Math Links for Week Ending Feb. 23rd, 2018

There is a lot of research to suggest that when students feel good about math they will have higher achievement. In the latest monograph in their series, the Ontario Ministry of Ed has collected and summarized some of the best stuff related to student well being and math achievement. With references to @JoBoaler, @Pi_lab and @AliMcauley. Definitely worth a read. Thanks to @CRichardTeacher for pointing out this one
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/math-classroom2018.pdf

I have always liked the theorem that has you connecting the midpoints of any quadrilateral to create a new quadrilateral that is always a parallelogram. And thanks to @MrHonner, I now know it's called Varignon’s theorem. He was interviewed on the podcast @MyFaveThm and gave some neat facts about it. Listen at the link below and here is my 2D @desmos graph, 3D @geogebra graph and this short @desmos activity where students construct it.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1D, MPM2D.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/patrick-honners-favorite-theorem/

I think when you are teaching statistics it is good to give students some strategies to help tell if a statistic is valid. On this episode of @BBCMoreOrLess, they do it on the back of a postcard. That is, there are five main points and they fit on the back of a postcard. Listen below
Curriculum Tags: MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05yfqph

Don't get fooled by the fact that this is some obscure math theorem, there is still some good work you can do in grade 7&8 with powers and later on you can do some stuff with algebraic solving
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MCR3U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-__MukH9I

@JStevens009 has added some new Would you Rather images and even though we don't use pennies in Canada anymore students can still work on this one
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://www.wouldyourathermath.com/height_weight/

http://www.wouldyourathermath.com/aluminum_foil/

Click the link to get all the images on this one
http://www.wouldyourathermath.com/discount-jeans/

Math Links for Week Ending Feb 16th, 2018

I actually first created this post last year but updated it this week. If you are looking for some interesting data sets to analyze with your classes, look no further than Five Thirty Eights set of data sets used for their articles. The data sets were around before but recently then just made it even easier to get the raw data with their new site https://data.fivethirtyeight.com/ Check out my original (updated) post on how to use the data in your data classes
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://found-data.blogspot.ca/2017/06/five-thirty-eights-pile-of-data.html

I updated a couple of GSP sketches to WebSketches this week on sine and cosine law. In both cases you start with a sketch to have students verify that each law works (with random triangles) then each has two pages of randomly generated triangles. One page where you solve for a side length and the other where you solve for an angle.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MBF3C
http://engaging-math.blogspot.ca/p/web-sketches.html

I sometimes don't think we give probability the treatment that it deserves. However, it is probably one of the few math skills that students need to be masterful with in order to navigate the world in a safe way. So with that I like this lesson that @MarkChubb3 lays out using this 3 player probability using dice rolling. Simple but it connects experimental and theoretical probability nicely.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MEL3E
https://buildingmathematicians.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/from-experimental-to-theoretical-probability-sample-lesson/

I contend that when you are learning the multiplication tables, 7x8 is one of the hardest ones to learn. @JamesTanton uses that example to talk about understanding vs rote mathematics.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://medium.com/@jamestanton/7-times-8-is-54-the-call-for-math-memorization-950abcfc1fc7

Some more work from @mathletepearce on his @mathisvisual site on integer multiplication. I made a few suggestions and he expanded on them to make this video and the accompanying images. Check out the site.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8
http://mathisvisual.com/more-integer-multiplication/

I was at the @OMCAMath Retreat and the speaker was @pgliljedahl. He started with this neat problem.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/davidpetro314/status/964209790795833344

What is the volume of the water that will end up in the smaller glass if it is slowly pushed into the larger glass ( bottom first)? Via @pgliljedahl at the @OMCAmath retreat #mathchat #thinkingclassroom pic.twitter.com/2HfMMO51Xv

— David Petro (@davidpetro314) February 15, 2018

Math Links for Week Ending Feb. 9th, 2018

I think it's important for us math teachers to know that the game has changed and I think this post from @ProfKeithDevlin really gives away a lot of the reasons. The title seems pretty innocuous: "How today’s pros solve math problems". What follows is the revelation that much of what we teach in school is useless due to the technologies we have at our finger tips:

"These days, that smartphone in your pocket has access to cost-free cloud resources that can execute any mathematical procedure you need. What’s more, it will do it with a dataset of any real-world size, with total accuracy to whatever degree you demand, and in the majority of cases in a fraction of a second.....To put it another way, all those algorithms, techniques, and procedures I spent years mastering, all the way through to earning my bachelors degree in mathematics, became obsolete within my lifetime..."

I think that really means that we have to rethink what we are doing in math class and whether it really is relevant. This post was Part 1 so, I guess, stay tuned for part 2.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://devlinsangle.blogspot.ca/2018/02/how-todays-pros-solve-math-problems.html

I always appreciate when teachers post their day by days. In this case it's @MrOrr_Geek posting about his semester teaching grade 11 workplace math. It's from a couple years ago and he blogged about the first part of the semester but the rest of the plan is available on a Google Sheet. Take a look
Curriculum Tags: MEL3E
http://mrorr-isageek.com/mel3e-course-outline/

Here's a neat post from @MrHonner that would give some insight as to the effects of vaccination at the same time as looking at the effects of linear and exponential growth on infection rates.
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MHF4U, MAP4U
https://www.quantamagazine.org/flu-vaccines-and-the-math-of-herd-immunity-20180205/

Before you get to fraction operations, you might want to prime the pumps with students and do this introductory activity from @JPSilver_fox.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8

Some cool connections to Fibonacci with this art project. Thanks to @MrOrr_Geek for pointing out this one.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://kottke.org/18/02/tree-mountain

Math Links for Week Ending Feb. 2nd, 2018

Last week @MrOrr_Geek had a post on different ways to use two truths and a lie and this week @desmos has their version. Although I don't think this is a particularly useable at this point but it does give us a sense of what might be coming in the future from Desmos. For now These two activities can only be used from the student perspective (there is no public version yet). Still though, it's a neat concept. You, as a student, creates an image and then writes two truths and a lie. It then goes in the gallery.  Then you can look at any of the others in the gallery. Give it a try, there is an elementary (fractions) and secondary (parabolas) version.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
Elementary: https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5a724d8edb53f03b52fbe790
Secondary: https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/59f0a9b39ee48105ae6b7928

Looking at introducing solving logarithmic equations? Then you might want to start with this simple activity for giving students a feel for the way powers work from @sqrt_1. And I like the idea of using dry erase sleeves to save on paper.
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MHF4U
http://squarerootofnegativeoneteachmath.blogspot.ca/2018/01/exponent-puzzles.html

Okay this is a long video but the end shows a crazy connection to Pascal's Triangle
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SfXqTENV_Q

Not regular permutations, super permutations!
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJGE4aEWc28

I made a couple of videos on how to use Geogebra to graph lines and planes in 3D
Curriculum Tags: MCV4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KatCPnTNoA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--gpbRvnIFE