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As a math teacher, what made you turn to Project Based Learning in your own teaching?

Why do many math teachers initially resist integrating Project Based Learning into their classes?

So we assume having students practicing problems twenty-five times is the only way to learn math. This is a difficult mindset to break. Practice makes perfect is the old adage, but what many math teachers don’t realize is that creating a Project Based Learning environment in a math class doesn’t require students to be “perfect.” Having students solve complex, real-life problems is actually asking students to complete open-ended tasks. These problems may not have one right answer, unlike the practice problems in a textbook. This can be a scary leap for math teachers to take and many students may be hesitant to take this leap as well.

Media 4 Math has a nice regular feature called Math in the News. Math in the News offers ideas for short mathematics lessons based on current news stories. The current lesson that grabbed my attention is Will There Be an NBA Season? The lesson focuses on using revenue and expense reports to determine profitability.

A couple of years ago I stopped into a McDonald's restaurant to grab a quick snack. At the counter there was a sign advertising two apple pies for 99 cents. It sounded like a good deal until I looked up at the big menu board and noticed that the price for one apple pie was only 49 cents. I wish I had taken a picture of the two signs. When I shared this story on Twitter, Danny Nicholson replied with a link to his Bad Maths Flickr group. The Bad Maths Flickr group contains lots of examples of bad math stopped in stores and other public places.

In this article, I make a case for student blogs as a tool that can support and extend students’ mathematics proficiency through the Standards for Mathematical Practice.

Teachers who use math journals can easily convert that process to a digital one through blogging.

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them

Ever wonder what math looks like in an one-to-one environment?

Grade: PreK–K, Grades 1–2, Grades 3–5, Grades 6–8, Grades 9–12

Three Dimensional Geometry: Sing It, Move It, Film It!

Learning All About Me & My Class With Graphs

Lesson Plan #1: Panhandle Circle-square: Geometry and Real-world Applications Using “Panhandle Circle-square” project at http://tomrchambers.com/circle_square.html and other locations via Google Earth to study Geometry and make mathematical calculations as they relate to real world applications such as the farmers in the Texas Panhandle using square plots of land and circular irrigation of their crops to make a living. Their geometrical calculations are precise to be efficient with their livelihood

Lesson Plan #2: Geometric Concepts In this lesson, students define geometry terms and then take photos of geometric figures that illustrate examples of their use in the real world.

Lesson Plan #3: Graph Plotting