Friday, December 27, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Dec. 27th, 2019

Featured Links
I have been playing around with these linear representations of equations (Equation Strips) for a while now. And now I have a @Desmos version of them that work as an activity (with video instructions for customizing) or as a stand alone demonstration tool. Check out all the versions (paper & pencil, websketch, @Desmos etc) at the updated link below. Perfect for any beginners of solving equations.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
http://engaging-math.blogspot.com/2017/01/equation-strips.html


Resource Links
Here is a nice little activity from @YummyMath about Pythagorean triples. It connects colouring and patterns in the numbers.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MFM1P
https://www.yummymath.com/2019/pythagorean-triples-and-coloring/







A nice 3D Christmas tree using 2D Desmos from @Giohio. Great fun for kids dealing with advanced functions.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
https://twitter.com/giohio/status/1209611238130536450
I like this proof without words to connect the sum of squares to the sum of cubes. It really could be used to talk about mathematical proof with any grade. Especially since it comes in the form of a @Geogebra sketch
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/dment37/status/1210187636545069057

Video Links
This new video from @3blue1brown gives some nice connections between probability and visualization using areas and psychology.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZGCoVF3YvM

Some Christmas art from @LukeSelfwalker
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/LukeSelfwalker/status/1209169769431273474
And here is the explanation of why the above animation works from @mathologer. It contains the Fibonacci sequence and multiplication tables.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhbuKbxJsk8

And here is another proof without words. Great for showing how visual math can be beautiful.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/solvemymaths/status/1209061160940650496
Image Links
Who doesn't like a good multiplication of binomials image?
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM2P, MPM2D
https://twitter.com/StudyMaths/status/1209460617725333504



Friday, December 20, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Dec 20th, 2019

Featured Links
Two new activities released by Desmos. The first helps students solidify ideas behind distance time graphs
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5ddbf9ae009cd90bcdeaadd7
The second is the newest one dealing with systems of equations. It starts with the simple idea of finding points on a single line and then moves to finding points on multiple lines but with limited numbers of chances, but with the context of a laser beam to "shoot" the points. So the idea would be that finding intersection points would be the way to go. One thing I like is the constant suggestion to do work on a separate piece of paper.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5df166d1fa83ee79c328d37d
Resource Links
If you are looking for a structure to help you move your teaching forward then you might consider the 3-Part framework developed by @MrOrrGeek and @MathletePearce. In this detailed post they go over the history of how they came to their current model (including some of the hurdles they've overcome. You can read the whole post here or download the whole thing (at the bottom of the post).
Curriculum Tags: All
https://makemathmoments.com/framework/


Video Links
Using Cosine law to check the angle of parking lines
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MBF3C, MCF3M, MCR3U, MAP4C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rxghexCKj8

Here is an interesting way to solve quadratic equations that uses the symmetry of the solutions (compared to the vertices) from @PoShenLo
Curriculum Tags:
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MBF3C, MCF3M, MCR3U, MAP4C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBalWWHYFQc

One of the best illusions from this year. Thanks to @KMarkPet
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC0GGkNZPgs

Last week I posted one of the learn Desmos videos on the beginnings of the graphing calculator. This week, the webinar is on using Desmos Activities
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvrzSIY-GbU


Image Links
Some practical application of systems of equations
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
https://twitter.com/joshdeis/status/1207760178348642304

What a cool way to mix art with your TI-84s
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/SPFurman17/status/1207454340966998016


Friday, December 13, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Dec. 13th, 2019

Featured Links
I have been listening to the audiobook from @StevenStrogatz's new book Infinite Powers about the history of Calculus. There are some great stories in there but one good site that I didn't know existed was mentioned. It turns out that many of Newton's hand written notebooks have been scanned in and are available for free for anyone to see. Check them out.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/newton/1



Resource Links
Here's a really simple challenge you could give your students (regardless of whether you use the context of zip codes or not).
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://twitter.com/DonFraser9/status/1204879660326236161

Too many to mention here but check out @MathequalsLove's post on Christmas related math activities. Check them all out.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://mathequalslove.blogspot.com/2019/12/must-share-math-y-christmas-ideas.html

Video Links
Are you looking to learn the basics about using the Desmos Graphing Calculator? Then check out this webinar hosted by @ddmeyer
Curriculum Tags: All
https://youtu.be/mbya2DBubN8


I made this video on how to divide decimals by using relational rods. I used the Mathies app but it could certainly be done with the real ones too.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrKssNl8Qz8



Image Links
It's always good when the picture of the data tells the story for you. Could health care be important, hmmm.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U, Gr7, Gr8
https://twitter.com/ddmeyer/status/1205243017675735041







Friday, December 6, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Dec. 6th, 2019

Featured Links
The research is clear, students who have strengths in spatial reasoning do well in math, in general. To that end, @MarkChubb3 has created these one-hole punch puzzles. Here the idea is that students are given a hole pattern and are asked to fold the paper in such a way so that if you punch a single hole into the folded paper, the given pattern appears. So fun. Check out the templates he's made.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://buildingmathematicians.wordpress.com/2019/11/24/one-hole-punch-puzzle-templates/


Resource Links
I don't have a problem with students having formula sheets for assessments. However, I like the idea that students build their own rather than be given stock formula sheets. On our provincial EQAO math tests, grade 9 students are given a stock formula sheet. But if you want to have your students create that same (allowed) formula sheet then consider giving them one of these interactive Google Sheet versions of the Applied and Academic sheets. Thanks to @Joe_Sisco for pointing this out.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
http://bit.ly/eqao_academic_formula_copy
http://bit.ly/eqao_applied_formula_copy

I have been listening to the Audiobook of @StevenStrogatz called Infinite Powers. It it he tells the story of the origins of Calculus. Some of the stories are really interesting. But there was a small bit about circular motion and it reminded me of this addition of vectors dynamic WebSketch that showed that the magnitude of the velocity of an object travelling around a circle is constant. Play with the sketch on the link below
Curriculum Tags: MCV4U
http://davidpetro.org/WebSketches/CircleVector/index.html

Opinion Links
If you haven't heard of it, the "Matthew Effect" is the effect in education (and elsewhere) where those who have advantages tend to reap the rewards of those advantages in a compounding way while those with disadvantages are continually penalized due to those disadvantages in a compounding way. In this post, @MarkChubb3 offers some suggestions to minimize this effect in math classes.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://buildingmathematicians.wordpress.com/2018/01/15/minimizing-the-matthew-effect/

Be sure to read through the comments on this prompt from @ddmeyer about teacher change
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/ddmeyer/status/1202016947207995393


Video Links
If you haven't noticed, Elon Musk released his fully electric Cybertruck a couple of weeks ago. In part of that reveal, they showed the Cybertruck pulling a Ford F150 backwards up a hill. It looks impressive but as you will see in this video, not so much. However, along the way there are some great real world examples of math topics, like ratios, vectors and trig.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MCV4U, MCR3U, MBF3C, MCF3M
https://youtube.com/watch?v=jzKCJsou10w

This is an older video but still pretty cool. A neat little puzzle on how you can put a circular object through a square hole that is actually smaller. Thanks to Michele Cooper for this one.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvFNCNOyZeE

I love this dynamic tessellation from @von_oy but also check out the other links here too.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7
https://twitter.com/von_Oy/status/1202592774295556096



Image Links
This takes the idea of Tessellations and put's a Christmas spin on it. Thanks to @Joe_Sisco for this one
Curriculum Tags: Gr7
https://twitter.com/MissSMMcLeod/status/1201610658623762434

Check out #MathStratChat for some cool prompts like this one.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://twitter.com/pwharris/status/1202403465038745601



Friday, November 29, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Nov. 29, 2019

Featured Links
I really like this approach to the conceptual nature of proportional reasoning. Using images that are either proportionally sized or skewed in one direction is a good way to help students see the meaning of what proportion is. This is just part of a 11 video series created by @ChrisHunter36 and @314PiMan for parents of students in grade 8&9 (in BC). Check out the blog post about the proportional reasoning activity here and get all the other videos at the link below.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://vimeo.com/showcase/6244430

Resource Links
It never occurred to me until I saw this post but the Fibonacci numbers are a great way to convert between km and miles. Given that the ratio of successive Fibonacci numbers is 1.618 and the number of km in a mile is 1.609 means that successive Fibonacci numbers correspond to miles/km conversions. This is a great tool for runners as it was pointed out in this article from Runners Magazine. Thanks to @Robin_Grondin for pointing this out.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P, MFM2P
https://runningmagazine.ca/the-scene/fibonacci-sequence-makes-a-handy-miles-to-kilometres-converter/


Opinion Links
I like the way that @MarkChubb3 makes us consider ideas on Twitter with a single prompt. Here he talks about data driven tech programs for math. Be sure to read the entire thread and the comments that follow (and join the discussion, yourself).
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/MarkChubb3/status/1199161266734075906

Video Links
One of the things I like a lot on this spiralled animation from @GHSMaths, is how few lines of equations are required in Desmos. Check out the link to the actual graph to see for yourself
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/GHSMaths/status/1197875521960521732
Image Links
It's no surprise that I am a big fan of @MonaChalabi and I really love this representation of what marginal tax looks like.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5NzyjfFGNY/

Friday, November 22, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Nov. 22nd, 2019

Featured Links
I really like this graphing practice Desmos Activity created by @rnhung. The premiss is simple. You see a target "stuck" to a wall a distance away and have to throw a dart to hit the bullseye. You get three "throws" which basically means you have three chances to determine the coordinates of the bullseye. I like how there are no scales so there is definitely some guess work and estimation needed and the visual of the dart hitting the target is great.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/rnhung/status/1197362244083798016
Resource Links
I saw this in a presentation from @ddmeyer last year but thanks to @MathyCathy I was pleasantly reminded of it. If you're not sure what the deal is, then, as it was suggested in the comments, try to determine the area using more than one method.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/mathycathy/status/1197665948079181828
I love games that help kids practice their basic math skills. In this post, @mathforlove presents two simple dice games. 1) Roll three dice, add two then multiply by the other. The total is your points and 2) Roll three dice. Make a two digit number with the digits of two of them then divide by the other. The answer is your points (rounded down to the nearest whole number + with 10 bonus points if it divides evenly). See all the details at the link below.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://mathforlove.com/2019/11/damult-dice-division/


Video Links
This is a cool little clip showing a student misconception about measuring angles. I think it's important to anticipate these kinds of mistakes so that you can have something ready to say to them to help move them forward.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://twitter.com/MarkChubb3/status/1196899839809859584
Here's a cool data visualization about traffic flow.  Thanks to @Joe_Sisco for pointing out this one.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://twitter.com/pickover/status/1197873060986183680



Image Links
And here's another cool data visualization, this time about when the sun rises at different locations around North America
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://twitter.com/simongerman600/status/1197488606677479424



Saturday, November 16, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Nov. 15th, 2019

Featured Links
Of course I hope that you are checking in with the Make Math Moments Virtual Summit. Over 25 presenters (including me) and over 17,000 registrants so far. It's live right now (Saturday and Sunday) and free until Nov 22nd. So check it out.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://makemathmoments.com/summit/


Resource Links
The topic of my talk in the virtual summit was making the most of your virtual PLN on Twitter and elsewhere. Here is a summary of all of my tips and a link to my slide deck
Curriculum Tags: All
http://bit.ly/mmms-petro-2019

If you are on Facebook, then you might want to become part of the new @Desmos Facebook community.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/Desmos/status/1194351368749772800
Video Links
Though a little late for Halloween (by the time I saw it). Put it in the back of your mind for next year or any time you are dealing with combinatorics (with links to tree diagrams) with this 3Act task from @ChrisHunter36. Check out the whole task at the link below
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://reflectionsinthewhy.wordpress.com/2019/10/31/monster-mash-up/

Monster Mash(-up) -- Act 1 from Chris Hunter on Vimeo.


If you like the Numberphile videos and the podcast then you might like this interview with @BradyHeran. Normally he's doing the interview but here @donttrythis steps away from his Mythbusting persona to talk about Numberphile
Curriculum tags: All


Image Links
A nice image to check your student's learning about exponent properties
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM1D, MFM2P
https://twitter.com/brilliantorg/status/1193166697898946560
What a great prime number
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/pickover/status/1193324374994161665

Here's a cool image on Weight loss from @MonaChalabi
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
https://www.instagram.com/p/B42pv__lFvy/





Friday, November 8, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Nov. 8th, 2019

Featured Links
I think that sometimes we think that students shouldn't have too much trouble with dilations since it's just increasing or decreasing in size but I have found that students, in general, have difficulty with proportional reasoning and so dilations can pose a particular problem. In this new @Desmos activity, students get a chance to sink golf balls in holes using the principles of dilations and then end up with some similar triangles
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/Desmos/status/1192859285962645504
Resource Links
Looking for something to do next weekend. How about a free virtual summit from @makemathmoments with over 2 dozen great speakers. It's Saturday & Sunday of next week and you can check out my session on maximizing your online PLN at noon on Saturday.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://makemathmoments.com/summit/

When I first saw this Tweet, I dismissed it as not interesting but I'm not sure why but I was drawn back to it and I was hooked. My strategy was to start with a single fold and see what happens. Definitely great for helping kids with spatial reasoning.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/jamestanton/status/1190626271610339330

I have been doing this blog for over 6 years now (and sharing resources in other forms for many years before that). So I am always happy when I find other people that share resources that they have found. So here, @mathsjem occasionally does posts of math related things that she has found. Take a look.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.resourceaholic.com/2019/11/gems117.html
Although in this activity by @TheErikLee he has focused on the idea of translating to and from scale diagrams or blueprints, I think it could be used for any context involving scale diagrams or ratio and rate.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MAP4C
https://pbbmath.weebly.com/blog/scale-otters



Video Links
Here is a new one of those dynamic bar graphs, this time showing the best selling music artists over time in the last 50 years.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3w8I8boc_I

Here's a neat combinatorics/probability puzzle that @standupmaths demonstrates with @alexbellos. And one of the things I just found out is that for many of @standupmaths videos, there are teacher resources that can be found here.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1DUUnhk3uE


Image Links
There is definitely a math problem in this image. What do you see? Thanks to @Stoodle for pointing this one out.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/AMillionScreens/status/1192489050248056832

Another one of these algebra questions that is made easier for struggling students by making it friendlier for students.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/solvemymaths/status/1190916747790102529


Friday, November 1, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Nov. 1st, 2019

Featured Links
The OAME Leadership conference was today and there was a pile of great speakers. Check out some of the Tweets on the back channel using #OAMELead. Thanks to @Paul_Math for putting on a great show. Click on the link to see the whole back channel and see below for a few of my Tweets from @Marian_Small's presentation
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23oameLead&src=typed_query&f=live



Resource Links
Thanks to @MathyCathy for reminding me of these cool @desmos "breakout rooms" made by @MrChowMath. He's created several escape room style Desmos activities for different topics and @MathyCathy has a great blog post on how she uses them in her class.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.mathycathy.com/blog/2018/04/desmos-breakout-escape-room-activities-amazing-review/

Article Links
Want to know who wrote the bulk of The Beatles' "In My Life"? Data analysis to the rescue. Thanks to @StevenStrogatz for pointing this one out. Note Steven's correction that the probability was 0.18 not 0.018.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://mentalfloss.com/article/554392/who-wrote-beatles-my-life-according-math-it-was-john-lennon
Video/Audio Links
This is a pretty cool physical manipulative for connecting nets to polyhedra. Download the template here.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://www.facebook.com/jaibanaeducativa/posts/10221885111537157



The second episode of Season 2 of the @OAMEtalks podcast is out. This time featuring @stoodle talking about "Joining the Global Math Teacher's Lounge".
Curriculum Tags: All
https://talks.oame.on.ca/season-2







Image Links
Such a simple idea but great for kids to get a sense of scale and size of the earth using Pythagorean Theorem.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/jamestanton/status/1189184324928598022







Friday, October 25, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Oct. 25th, 2019

Featured Links
There are some cool features in this new @Desmos activity. First of all it's a great activity for connecting rates and linear relations as well as introduction to systems of equations. The context of racing turtles is fairly benign but I love the feature on slide 7 where students can draw the distance time graph (either with straight segments or by hand and then race them to see the results. Definitely great to bring discussion into your classes.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MFM2P
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5da9e2174769ea65a6413c93

Resource Links
Last week I posted about how the Autograph graphing software is now free. And got this neat activity Tweeted back to me on the value of e.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U, MCR3U
https://twitter.com/douglasbutler1/status/1186621842062299136

Here is a glimpse of the formation of a Desmos activity from @JennSWhite with some nice interactive features to help teach the concept of angle relationships with a transversal through parallel lines.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5db0822dbab1750b32779f08




Article Links
Some inspiration for your female students. Gladys helped develop GPS
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.upworthy.com/you-may-not-know-gladys-west-but-her-calculations-revolutionized-navigation



Video/Audio Links
I love this video from @3Blue1Brown. Even if you are not interested in polar coordinates, I think it's still interesting because of how he shows the mathematics of why a pattern exists for prime numbers (spoiler alert, it's just a subset of all numbers). And the visual effects are pretty awesome too.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK32jo7i5LQ


I think this is easier to make than hexaflexagons. So take a shot at creating a tetraflexagon.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H4lDi79YY8


I recorded an episode on the @MakeMathMoments podcast in the summer and it went live this week. It's about the benefits of sharing on the Internet. Have a listen
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/MakeMathMoments/status/1186352273418571783
Here's a possible way to help students distinguish between perimeter and area
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/PaulaKrieg/status/1186730489748623361
Image Links
I added to my collection of pictures of tessellations
Curriculum Tags: Gr7
https://www.instagram.com/p/B33C_79nay4



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