Math Links for Week Ending Jan 25th, 2019

Featured Links
Though on this blog I focus on resources for grades 7-12, even these students need to practice their numeracy skills. How often do you have students in your classes and silently complain that they can't do mental math? According to the Ontario Ministry's Focus on the Fundamentals document, regardless of the grade we should continue to practice these skills. Now, I am not a fan of flash cards, in general, but @BerkeleyEverett has created sets of flash cards that have a twist and require students to do more than recall facts. There are many sets already and more on the way.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://mathvisuals.wordpress.com/math-flips/

Resource Links
I'm a big fan of algebra tiles to conceptualize algebra topics and also a big fan of Desmos activity builder. In this mash up @pejorgans conceptualizes factoring quadratics with some examples. That isn't the great part (that can be done with a document camera and real tiles) but the real magic comes from the fact that there is a challenge creator at the end so that students can create their own examples to be shared and solved by the rest of the class.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5c2e4696f84a2b491a0e20f0

I love the idea of the thinking classroom but one of the things that I still have trouble wrapping my mind around is the idea of student generated notes. Well if you know @AlexOverwijk then you know he is the thinking classroom master (especially in the senior grades). So it's great that he has shared a sample of student generated notes for his grade 12 Advanced Functions class.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fUJpQZP8-UFtoXgmg1JmH2cNuLz_pozw/view

#thinkingclassroom fans. Encouraging S's to make mindful notes-one of the 14 elements of @pgliljedahl 's model. S shared notes from #MHF4U and has given permission to share. Thought this might interest people-also commented on going paperless. #MTBoS https://t.co/UYstYgziMW

— Alex Overwijk (@AlexOverwijk) January 18, 2019

Article Links
Learning about 3D shapes and topology via knitting. Thanks to @kmarkpet for pointing this one out.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://wonderfulengineering.com/this-professor-teaches-advance-mathematics-through-knitting/

Video/Audio Links
Do you want to get your kids interested in your math class, then perhaps you should make a parody video like @MsWeissMath did. And maybe you'll get in the Toronto Star.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U, MCR3U
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/01/14/vaughan-math-teacher-busts-a-move-in-rap-video.html

Image Links
If you want data on how NFL kickers have continued to get better over time, then @fivethirtyeight has your back. See all the graphs at the link below.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/kickers-are-forever/

More fun stuff from @sumdumthum using dynamic colours.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/SumDumThum/status/1086434699583590402

https://t.co/ntfQu4EMlB
+https://t.co/IrP51ybqvR
=https://t.co/LMLZE5zXcv pic.twitter.com/8zNHzIjUnM

— Andrew Osborne (@SumDumThum) January 19, 2019

A fun animation (made with @desmos) using circles (cylinders) to make a sphere. Make sure you check out the original Tweet from @jreulbach for the Desmos sketch from @malone_math.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/Lustomatical/status/1088932151305928705

This seemed like a good one to GIF up. pic.twitter.com/frke7Fw05A

— Chris Lusto (@Lustomatical) January 25, 2019

Math Links for Week Ending Jan 18th, 2019

Featured Links
I absolutely loved this episode of the @numberphile podcast with Cliff Stoll. So many good stories (some sad, some inspiring) but Cliff's excitement about what he does just bleeds into the conversation. Seriously, if have never listed to a podcast and you are looking for one to start with, this episode will get you hooked on long form interviews. And Brady does a great job of asking questions and pulling stories out. And then once you listen, then go to Cliff's site Acme Klein bottle site and buy yourself a hand blown Klein bottle.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.numberphile.com/podcast/cliff-stoll

Resource Links
If you are doing any work with combining functions in senior math, then it is always good to give them a real example. Sound waves are a perfect example. Last week I posted a video about bells that ring with dual tones and so these two applets will help demonstrate what is going on here. One shows what happens when you add two sine functions and the other when you multiply them (both visually and auditorily - yes you can hear the sound waves). I also created a simple Desmos graph to do the same thing.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
Addition: https://academo.org/demos/wave-interference-beat-frequency/
Multiplication: https://academo.org/demos/amplitude-modulation/
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/c6k18gh2k9

I have mentioned the NY Times "What's Happening in this Graph" column before. Now they've teamed up with Desmos so that there will be a Desmosified version of each graph. Could be a match made in mathematics.
Curriculum Tags: MBF3C, MAP4C, MDM4U
https://blog.desmos.com/articles/whats-going-on-in-this-graph/

Here's a simple activity you can do for linear functions:
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM2P, MPM2D
https://twitter.com/mslailanur/status/1085226083958411265

I did a @Desmos project where students import a map of a zip code of their choice, use linear functions to recreate streets and coordinates for the buildings. Then make a system of equations for 3 friends to meet up at one of the buildings.

— Laila Nur (@mslailanur) January 15, 2019

Article Links
The person doing the talking is often the one doing the learning. This article talks about the benefits of students explaining their math thinking.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/47820/how-kids-benefit-from-learning-to-explain-math-thinking

Opinion Links
This is an interesting comparison on the difference between assessing students vs replying to them and why replying is better.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/mreitemeyer/status/1084105692007620609

This is one of my favorite education paragraphs and it talks about this dichotomy (from Solomon&Black 2008, recommended to me by @MandyMathEd ) pic.twitter.com/JRfcg9mRQH

— Michael Reitemeyer (@mreitemeyer) January 12, 2019

Video Links
I agree that you could probably do a fun Notice and Wonder with this.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/MikeFlynn55/status/1081997672674967552

Good thing those cans were empty. How many are there? How do you know? pic.twitter.com/6bkgzGlB0S

— Mike Flynn (@MikeFlynn55) January 6, 2019

Though I am not a big fan of "tricks" as something we should teach students to know and use but you could use them to practice doing math.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi-s-TTpLxY

Image Links
A number of people sent me this one
Curriculum Tags: All
https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/50000501_2339460922778919_6081342751020941312_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&_nc_ht=scontent-yyz1-1.xx&oh=e0fb8cdd198e8def8e99c69c649689c4&oe=5CC809AB

Math Links for Week Ending Jan. 11th, 2019

Featured Links
You may not be into doing Twitter chats but even if you don't like to participate you can still reap the benefits (even if you don't have a Twitter account. It may take a little time to get used to that mode of discussion (basically a stream of conscious) but you can read the stream at any time. Just this week there was a Twitterchat for the hashtag #swdmathchat - that is students with disabilities math chat. They posted 8 prompts and people would then respond to them. A lot of good things discussed on this week's chat. and more to come in the coming months.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/hashtag/swdmathchat?f=tweets&vertical=default&src=hash

Resource Links
Just in case you missed some of these, @fivethirtyeight has compiled 45 of their best and weirdest charts from the year. Even though they do a fair bit of politically based graphs, there are enough sports and other pop culture related data to make things interesting for students.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-45-best-and-weirdest-charts-we-made-in-2018/




Video/Audio Links
I created a dynamic tessellation that falls apart but can be put back together.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7
https://www.desmos.com/geometry/bzhkkarxgw

Playing with #Tessellation using @Desmos #geometry. First slide some points & the tessellation falls apart (but looks cool). Slide some more points & it brings it back together for a similar tessellation.

Play here https://t.co/b4BpHkmtYD#mathchat #MTBoS #ITeachMath #Mathart pic.twitter.com/a8LoNqho8s

— David Petro (@davidpetro314) January 9, 2019

I think it is hugely important to give students hands on experiences that help develop their spatial reasoning skills. This video is part of the reason why
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/MarkChubb3/status/1083550347786944512

I videotaped this student (someone who rarely sees success in math class) engaging in a spatial task. Just watch her face in the final moment of solving the task: #ElemMathChat #SwDMathChat pic.twitter.com/oJM81COQ1L

— Mark Chubb (@MarkChubb3) January 11, 2019

In advanced functions when you are talking about combining functions, if you connect that with sound waves (I used to do that) then this video is a nice application of those wave additions.
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMgmJEaYs70

Lots of new podcasts episodes. They guys at @MakeMathMoments have added their 5th & 6th episode. They spend an episode helping a teacher manage her resources and also do a great interview with @JamesTanton who makes you want to do math no matter what mood you are in.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://makemathmoments.com/podcast/




There have been a bunch of new @MyFaveThm episodes but only a couple of them feel like they could have some relevance to secondary school math. One comes from @stecks who talks about her 1 cut theorem that she did on @numberphile. Fun stuff. Then the episode on Assigning a value to Teamwork. And although, at first, it may not seem like it connects to secondary math, later in the episode @anil_venkatesh talks about how he uses these theorems to design video games. Something some of your students might be interested in.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/the-queen-of-the-fold-and-cut-alphabet/
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/assigning-value-to-teamwork/

Finally, we released our second episode at @OAMETalks. This time with @Marian_Small. It was a fun conversation that served as a preview to her webinar. One of my favourite parts was when she said: "If you personally are uncomfortable with a piece of the math you have to teach....now you are the teacher. And you owe it to the students that you teach to now take the professional responsibility to learn that stuff that you didn't learn."
Curriculum Tags: All
https://sites.google.com/oame.on.ca/oame-talks/season-1


Image Links
Do you want your kids to learn about Domain and Range but have fun doing it? Or even if Domain and Range isn't the focus and linear equations is, this works too? Why not have them create their names using straight lines?
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM2P, MCR3U
https://twitter.com/PotterAMS/status/1081288439222468608

Doing some cool things on @Desmos in Algebra 1 to kick off 2019! Working on linear equations and restricting domain and range. @ddmeyer @mhall_AMS @geoffkrall #MTBoS pic.twitter.com/fCbE3lqMoS

— Miss Potter (@PotterAMS) January 4, 2019

This simple prompt can get your kids solving quadratic relations (if they choose to do it that way)
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U
https://twitter.com/jamestanton/status/1081542566670065664

Is it possible with a single straight line cut to simultaneously divide off one third of the area of a square and one third of the perimeter of the square? pic.twitter.com/2LhA3BAr1P

— James Tanton (@jamestanton) January 5, 2019

Some right prisms for the holidays
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
https://twitter.com/davidpetro314/status/1082351188849426432

I got back to work today from the holidays and found some #geometric @LindtCanada chocolate.

What do you notice? What do you wonder? #mathchat #MTBoS #ITeachMath #wcydwt #noticewonder pic.twitter.com/WIkOeC4SkY

— David Petro (@davidpetro314) January 7, 2019

You can always count on @sumdumthum to create a super cool dynamic tessellation.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7
https://twitter.com/SumDumThum/status/1082967157137264643

Dual of that thing that happens when you arrange dodecagons like the square tiling and then fill in the gaps with regular polygons.#matharthttps://t.co/7RG66e7oKi pic.twitter.com/magepFSgIx

— Andrew Osborne (@SumDumThum) January 9, 2019

Though it's not timely (I just saw it), a nice Demos generated animated gif
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/LukeSelfwalker/status/1058808586695049216

Happy Fall! #graphjam https://t.co/KRqs4pp2Jp pic.twitter.com/6hKMggYCDy

— Luke Walsh (@LukeSelfwalker) November 3, 2018

Some fun with radians
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
https://twitter.com/kyledevans/status/1077958858579083264

£2 per radian, solid pricing structure pic.twitter.com/ufaNky7nqq

— Kyle D Evans (@kyledevans) December 26, 2018

Math Links for Week Ending Jan 4th, 2019

It's the New Year and @Mr_Stadel has some advice. It's pretty simple: consider rebooting some (or all) of your class. New year and new you (or new your class). Here's some suggestions:

• new seating arrangements
• new warmup routine
• new grading policy
• new questioning strategies
• new group work accountability structures

Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.estimation180.com/blog/reboot-your-classroom

I'm always looking for data sets to use when analyzing statistics. I house them on my blog called Found Data. This data set is about the top grossing concert tours. There is data on the amount of money, concerts attendance and more. It's mostly good for single variable analysis but there is a bit of regression that can be done.
Curriculum Tags: MPM1D, MFM1P, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
http://found-data.blogspot.com/2019/01/highest-grossing-concert-tours.html

Looking for something to read? @mathletepearce has got you covered when it comes to good reads for any math teacher. From pedagogical to recreational there is something for everyone here (even math students). In 2014 I did an Ignite session at OAME on books that revolve around math. You can see the video in the links below.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://tapintoteenminds.com/books/

Are your kids learners or performers? In this post @dylanpkane discusses the difference. I know that in my experience we always have kids that do well on tests (ie performance) but when we see those kids the next year, they often haven't retained much (ie learned). In this post, we see some research and thoughts on this dichotomy.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://fivetwelvethirteen.wordpress.com/2019/01/02/learning-versus-performance/

When you go back to school with your kids, maybe start with some of these calculations from @standupmaths that all equal 2019
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEh4OaXeexU

It turns out that the if the first Thursday of the year also falls on the third day of the year then it's called Thirdsday. Here @standupmaths goes through some "thirds" math (including how to remember the digits of a third :-)  ). The thing I like the most is the iterative process to breaking things into thirds
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NinrTW1Bx2Y

Here's my Ignite session on books for math teachers and you can get all the links here.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuuwAQD2n70

With the promise of more to come, @saravdwerf has been collecting #mathfails and you can see her latest collection at the link below (with the promise more).
Curriculum Tags: All
https://saravanderwerf.com/2018/07/31/math-fails-2018-set-4-87-new-pictures-to-download/

Some interesting tiling patterns from @sumdumthum
Curriculum Tags: Gr7
https://twitter.com/SumDumThum/status/1078939440259584001

Here're some thoughts on generalizing these weird things (https://t.co/igAjIEJkdc … …):https://t.co/5cHpPpzrat pic.twitter.com/oIA8ecuIxK

— Andrew Osborne (@SumDumThum) December 29, 2018