tables of values then they would be bland.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P, MPM2P, MPM2D
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