I am usually not an advocate of politically charged statistics without references but it is my understanding that this data isn't too far from the truth. The thing that makes this really nice though is that it is a really good example of data visualization and perception http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
A few weeks ago TI announced the new iPad app for nSpire. At the time it wasn't available in Canada. That has changed. Now you can get it here in Canada and if you act now (by March 10th) you can get it for the special discounted rate of $4.99 (regular price is $29.99). So don't delay. Watch a video demo here.
This is a great site for real time Earthquake data. Put in your parameters and then it spits out a table with all the relevant data about earthquakes in your search parameters. You can then copy and paste the data into Excel or Fathom with only minimal massaging. Here is my Fathom file of the 2011-2012 earthquakes. http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/form?t=101650&s=1&d=1
Curriculum Tags: MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
Another fun source of data is Wolfram Alpha. For example you can, for example, get data about the popularity of your name. For example, here is the data on my first name, David. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=david
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C
Here is a nice picture of a kids project that is a great representation of the amount of sugar in drinks. Its not perfect (eg the bags used are different sizes) but that could be a point of discussion. http://i.imgur.com/pzqfmru.jpg
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
I love this self data stuff. Dan Meyer, I think, got his idea for collecting data about himself from Nicholas Felton. Nick collects data about his life. Very detailed info like how many coffees he drinks every year. But then he creates this annual report with detail graphs and data about the previous year. The reason I bring this up is because I think this would be kind of a neat project to do with a class. Have them collect data about themselves for a week and then create graphs of it. http://feltron.com/
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
One of my favourite blogs for differentiated instruction ideas in math is I Speak Math. I have been behind in her posts for a bit so this is a summary of some of the good ideas over the last few months Zero! Card game - nice simple game that uses regular playing cards to add integers Word Problem Equations - Even though she feels this needs work, its still a nice way to differentiate working with word problems. Read the comments for ideas on how to tweak it. Monster Equations - a nice little tweak on solving simple equations. Perfect for introduction to equations Homework Binder- some interesting ideas on how to get kids to do their homework and how to get them to complete it after the fact. Math Workstations - A nice way to take worksheets and make them into math stations Homework Choice - here is a nice way to get kids a bit more interested in homework and creating problems
Curriculum Tags: All
Here is a really good article about how people are bad at assessing risk. For example, he talks about the idea that a low probability event that gets repeated a lot actually has a relatively high chance of occurring. He uses the example of the possibility of slipping in the shower as something that has a low probability (say 1 in 1000) but the fact that you take thousands of showers in your lifetime almost makes it an eventuality. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/science/jared-diamonds-guide-to-reducing-lifes-risks.html?hpw&_r=0 Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U
Thinking Blocks is a website that has many applets that would be useful for elementary math teachers. Kind of similar to the Ministry of Ontario's (http://epractice.ca/). It deals with things like multiplication, addition, fractions etc http://www.thinkingblocks.com/index.html
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
Here is a nice video of the geometric area property of Pythagorean Theorem. It was created by Macedonian students and apparently the song sung by the students is also about Pythagoras. Thanks to Carla Aquino for this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RqNqe60s2A
Curriculum Tags: Gr8G, MFM1P, MPM1D, MFM2P, MPM2D
An another one about Pythagorean Theorem. This time from The Simpons. Here Homer makes the same mistake that the Scarecrow makes in The Wizard of Oz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO1Vhc88QkM
Curriculum Tags: Gr8G, MFM1P, MPM1D, MFM2P, MPM2D
Too bad I didn't catch this one for last weeks post but better late than never. This is a TED-ED talk about the mathematics of online dating. Specifically how the site OKCupid calculates its matching algorithm. Some really simple math but ingenious. Could easily be used to talk about statistics and the geometric mean or just the nature of what an algorithm is and why computers are so good at calculating them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9PiPlRuy6E
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
Here is a great data set about taxi cab fairs in Toronto. Totally linear data that could be adapted to any grade 9 or 10 applied or academic class.
Chris Hadfield talks about some applications of using math on the ISS. If you have seen any of Chris' videos you know that he has been a great ambassador for the space program (just check out is AMA - ask me anything - on Reddit). Anyway in this brief video he refers to Pythagorean theorem and trig
One of the latest from Numberphile is a great heads up for Pi day. This time about how precise do you need to know Pi to calculate the circumference of the universe. More specifically, how many decimals are needed for most practical applications.
Nice images of what 200 calories look like for different types of food. Its a different sort of visualization than a regular graph. Thanks to Mark Esping for this one.
On this day after Valentine's day, what better way to celebrate than calculating how likely it would be to find love (and life on other planets). Could be used for percents or probability
Curriculum Tags: Grade 7, Grade 8, MDM4U, MCF3M http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/02/12/the-math-of-love/
I think that applications like this "Robot" kit is a great way to apply ideas in math classrooms. However I disagree with one of the things the guy says in the video. That "kids these days don't want to learn abstract math". I don't think most kids ever want to learn abstract math. However it is important to try to learn abstract content. Not for the sake of the content but for the sake of the brain exercise needed to master that content. Regardless, this is pretty cool. http://mashable.com/2013/02/08/robots-drones-classroom/
Curriculum Tags: All
One of the things you can do if you have a YouTube account (and if you have a Gmail account, by default, you have one), is to create playlists of videos. Here a teacher has created two play lists. One to fit in to the Advanced Functions course and one for the grade 11 University course. And what she has done is linked the videos to the textbooks she is using by labeling the videos by textbook section. So the Advanced functions is linked to the McGraw Hill Textbook and the Grade 11 U videos are linked to the Nelson book.
MCR3U: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL267D675176AFDA06
MHF4U: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB593B541513EA001
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MHF4U
Although this teacher is talking about doing this for grade 8 curriculum, here in Ontario that fits the grade 10 academic curriculum. Teaching about perpendicular lines with geoboards but it could be done just as well with graph paper. http://untilnextstop.blogspot.ca/2013/01/perpendicular-slopes-and-geoboards.html
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D
The first of two really good 3Acts Tasks from Dan Meyer. The first one is perfect for intersection of lines. Click here for the first act video. Click on this link for the full task http://threeacts.mrmeyer.com/ditchdiggers/
Curriculum Tags:MFM2P, MPM2D
In the 2nd 3Acts Task, Dan uses bubble wrap to generated quadratic data. Below is the first video. Click here to see the entire task. http://threeacts.mrmeyer.com/bubblewrap/
Curriculum Tags:MFM2P, MPM2D
How do you show a graph when you are on the radio? You convert it to music and have an opera singer sing it of course. I have just been getting caught up on some of my older podcasts and heard this great piece by Planet Money. Rather than just describe the graph seen on the right, they converted it to music and had it sung. Perfect for showing that data can be represented in many ways. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/04/27/135737940/the-case-shiller-index-sung-as-opera
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MDM4U, MAP4C
Is
the Body Mass Index (BMI) really that useful if it says people like
Brad Pitt are considered overweight? In fact, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
is actually obese according to the BMI. Here's another adjusted measure.
This could be used for teaching order of operations in Gr 7 or Gr8.
Just sayin http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21229387
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
Want to develop the value of Pi using Archimedes Principle of Exhaustion? Who doesn't? You can do it here at the Nova site with a handy dandy interactive applet. While you are there check out their other applets for math and science as well as full episodes of Nova. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/approximating-pi.html
Curriculum Tags: Gr8
Numberphile just released a video post compiling the results from their quest to find YouTube's favourite number. Here is the blog post that gives the detailed results of the data as well as the summary video and original videos. Great for any Data Management class http://periodicvideos.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/popular-numbers.html
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MAP4C, MDM4U
In the Numberphile post below you may have noticed that there are some limit expressions. These were produced by an online LaTeX equation editor that lets you create equations and then paste HTML code into your web pages (or images into your documents). A useful thing if you have ever needed to put math in a webpage http://www.codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php
Curriculum Tags: All
A great video by Numberphile on the problems with dividing by zero and the idea of 00. A nice discussion of and (and others).
Curriculum Tags: MCV4U
Here is a nice image to talk about both bad math and rates http://i.imgur.com/zH6jQlp.jpg
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
Another fun source of data is Wolfram Alpha. For example you can, for example, get data about the popularity of your name. For example, here is the data on my first name, David.
