Math Links for Week Ending Feb. 24th, 2017

I totally love this activity from @SteveWyborney. Splat is a way to introduce the concept of algebra at just about any grade level. He has produced 50 free lessons (in PPT format) and they span in difficulty from Gr 1-12. So friendly, I think that you could give these and the kids would totally be engaged. You should absolutely check this out. Thanks to @mathletepearce for pointing this one out.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.stevewyborney.com/?p=893

I have had this blog post kicking around for a few months now in various stages of completion. I finally forced myself to complete it. It basically has four activities that centre around rational functions in MHF4U. The activities span from a more traditional group work type vertical surface to hands on card sorts, Desmos investigations and MarbleSlides.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
http://engaging-math.blogspot.ca/2017/02/investigating-graphs-of-rational.html

This is a neat post from @FiveThirtyEight. It's about the idea that there may be problems in the scientific community with fudging results. It would be a great discussion on how data can be manipulated to get the result that you want. They even have some interactives so you can see how easily it could be done.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/science-isnt-broken/

For the last few years @marybourassa has shared her day by days for her grade 10 courses. Now, hopefully, she's doing the same thing with her Calculus classes. She, in her words, is trying to build a thinking class. Hopefully we will get a window in.
Curriculum Tags: MCV4U
http://marybourassa.blogspot.ca/2017/02/thinking-classroom-day-1.html

Here's a great opinion piece from Toronto teacher Alexandru Pintilie. Don't let the title fool you: "I teach high school math. Is my work pointless?". Ultimately it's about the beauty in math.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/i-teach-high-school-math-is-my-workpointless/article34086848/

If you are into the idea of Growth Mindset but new to the idea, this article might be a great place to start. Thanks to @Robin_Grondin for this one.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/12/05/how-to-integrate-growth-mindset-messages-into-every-part-of-math-class/




Here's a neat little story about how bad data affected the English soccer many decades ago.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-one-mans-bad-math-helped-ruin-decades-of-english-soccer/

I'm not a coffee drinker so I don't really understand the whole big woop with the Roll Up the Rim contest. But as it is with any contest, there are probabilities involved. In this particular instance the probability of winning is 1 in 6. And as it turns out there are many people on the Interwebs that are willing to test that theory by buying coffee to see how many winners they get. And for the most part the probabilities work out. Check some of them out below.  Thanks to @bardprincess for this one
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
http://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/100-cup-challenge-aims-to-reveal-roll-up-the-rim-odds-1.3296719

From @FuriousPete https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW_VIfpK0fE

From @StevenMerk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlDXqvfq9wk

From @ItsYeBoi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh1D-VpzJQA

Here's a cool set of data about whether what classic rock means now
Curriculum Tags: MBF3C, MDM4U
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-classic-rock-isnt-what-it-used-to-be/

Math Links for Week Ending Feb. 17th, 2017

I reposted this activity after some minor tweaks and I wasn't gonna mention it but a lot of people seemed to like it so I thought I would highlight it here. It's an activity that focusses on the geometric model of the Pythagorean theorem. There is a version that uses physical squares and also a version that uses Explain Everything as a virtual manipulative. There is also a Smart Notebook file and a dynamic sketch to use as an extension.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MFM1P
http://engaging-math.blogspot.ca/2014/12/the-area-representation-of-pythagorean.html

Someone pointed out this site to me from @jaccalder this week. There are tech things but more specific to Ontario, many resources for Grade 9 Applied math. This includes many tech tools including some Nearpod files and coding references to MFM1P.
Curriculum Tags: MFM1P
http://teachercalder.ca/



I like marbleslides from Desmos and also like when teachers share their own versions. In this post @SweenWSweens shares his set of weekly marbleslide challenges Some of them are pretty hard and you would need many types of functions to solve them. The cool thing is some of his student solutions. So amazing. Thanks to @MaryBourassa for pointing this one out.
Curriculum Tags : MCR3U, MHF4U
http://sweeneymath.blogspot.ca/2017/02/desmos-marbleslide-challenges.html

As many of you know, I love it when teachers share their work. And that goes for when they take a standard problem (you have goats and chickens and there are this many legs....". Here @Wheeler_Laura includes a PearDeck version of these activities where the teacher can see the student work as soon as possible (as it happens)
Curriculum Tags: MFM1P, MPM1D, MPM2D, MFM2P
https://mslwheeler.wordpress.com/2017/01/21/chicken-goat-legs-mfm2p-pbl/
https://mslwheeler.wordpress.com/2017/02/11/height-vs-foot-length-mfm1pmpm1d-3actmath/

This TEDx talk from @MathforLove came out about a year ago but I only saw it for the first time this week. It is awesome. I love all the ideas about how to maximize your student's learning in your math classes. I also like the way he has the audience go through a cool factoring activity.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytVneQUA5-c

Hey, I am now an ambassador for the Global Math Project. Other Ontario ambassadors included @mathgarden, @mathletepearce, Ron Lancaster, @MrRsNabrhood, @AllenMath, @msbjacobs, @CRichardTeacher, @JacquieBrodsky, @AmyLin1962, @Paul_math, @WillGourley and @MatthewOldridge among others from all over the world. And our push this year will be regarding the first annual Global Math Week. Take a look
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.theglobalmathproject.org/ambassadors

My youngest kid is 15 now so it's been a while since I've seen an Arthur episode but it seems that that show is still going and the subject of this episode is whether there is such thing as a math person. Go Arthur. Thanks to @duncantenacity for pointing this one out.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Q2QPHTq4E

His visualizations on socially relevant data about countries were awesome and his interactive GapMinder tool was the way you could create your own but now @HansRosling has passed away. He once said "CNN got it wrong; Graphics are not about "How to make data look sexy", but to reveal that data is sexy!" He will be missed.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/08/remembering-hans-rosling-the-visualization-pioneer-who-made-data-dance/?utm_term=.1c061008ab79

I love this data set that is represented 25 different ways. Which one would you pick as correct?
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://flowingdata.com/2017/01/24/one-dataset-visualized-25-ways/

Math Links for Week Ending Feb. 10th, 2017

For two years I worked with two schools that were part of the OAME Grade 9 Project (which now is called Math 4 the Nines). That project turned into two summer institutes last summer to report on all of the things we learned (by we, I mean my two schools and the other 8 schools). Much of those two events were recorded and some of us came back to summarize these findings as "workshops in a box" for anyone to use. Well all of that stuff is online and published. There is a wealth of info here including some of the research findings and resources. Take a look.
Curriculum Tags: MFM1P
http://math4thenines.ca/

A new 3Act Task from @mathletepearce. This one spans many grades and starts with counting and subtizing and ends with algebraic modelling. Start where you want and end where you want I guess, is the order of business with this task.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://tapintoteenminds.com/3act-math/airplane-problem/


I like this post from @SamjShah where he digs deep in to the unit circle. Along the way he provides a couple of Geogebra sketches for kids to practice what they know about the unit circle in radians (and degrees). I also like the reference to the special angles as being "easy-ish" or "hard-ish".
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MHF4U
https://samjshah.com/2017/02/07/getting-familiar-with-the-unit-circle/




If you use Google Docs (and more specifically Google Slides) alot in your math classes, you might be interested in this template to create fractions easily in Google Slides from @ericcurts. In regular Google Docs, there is an equation editor but not in Slides. So this is helpful.
Curriculu Tags: All
http://www.controlaltachieve.com/2017/02/fractions-slides-drawings.html

I like this post from @MarkChubb3 about the foundations of what students need to know to be successful. If we start with the title "..a child first has to learn the foundational skills of math, like______" and you ask yourself what goes in that blank. I think many traditional ideas may put things like "fractions" in there but we get something different here. That's where this post starts but it then talks about dyscalculia along the way and ends up with discussion of spacial reasoning (I love the idea of symmetry games BTW). A lot of good points here
Curriculum Tags: All
https://buildingmathematicians.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/a-child-first-has-to-learn-the-foundational-skills-of-math-like______/

Why we ever stopped playing in school is beyond me. A lot of play goes on in the early years but something happens as the kids get older. Especially in math where we should be encouraged to tinker.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2017/02/06/how-playing-with-math-helps-teachers-better-empathize-with-students/

What an awesome extension from @numberphile to the classic Four - 4s problem in which you are to take four 4s and put operations between them to create the digits from 0-20. This one takes it to a whole new level that would be appropriate to MHF4U when dealing with logarithms and essentially makes it possible to write any number using four 4s very easily.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Noo4lN-vSvw

When dealing with similar triangles and ratios we often apply these concepts to measuring the height of tall objects with shadows. This time @standupmaths takes that to a new extreme.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P, MPM2D, MFM2P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yadjZTBDSR4

I think Order of Operations is one of the hardest things to conceptualize for students. I don't think, there are any really good real life examples (that aren't at least a bit contrived). So it's really just a set of rules for kids to memorize. @MathletePearce gives us a visualization, at least, so we can help push that conceptualization along.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/MathletePearce/status/829156127816503296

What Does It Look Like?

Order of Operations Beyond BEDMAS Through "Seeing" the Math pic.twitter.com/YS8OHQ9Bw6

— Kyle Pearce (@MathletePearce) February 8, 2017

That is pretty slick. It took me a bit to figure out the notation to create the values of A (A is the set of points that starts at zero and goes up in increments of pi/6 until it gets to 11pi/6) but I love how you can tinker with this. For example if you make the last angle 11pi/6 you get labels all around the circle.
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MHF4U
https://twitter.com/Desmos/status/828709027798474753

Points w/ fillable blanks:
1) Plot 1 unit circle
2) Create list of radian values
3) Plot a list of points
4) Change label to (__ , __)
BOOM! pic.twitter.com/CsnPqkjqAR

— Desmos.com (@Desmos) February 6, 2017

And here is a similar idea with an animation. Similar to the previous one it starts by defining some values.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/Desmos/status/829309368164311042

Animate Functions
1) Create a list of values
2) Plot a function, add slider restrciton
3) Plot points, w/ restriction
4) Move slider
BOOM! pic.twitter.com/63FBdmTx9c

— Desmos.com (@Desmos) February 8, 2017

Math Links for Week Ending Feb. 3rd, 2017

If you are at all into Standards Based Grading then you might also struggle with how to keep track of all of those grades. Recently @MrOrr_Geek posted a detailed description of how he keeps track of the progress of all of his students. I really liked it. For years I have said that traditional marking is so arbitrary as a way to measure a student's progress. This is especially if true if you are talking about students who struggle. For example, with a traditional measurement system it is possible for a student to get a final grade of a 65% yet never be correct on anything (ie much of the mark is due to part marks). And so what meaning does that mark have? It doesn't mean a student knows 65% of the material, that is for sure. But if you are using SBG then that mark at the end may in fact mean just that. He uses a free marking software called Freshgrade which seems like it was built for this expressed purpose. I love that students are given levels for each standard based on what they can complete and then all those grades of standards are brought together to create averages for the strands and then an overall average. Give it a look.
Curriculum Tags: All, MFM1P
http://mrorr-isageek.com/assessment-in-mfm1p-update/

Some awesome tweaks to some Desmos activities highlighted on @ddmeyer's blog. There is literally something for everyone here. Algebraic activities, linear relations, angles, circles, polynomial functions and more. All of them have that "ease into it" feel where students start by estimating or drawing and then move onto algebraic or algorithmic methods. Some of them go back to their roots in that first killer activity Central Park. Take a look
Curriculum Tags: Gr7G, Gr7PA, Gr8G, Gr8PA, MPM1D, MFM1P, MPM2D, MFM2P, MCR3U, MBF3C, MCF3M, MHF4U
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2017/here-are-ten-new-desmos-activities/

I love the simplicity of the individual motion and how the complexity shines through in this animation. Don't forget to check out the other images found on the Google Plus community Mathematics and Related Animations

Curriculum Tags: All

https://beesandbombs.tumblr.com/post/45513650541/orbiters via https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/YOvHX?cfem=1

I try to steer clear of any political bent (at least here on this blog) but when I saw this image about alternative math facts, I had to Tweet it out.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/davidpetro314/status/827498617434947584

What other #alternativefacts have you seen in your Math class? #mathchat pic.twitter.com/LdHY11P2Mt

— David Petro (@davidpetro314) February 3, 2017