Math Links for Week Ending Aug. 26th, 2016

Having Desmos activity builder at our finger tips now is awesome. The problem is that so many teachers are making so many activities that it's hard to keep track. Well, thanks to teachers like @greenbloch, we have some places where these activities are categorized. In this case these are activities for middle school (US based) but for us in Ontario that could mean gr 6 to gr 9. Check his document out and you will find links to graphing activities, of course, but for the younger grades there are many activities that deal with things like integers, estimation, multiplication, geometry and other categories. Check them all out at the link below. Thanks to @marybourassa for this one.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19b0ziiuR0Lu3HJtgeCkojSPgpTTZA8rOENW-2QuWKJs/edit

For the last two years I have been part of a research project centred around grade 9 applied and this past week we had our "wedding reception". That is we put on two 2-day workshops for about 500 teachers in Toronto and London to showcase some of the things we learned. There were 10 research groups in the project from around the province and we all participated in telling our story of what we found works. There were plenary sessions from @pi_lab, @AliMacaulay and Martha Koch and breakout sessions from the rest of us on things like spiralling, technology, the Five Practices, engaging students, making thinking visible and much more. And although this was primarily about grade 9 applied, I feel  like most of these topics would fit any course. You can check out the back channel conversation at #math4thenines or all of the slide decks below

Curriculum Tags: All

http://9appliedsummerinstitute.wikispaces.com/

Communication aside, which solution demonstrates greater understanding? #mathchat #math4theNines pic.twitter.com/gls9UzKhvZ

— Jamie Cable (@jacableSCDSB) August 23, 2016

I am a player of Pokemon Go - there I said it. That being said I like finding ways to incorporate it into math classes. This was my attempt a few weeks ago but, of course, @ddmeyer has done something a bit more engaging. It's only the first act of a 3Act task but it's a great connection to circumference. Plus he goes into a bit of an exposition on why he does what he does:

"So this 3-Act math task is bound to disappoint everybody above. It’s a trivial question about a piece of pop culture ephemera wrapped up in multimedia whizbangery."

Curriculum Tags: Gr8

http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2016/testify/

In May I posted a calculus activity on matching derivatives and now the folks at Desmos have turned it into a card sort. It even made a recent Friday Five. Check out the original post with the updated link to the card sort at the link below.

Curriculum Tags: MCV4U

http://engaging-math..../derivative-matching-cards.html

If it's posters you want then @mathequalslove could be the blog of choice. Check out these posters for when you are dealing with perfect squares and pythagorean triples. Click on the links below for all the downloads.

Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P

http://mathequalslove.blogspot.ca/2016/07/pythagorean-triple-posters.html

http://mathequalslove.blogspot.ca/2016/07/posters-of-perfect-squares-and-perfect.html

And as an extra bonus, you get the Geogebra file from @theShaunCarter that were used to make the perfect square posters. 

Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8

https://blog.primefactorisation.com/2016/07/28/perfect-cubes-images/

Given the interest in Pokemon Go, you might like this twitter feed @PokemonGoEdu. A quick look through and I found this neat data activity by having kids look through their Pokedex 

Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8

https://twitter.com/PokemonGoEdu

https://lesliefarooq.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/pokemon-go-math/

If you are using any of the TI graphing calculators then you might like this upgrade special for the latest TI-Smartview emulator. This deal is valid for the rest of the year. Thanks to @mark_esping for this one.

Curriculum Tags: All

https://education.ti.com/en/us/sv-upgrade

@MatthewOldridge reminds us that there really is no best way. The title says it all: "The question is not, “how best to teach mathematics?” The question, educator, is “how best for YOU to teach mathematics?”"
Curriculum Tags: All

http://matthewoldridge.blogspot.ca/2016/08/the-question-is-not-how-best-to-teach.html

Last year @ddmeyer spoke at the 2015 OAME annual conference. He spoke on the topic of "real world" math. This year he spoke at NCTM and had the same theme. I think at OAME we got one of the first versions of that talk and NCTM got one of the last. It was interesting to see how the talk evolved. What he kept in, and what he added. Whether you saw it last year or this year, there was some good stuff. I really appreciate the part where he tweaked a textbook question live on the spot. It's not newly posted but I just found it. Have a gander
Curriculum Tags: All
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2016/nctm16-beyond-relevance-real-world-stronger-strategies-for-student-engagement/

And one more with the Pokemon Go theme. A graphic for showing which ones appear the most. Certainly you could find some inferencing questions to ask
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2016/07/18/the-rarest-pokemon-you-can-find-in-pokemon-go/#20dd40dc3ffd

I like this if you are talking about data for inferences. Nice and topical for kids.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MDM4U
https://twitter.com/DataIsBeautiful/status/768665588935819265

From iMacs to iPhones: The change in Apple's revenue mix https://t.co/BaV3CJw7QX #dataviz pic.twitter.com/MTfK97SNzV

— /r/DataIsBeautiful (@DataIsBeautiful) August 25, 2016

Math Links for Week Ending Aug19th, 2016

I love this post by @RobertKaplinsky. It's a call to action that he started with the catalyst of this post from @Heather_Kohn. I love the sign that says "If Mr ______ is teaching then please come in and observe". The idea is that we need to teach with our doors open and invite anyone in at any time. I have long professed this but Robert has made the formal shout out for teachers everywhere to open their doors. I don't think that this is supposed to be exclusive to "master" teachers, but this is for everyone. That is, everyone can show something interesting and everyone has ways they can improve. The added benefit is that students soon realize that you are all in this together and pretty soon you have a community rather than isolated classrooms. If you want to participate then at the very least you can just open your door. But Robert has actually got some steps if you want to go all in:

• List what you want feedback on.
• Consider including an observation tool like this Levels of Classroom Discourse one from Principles to Action so it is easier for observers to give you actionable feedback.
• Print out the sign and put in on your door or window (maybe with a pile of observation tools nearby).
• Then, take a picture of it and tweet it out using the hashtag #ObserveMe.

Thanks to @marybourassa for pointing out this one.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://robertkaplinsky.com/observeme/

After I posted my Line of Best fit Desmos Activity last week, I got a reply from @MathVault pointing out that they have a pretty definitive set of Desmos tutorials (among other things). One of the parts I love the best about this is the stuff on statistics because you don't get a sense that you can do too much on Desmos with stats.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://mathvault.ca/

We hosted @Marian_Small this week and had a great time with her style of asking questions. She has a great way of taking things that are often procedural and turning them into things that students really have to think about. See below for two examples. And check out the link to her slides from both her k-6 session and 7-12 session.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.onetwoinfinity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/WindsorK6.pdf
http://www.onetwoinfinity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Windsor7to12.pdf

Our k-6 teachers are starting with a nice problem to chew on with @marian_small this morning #mathchat pic.twitter.com/Jnn5dXmzl3

— David Petro (@davidpetro314) August 16, 2016

What do you know for sure? - another morning with @marian_small and open questions #mathchat pic.twitter.com/WMmcB0k4Qd

— David Petro (@davidpetro314) August 17, 2016

Here is a nice puzzle originating from @mathgarden (actually, he credits Sam Vandervelde) and found on the Numberplay column from the NYTimes. It deals with large numbers and divisibility.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/crosswords/olympic-strategies-part-2.html?_r=0

The Most Important (set of ) Video(s) you will ever see. That is the name of this lecture on the nature of exponential growth from Albert Bartlet. It's old (poor quality) and not too high tech but there are some awesome things in it and worth the watch to get things you can use in your classes.
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MAP4C, MHF4U, MCT4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOykY2SMbZ0

It's always good when you can combine Lord of the Rings and asymptotes
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MHF4U
https://www.facebook.com/pornscience/photos/a.145146232329411.1073741828.139938556183512/624386444405385/?type=3&theater

This is not new but I saw it recently. I like this as a kernel for a problem dealing with volume and spheres. The premiss is that if you took all the water on the earth and put it into a sphere it would be about 860 miles across. There is more at the link below on just the fresh water or rivers. Take a look
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MFM2P
http://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html

Math Links for Week Ending Aug. 12th, 2016

Here is a short activity that I created with Desmos to have students practice with interpolation and extrapolation. It uses some of the new Draw features as well.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MDM4U, MAP4C
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/57a0878b8845a38d422ffc6e

There will likely be a host of Olympic related math resources around the Interwebs but I like this if you are looking for an introduction or review of Order of Operations. Here the Romanian soccer team puts math expressions instead of numbers on their jerseys.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/03/27/romanias-soccer-team-puts-math-problems-instead-of-player-numbers-on-jerseys/

And speaking of Order of operations, I really like this Desmos Activity created by @mathycathy that uses order of operations and the Draw feature. The original post was  from @mathequalslove about these Twin Puzzles is here, but the Desmos version is pretty sweet and simple. Also included in the original post is a couple of other types of puzzles. One dealing with area and the other dealing with geometric shapes.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://mathequalslove.blogspot.ca/2016/08/volume-3-japanese-logic-puzzles-for.html
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/57adc1b8a6bfc5b06516d9e8

In grade 9 we talk about optimization. As it turns out there are reasons you may not want to optimize when it comes to consumer goods. This might be a nice addition to any lesson this topic. See the link below for some explanation or just watch the video
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
http://diply.com/sciencep/article/why-soda-cans-are-shaped-that-way-ingenious

I love this new (to me) Reddit feed about beautiful data. You can find it on Reddit or on Twitter @DataIsBeautiful.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/DataIsBeautiful

Twitch Viewers on the Final Day of the Rocket League Championship Series International Finals [OC] … pic.twitter.com/ZWKXvWjAu4

— /r/DataIsBeautiful (@DataIsBeautiful) August 8, 2016

Math Links for Week Ending Aug 5th, 2016

More Desmos cardsorts are coming. This one from @mjfenton is a nice short one that deals with the conceptual idea of what a solution of a system of linear equations is. This shouldn't take students too long but will give you a good idea if anyone doesn't "have it" at the most basic level. I also like the fact that it includes more than just the cardsort.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5798d64583de446662ea8ddd

A few months ago I featured this report by FiveThirtyEight.com about Sumo wrestling that was pretty rich with data (and kind of interesting). Now @joelbezaire has turned it into a nice little Desmos activity. Perfect for inferencing.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://teacher.desmos.com/..../57913defe04c12be18128f2c


I love dealing with big numbers. And a billion of anything is one of them. And in this case the billion in question is one billion iPhones. On the @stupidcalc blog they go through the calculations showing that those iPhones could pave a road that was over 1400 miles long. Have your kids try the calculation themselves but take a look at the post for the details.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://www.stupidcalculations.com/blog/billion-phones-highway

I like these Open Middle type questions. Here are some dealing from @MrJohnRowe with logarithms. Thanks to @jreulbach for pointing this one out.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
https://twitter.com/MrJohnRowe/status/759924724877012992

My very first complete @openmiddle problems (first one is easier, second has same answers)#logarithms #logs #MTBoS pic.twitter.com/TtEcU4yjvX

— John Rowe (@MrJohnRowe) August 1, 2016

A couple new @WODBmath. This first one dealing with area and volume.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/WODBMath/status/760128778567753728

New WODB from Noam Szoke. wodb.ca pic.twitter.com/iPvd5PVejz

— WODB? Math (@WODBMath) August 1, 2016

The other one that has connections to powers of numbers
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://twitter.com/WODBMath/status/760134061712998400

New WODB from @AmyRuzicka
wodb.ca pic.twitter.com/jqhOFxghzA

— WODB? Math (@WODBMath) August 1, 2016