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