Math Links for Week Ending Mar. 25th, 2016

Last week @dpscher gave me beta access to the new Geometer's Sketchpad Web Sketch export tool and so I started to turn my sketches into WebSketches. Making a standard GSP sketch into a websketch means students can interact with that sketch without actually having the GSP software. It all runs on any platform straight from the web. Up until now I have been optimizing my sketches to be used with Sketchpad Explorer on the iPad. That is a free app but it has two limitations: 1) no construction tools and 2) only useable on an iPad. With Sketch explorer both of those problems are solved. So far I have only converted 12 of my sketches (and they were all optimized for iPad) but I think this now means I may start creating some new ones in the future. But for now check out my page of sketches
Curriculum Tags: All
http://engaging-math.blogspot.ca/p/web-sketches.html

It's an interesting concept. With so many math teachers blogging now a days, it is easy to miss something (it's kinda what this blog is for). But a group from the MTBoS (some of the same people that brought you Nix the Trix) have tried to compile some of the best posts from last year. The posts were nominated and then voted on and finally compiled in a physical book which you can buy from Amazon (proceeds going towards scholarships) or better yet directly (more of the money goes to the scholarship). The book is broken up into four groups: Stories, Engaging Activities, Teachers' Learning Reports and Thoughts on Teaching. They are all truly based on original blog posts like this one from fellow Ontario teacher @mathtans. So even though they are all online, having them in one place and helping fund a scholarship is, perhaps, a reason to buy your own.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://drawingonmath.blogspot.ca/2016/03/the-best-of-math-teacher-blogs-2015.html

If you follow the @desmos blog you know they often post links to some of their favourite teacher generated activities. I really like this Match My Polynomial Activity. At first I thought it might be a little tough but the incremental way that it is done is really nice.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U, MCR3U
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/56b90984064eaf004334ee69#

Here's a nice example of using QR codes to send students to answers from stations of questions (in this case solving right triangles using trig. And as a bonus you get an interactive notebook (INB) template too boot.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
http://ispeakmath.org/2016/03/03/trigonometry-stations/







I like when you can give a standard question a little tweak to make it richer. That's what @natbanting did with this standard surface area question: Design an addition that will double the surface area of this house. See what the kids did here
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P, MPM2P
http://musingmathematically.blogspot.ca/2016/02/my-favourite-surface-area-question.html



A new WebSketch from @dpscher to have students solidify relative size of fractions with a circle model. Students who have a conceptual relationship with fractions will often do better when it comes to operations with fractions so a sketch like this can always help in remediating issues or even when introducing the concept of fraction size.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://blog.keycurriculum.com/comparing-and-identifying-fractions-visually/

Since he's working out of the @desmos offices now @ddmeyer has been updating some of his older stuff. A great "go to" lesson is his Will it Hit the Hoop. In the original lesson he had loads of video files and images for all the scenarios. Now it's all done as a Desmos activity. No videos (which I love but I do like the draggable points to model the motion. Check it out.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P, MCR3U, MCF3M, MBF3C
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2016/updated-will-it-hit-the-hoop/

Here is a neat little probability activity you could do with your students from @natbanting. It's a simple action where students bid on outcome of rolling two dice. The dice are then rolled 20 times and any student who "own" an outcome gets prizes if that comes up. So if a student purchased 6 and it came up seven times then they win seven prizes. It would be interesting to play this to see if kids have an intuitive feel about the likelihood of certain numbers coming up
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://musingmathematically.blogspot.ca/2016/03/dice-auction.html

The "math wars" continue to keep coming up (I think they always will). In this post @mathletepearce tries to break them down a bit by asking the explicit question "Is there a best way to learn math?". He goes over the two extremes of explicit instruction and inquiry based learning (@davidwees tossed in a third option on Twitter). One thing Kyle points out is that regardless of witch way you lean, interpretation can always be different: "...teacher interpretation of what an inquiry math lesson looks like varies drastically.". Lot's of great references here, so don't miss it.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://tapintoteenminds.com/best-way-to-learn-math/

A chance for you and your students to have your opinion on what the most beautiful equation is. Whether it's the simplicity of the equation for pi or something more complex like the wave equation, you can choose. There is a description of each equation if you aren't familiar with the choices. Personally I am in favour of Euler's Identity. Anyway, place your vote here.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160120-you-decide-what-is-the-most-beautiful-equation-ever-written

Here is a great example that you can use when teaching about the fundamental counting principal.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gocwRvLhDf8

Still catching up on Pi Day posts. This one from Math With Bad Drawings points out 10 cool ways to calculate the value of Pi
Curriculum Tags: All
http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2016/03/14/the-pi-day-recipe-book/

A Great problem for calculating/estimating volumes of irregular shapes from Yummy Math. Get the full activity here
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P, MFM2P
http://www.yummymath.com/2016/how-much-snow-is-that/

Math Links for Week Ending Mar. 18th, 2016

A few posts Pi Day links to put in your repertoire for next year. The first from @rjallen on some things you may not know about Pi. I love examples of connections to Pi that don't seem to be related to the circle like the connection to gravity. And I love the expansions that approximate Pi. In this case he shows simple code that generates the values right there for you.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.wired.com/2016/03/six-things-probably-didnt-know-pi/

I love the animated gif that @MrOrr_Geek uses to start his discovery lesson on the sum of angles in a polygon. Then he connects it quite nicely to linear relations. There is a nice mix of hands on and technology here. In the past I have used this GSP sketch to do it for interior angles (and this one for exterior angles) and although there are some nice dynamic visuals, I think I might use this new investigation and then maybe the GSP as a consolidation piece.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
http://mrorr-isageek.com/from-circles-to-polygons/


A couple of new websketches from @dpscher. The first is a nice dynamic visualization of multiplying fractions. It works well with the checking fairly accurate about the size of the shaded rectangles as well as accepting both reduced and unreduced answers.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8
http://blog.keycurriculum.com/understanding-fraction-multiplication-2/

The second is a websketch that let's students explore tessellations. Kids can really free form construct with many different regular shapes. Take a look (click on the first image to actually try it out. Years ago I made my own GSP tessellation sketch, you can check that out here.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://blog.keycurriculum.com/exploring-tessellations-with-web-sketchpad/


Don't know what it means to ask a question with a low floor and high ceiling? Check this post out by @dsladkey to see how he explores expanding binomials by starting with a image from Visualpatterns.org and then it goes from there.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
http://teachhighschoolmath.blogspot.com/2016/02/taking-20-minutes-for-one-problem-look.html

Why are you using that problem? That is what @robertkaplinsky is asking. That is, why did you use that particular question in your math class? He goes through three reasons he believes you should be using any particular problem: Introducing a new concept, for productive struggle, or for problem completion. Get the full info at the link below
Curriculum Tags: All
http://robertkaplinsky.com/why-are-you-using-that-problem/

I wonder how many articles on Pi @StevenStrogatz has written? Here's the latest on why Pi maters.
Curriculum Tags: All

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/pi-day-why-pi-matters




Is it possible that prime numbers do not appear randomly. There seems to be some evidence that, in fact, they aren't random in placement. Find out more here.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2080613-mathematicians-shocked-to-find-pattern-in-random-prime-numbers/

Vi Hart's latest Pi Day rant came out on Monday and her beef this year is that the date 3/14/16 is actually a better approximation of Pi than last year's 3/14/15 due to the fact that 3.14159 rounded to four decimals is closer to the value of Pi then when it is truncated (like last year's date). However, the difference is that last year you could incorporate the time to get 6 more decimals. I can over look that cuz I just love Vi's posts.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vydPOjRVcSg

For Pi Day @standupmaths calculated Pi by hand using an infinite series. He does this explicitly so it's an 18 min long video. It's good for showing how a series works and also for the idea of how some series converge (and how this is a bad series to calculate Pi).
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MHF4U, MCV4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrRMnzANHHs

It's March break and we are in Florida for the week. The house we are staying at (like just about every other rental house) has this huge screened in enclosure for the pool. Definitely geometry here.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/davidpetro314/status/709437468836294656

Who says #geometry doesn't show up in real life #mathchat pic.twitter.com/me4VcWgIco

— David Petro (@davidpetro314) March 14, 2016

Math Links for Week Ending Mar. 11th, 2016

It's Pi Day on Monday so I thought I would feature something a bit different. A circular Pi poem. And if you want more, this is my standard Pi Day Pinterest page. And for another Pi related poem, here is one related to Euler's formula.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot.ca/2016/03/inspired-by-pi.html
http://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot.ca/2016/02/euler-formula-poem.html

I created a new post on Found data. This time on speed data that comes from Car & Driver test drives. Some good stuff here for rates of change in calculus and advanced functions (with some pretty heavy modelling.
Curriculum Tags: MCV4U, MHF4U
http://found-data.blogspot.ca/2016/03/speed-data.html

I was recently introduced to EdPuzzle. EdPuzzle is a site that lets you take pre-existing online videos and break them down into segments along the way to ask questions and give quizzes. Very helpful if you are doing a flipped classroom but @bkdidact shows how it can be used to scaffold concepts for those who have executive functioning issues.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://thelearningkaleidoscope...../scaffolding-for-executive-functioning/

Seriously, @matthewOldridge had me at the title. "Costco, the Proportional reasoning store. I know I have a bank of images just like these. The fact that you buy stuff in such large quantities makes these prime targets for good questions. I also use things on sale at Zehrs a lot too. I like it when kids have the discussion about more than it being the cheapest. For Costco, that can sometimes be about the food going bad before you eat it all (ever buy one of their cases of strawberries or oranges).
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
http://matthewoldridge.blogspot.ca/2016/03/heck-your-local-curriculum-if-its-like.html

"The most important aspect of the EDC Accessibility Strategies or Universal Design for Learning is that no one strategy will work for every student, every lesson."

That is how @bkdidact conclude a long but informative post about working with students with learning disabilities. It's a good read and there is a lot there so you may want to spread it out.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://thelearningkaleidoscope.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/accessibility-mathematics/

Algebra is mostly useless. At least that is the premiss of this article that tries to discuss more important mathematical topics for humans. I like the premiss.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.slate.com/...../2016/03/algebra_ii_has_to_go.html




If you didn't know a "Quant" is a quantitative analyst. Those are the mathematicians who generate models to try and predict the patterns of Wall Street. Do you want to take the Quant challenge and try these 5 questions from the Museum of Mathematics. Spoiler alert, some are tricky.
Curriculum Tags: All

Are you smarter than a quant genius? Here are 5 questions from this year's MoMath Masters contest https://t.co/1YX7iblNb9 via @WSJ

— Museum of Math (@MoMath1) March 4, 2016

Since it's Piday on Monday I thought I would highlite my Ignite talk at last year's OAME conference. I did it on all kinds of Pi facts. For any of the links in the video, you can get them here.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBpw9TuzxtU

Here's a nice question to see what you know about angle properties. They (who are they?) call it the "Hardest Easy Geometry Problem". It is certainly do able with basic angle theorems but it isn't straight forward either. Thanks to Michele Cooper for this one.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
http://www.mathqa.info/question/worlds-hardest-easy-geometry-problem/

I have always loved this paradox. I love using it to have students verify something is up by using slope calculations.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/2w1fjf/currys_paradox/

Simple question to ask students that doesn't actually need quadratics to solve. Instead think of it this way. What are two numbers that are one apart that multiply to get 20.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
https://twitter.com/davidwees/status/705788110827823104/photo/1

Without pencil or paper, how can you find a value of x that works? #CthenC pic.twitter.com/x9uUdgxhgh

— David Wees (@davidwees) March 4, 2016

Here is an interesting relationship that your students can use to practice using powers
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/pickover/status/556857168444805120/photo/1

Shiver in ecstasy. The digits magically reappear. pic.twitter.com/WAvgqg2KG1

— Cliff Pickover (@pickover) March 6, 2016

Math Links for Week Ending Mar. 4th, 2016

With so many tools out there for teachers to use it is hard to know what is worthwhile to invest in. So it is always good when someone gives you the 411 on their favourites (with reasons). In this series of posts @Mr_stadel outlines his favourite tools (Google Forms, Pear Deck and Desmos) and one of his not so favorites (Kahoot!). He starts off describing his criteria for his needs in a tech tool. He wants his tools to help with capturing, sorting, assessing and discussing student thinking. Each of the posts goes through his faves and he finishes with a post about why he doesn't love Kahoot! (and it's more than just the timing aspect). I am only a little familiar with Pear Deck (I tend to use Nearpod instead) but the rest I am fully on board for. Get the full scoop with each of the posts below.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://mr-stadel.blogspot.com/2016/01/tech-tool-criteria.html
http://mr-stadel.blogspot.ca/2016/02/my-tech-tools-google-forms.html
http://mr-stadel.blogspot.com/2016/02/my-tech-tools-pear-deck.html
http://mr-stadel.blogspot.com/2016/02/my-tech-tools-desmos.html
http://mr-stadel.blogspot.com/2016/02/my-tech-tools-kahoot.html

We gave a couple of workshops this week and used a 3Act task from @ddmeyer. It was good to see that he still continues to add to his list (over 70 so far). This one uses some stop motion video to do some volume comparison of how many Girl Scout Cookie boxes will fit into the back of an SUV. I like the impetus for this question which is a much simpler (and boring) version about how many times a small prism will fit into a large prism.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P, MFM2P
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2016/3acts-nissan-girl-scout-cookies/

Nissan Girl Scout Cookies – Act One from Dan Meyer on Vimeo.

I was talking to a colleague about working with beginning trig ratios and students practicing labelling the sides of right triangles and developing formulas to solve for the missing side. So I made a GSP sketch to generate random triangles to practice this without numbers. As always this is something that can be used on the iPad as well too. Get all the info at the link below
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P, MCR3U, MCF3M, MBF3C
http://engaging-math.blogspot.ca/2016/02/geometers-sketchpad-trig-ratio-generator.html

@marybourassa has a quick activity that shows that you really only need to make minor tweaks to what you already to do help students move along their thinking. This activity is built around the intersection of two lines but is coupled with building towers out of snap cubes.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
http://marybourassa.blogspot.ca/2016/02/linking-cube-towers.html

In his latest video @standupmaths takes on the myth perpetuated by math teachers around the world that there is more than one parabola. It's an extension to a video he posted a couple of weeks ago but in this one he proves that there is only one parabola (and reviews the rules of similarity at the same time). Note: It's pretty algebra filled so it may not be interesting to all students.
Curriculum Tags:  MPM2D, MCR3U, MCF3M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoh4TmPzu1w

Let me be clear, I don't really like these but I like the idea that by packaging questions like this, people will gladly do them. So I guess all we have to do is rewrite textbooks and before every question write "only geniuses get this"
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1764192357238367&set=a.1409071132750493.1073741828.100009428599268&type=3&theater