Math Links for Week Ending Sept. 13th, 2013

I am not sure how long this has been around but it seems to be a repository for all of the in house created sketches for GSP. Very inviting site and these sketches really exploit the power of Geometer's Sketchpad. There is stuff for all grade levels and even an indicator for those sketches that are iPad friendly.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.dynamicnumber.org/

Despite the title of this TEDx talk (Why Math Instruction is Unnecessary) I like how John Bennett takes us on his journey of discovery that much of the math that we teach is basically just a construct of our curriculum and not really necessary for everyday life. But the real focus of his message is that problem solving and critical thinking are.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyowJZxrtbg

Many have long said that mathematics was the way to a high paying job. Well now I guess we have the data to prove it. The US Census has always asked about income and level of schooling but in their most recent surveys they have also asked what people's majors were. The Planet Money people have a great podcast on the results (long and short versions below). And the survey says: Applied math (engineering, computer science etc) seems top the list. What's at the bottom? Psychology. A couple of things that resonated with me about this were a) that, in general, it didn't matter where you got your degree and b) it really had more to do with supply and demand. If you want the actual pdf of the full study click here.
Curriculum Tags: All
Long version http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/11/221417806/episode-485-whats-your-major
Short version http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/10/219372252/the-most-and-least-lucrative-college-majors-in-1-graph

I am way behind on the I Speak Math blog posts but this one about how now there are more #mathchat had a Twitter chat about the math topic of the day. Now there are these more specific chats that go on. From middle school math all the way to calculus and statistics. Take a look here for your favourite topic.
specific "chats" about math on Twitter now. For a while every Monday and Friday (I think)
Curriculum Tags: All
http://ispeakmath.org/2013/09/02/weekly-math-subject-chats-are-live-now/

Another great TED talk about visualizing data. Chris Jordan is an artist who creates social commentary art that is often more than it seems (when you look closely at it). For example an image of the Titanic made of 67000 images of mushroom clouds (equal to the number of metric tons of uranium/plutonium being stored temporarily around the US). Check out his website (http://www.chrisjordan.com/) to be able to zoom into his works (there are a lot of them). Here is a perfect way to mix social justice and data management.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_jordan_pictures_some_shocking_stats.html

"Would you rather...." is a blog that specializes in posing questions that asks the reader to make a choice of two similar situations and use math to justify that choice. There are a lot of different math topics that could be used here but it seems many fit into the Number Sense strand (I could be wrong here as I just skimmed the site). None the less these are great starting points for math conversations.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MFM1P, MPM1D
http://wyrmath.wordpress.com/

These math "mysteries" are all really attainable for many students to understand (ie they can easily mechanically verify them) but they are some of the most famous unproven theorems. A neat way for students to see how proving something definitely can be very difficult. Included are the Goldbach Conjecture, Perfect Numbers and Mersenne Primes (plus people have suggested others)
Curriclum Tags: All
http://plus.maths.org/content/maths-minute-number-mysteries



I like this App to visualize Factoring from NCTM's Illuminations. Too bad it doesn't work on an iPad but its a nice visualization
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=64

Here is a great way to introduce FOIL in secondary and in elementary I like the suggestion made by @emergentmath "Here's your lesson plan tomorrow: Stop the video after 1:30 and ask "why does this work?""
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM2P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYrgjMubh-c

I don't think you will ever need to describe how a Venn diagram works if you just show this example. There are more on the main site (http://stephenwildish.co.uk/) though not all dealing with data.
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
http://stephenwildish.co.uk/images/holy.jpg

Redbull sponsored a contest to take the image of extreme thrill seekers in action. Some cool pix but this one fits quite well with modelling quadratics. Just import this into GSP or Geogebra and model the strobed snow boarder with a quadratic. Note that it may look kind of flattened out but that has to do with the fact that the snow boarder is rotating in flight. But it's the centre of mass that follows a parabolic arc.
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P, MBF3C, MCF3M, MCR3U
http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2013/09/red-bull/#slideid-39351

Math Links for Week Ending May 31st, 2013

I was really sad when I saw this. Apparently Google hates math. Go into any Google search and type in "math makes me" and watch the suggestions that come up in the autofill. This does not happen in Bing! It did also seem like you got slightly different results in different browsers.
Curriculum Tags: All

Some Sketchpad files that were brought to my attention this week. The first one is a nice one that deals with Venn diagrams. Some clever stuff going on behind the scenes here to make this work. Thanks to Inaam Alsalman for this one.

http://sketchexchange.keypress.com/sketch/view/513/set-puzzles
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U




I really like this one on balancing equations. Its great for those just starting as it re enforces the idea of what you do to one side you do to another. I also like the fact that there is a blank scale so you can create your own puzzles. Thanks to Laurie Hannan for this one.
http://sketchexchange.keypress.com/sketch/view/47/balancing-with-balloons-solving-equations-with-negatives
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P


Just about every platform has a version of Jeopardy. Why not Sketchpad? In this one all the questions are about area. My only criticism for this one is that the answers are written in terms of pi for the circle questions. Some students may have a problem with this. But I do like that it randomly generates questions. Thanks to Lori Abkarian for this one.
http://sketchexchange.keypress.com/sketch/view/179/area-jeopardy-game-updated
Curriculum Tags: Gr8


This one does a good job of generating trinomials that need to be factored using algebra tiles (even ones with negatives). However, I strongly suggest you watch the introductory movie to show how to play the game first. Thanks to Michael Harrington for this one
http://sketchexchange.keypress.com/sketch/view/479/factoring-games,-part-one
http://sketchexchange.keypress.com/sketch/view/480/factoring-games,-part-two
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P

One of the students taking an additional math teacher qualifications course I am teaching made this video with Educreations on the iPad. I was pretty impressed with the way it looks. Clearly this is a good tool if you are looking at ways to Flip your classroom. Thanks to Kristin Gomes for this one.
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/trig-ratios/7622944/
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P

Many of you may have seen this proof before but its a nice visual way to show that the Pythagoren Theorem works without the use of words. Thanks to Sothea Ly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRXfc5OZqm0
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P, MPM2D, MFM2P