Group items tagged

Interesting article from Britain regarding computational fluency. I don't disagree that being fluent with computation increases a students future capabilities, but there is not necessarily causal effect that 'traditional' approaches to teaching computation make stronger mathematics students. It's the rigorous approach that I think needs to be emphasized. 

"Easily incorporate computational thinking into your curriculum with these classroom-ready lessons, examples, and programs"

Think of a computer program that generates educational worksheets, and mathematics is the kind that immediately comes to mind. The ones you find here we think are some of the best around. Try them out and see if you think so too.

The goal of the Place Value Game is to create the largest possible number from the digits the computer gives you. Unfortunately, the computer will give you each digit one at a time and you won't know what the next number will be. You are not allowed to rearrange any of the digits you have already placed, so think carefully before you lock a number in place! Good luck!

Most quality online stores. Know whether you are a trusted online retailer in the world. Whatever we can buy very good quality. and do not hesitate. Everything is very high quality. Including clothes, accessories, bags, cups. Highly recommended. This is one of the trusted online store in the world. View now www.retrostyler.com

from the abstract: "Mathematics is now at a remarkable in exion point, with new technology radically extending the power and limits of individuals. Crowd- sourcing pulls together diverse experts to solve problems; symbolic computation tackles huge routine calculations; and computers check proofs too long and complicated for humans to comprehend. The Study of Mathematical Practice is an emerging interdisciplinary eld which draws on philoso- phy and social science to understand how mathematics is produced. Online mathematical activity provides a novel and rich source of data for empirical investigation of mathematical practice - for example the community question-answering system mathover ow contains around 40,000 mathe- matical conversations, and polymath collaborations provide transcripts of the process of discovering proofs. Our preliminary investigations have demonstrated the importance of \soft" aspects such as analogy and creativity, alongside deduction and proof, in the production of mathematics, and have given us new ways to think about the roles of people and machines in creating new mathematical knowledge. We discuss further investigation of these resources and what it might reveal. Crowdsourced mathematical activity is an example of a \social machine", a new paradigm, identi- ed by Berners-Lee, for viewing a combination of people and computers as a single problem-solving entity, and the subject of major international research endeavours. We outline a future research agenda for mathematics social machines, a combination of people, computers, and mathematical archives to create and apply mathematics, with the potential to change the way people do mathe- matics, and to transform the reach, pace, and impact of mathematics research."

From the abstract: "this study investigated how the perspectives of the non-computer science educators changed after learning game-programming and how it could be fitted into the K-12 curriculum. Fourteen non-computer science educators and/or administrators in the K - 16 educational systems who made up a cohort at Sam Houston State University, Master of Education/Instructional Technology Program participated in this study. The participants were required to learn two free Web 2.0 game-programming applications and reflect on an article related to reviving interest in math and science as part of their program. Qualitative data consisted of online reflections, and peer-review processes through Facebook. A quantitative component was added to the analysis. The findings indicated that: (a) the perspectives of the participants changed from negative to positive as they reflected on their own game-programming learning experiences; (b) participants came to understand how game programming could build up students' logical concepts and critical thinking skills improving performances in math, science, and other subjects; and (c) due to the benefits of logical concepts and critical thinking skills game programming could have immense benefits if built into the K-12 curriculum."

LOGIN Wednesday February 15 at 3pm Eastern US time: http://tinyurl.com/math20event During the event, Dr. Keith Still of SaferCrowds.com will introduce his Crowd Sciences work and explain the relevance of mathematics in it: "If you don't do the maths, you could end up in court on a manslaughter charge!" All events in the Math Future weekly series: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/events The recording will be at http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/CrowdSciences Pose questions and comments for Keith before the event Math Future wiki: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/message/list/CrowdSciences LinkedIn group: http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=33207&type=member&item=94871153&qid=b29a6dbc-6474-425f-865a-b319bd33dcb9 Email group: http://groups.google.com/group/mathfuture/browse_thread/thread/931328aab6d87b03 How to join Follow this link at the time of the event: http://tinyurl.com/math20event Wednesday, February 15 2012 we will meet online at noon Pacific, 3 pm Eastern time. WorldClock for your time zone. Click "OK" and "Accept" several times as your browser installs the software. When you see Session Log-In, enter your name and click the "Login" button If this is your first time, come a few minutes earlier to check out the technology. Crowd Modelling + Crowd Monitoring + Crowd Management = Safer Crowds Crowd Modelling is the scientific approach to the development of safe, robust, crowd management plans. This can be achieved without the need for expensive, complex, time consuming computer simulations. In simple terms Crowd Modelling is understanding how, where, when and why crowds arrive, move around and leave an events/venues. The majority of this can be accomplished using tried, tested and simple to apply methodologies. "Keith Still is what I term an intuitive mathematician. He is one of the most creative and original thinkers that I know. He adds drive and determination, as well as considerable intellectual power to any group of which h

"Why Learn It (WLI) aims to address the issue of motivation around learning math by helping students explore the beauty and relevance of what they would otherwise dismiss as inconsequential in school. Targeting late middle-school and early high-school students, WLI takes a hybrid approach to cultivat- ing motivation. It leverages the engagement value of short (approximately three-minute long) videos depicting real people talking about how math and computational thinking are critical to their successes in a number of professional areas. Students then complete a series of interactive exercises that help students explore an application area discussed in the video in more detail. These exercises, however, are not simply drill problems aimed at making students experts in a particular content area. Instead, they are multi-step assignments that require the students to draw upon both detailed mathematical knowledge and a big picture view of how this knowledge can be used to draw useful, meaningful conclusions. The exercises are focused on bridging the worlds of number, images, and sounds in or- der to help students build intuition around a particular topic. Therefore, while some questions have objectively correct responses, others require students to gather knowledge they have built through answering previous questions within the packet to draw new inferences. Hints are provided along the 1 way to ensure students receive assistance when necessary. Finally, WLI is housed online and is oered for free, signifying minimal barriers to usage by educators and students."

Abstract: "An innovative mathematics game shown to be effective for low-achieving mainstream students is tested in special education for learners with intellectual disabilities. The game relies on a graphical, intuitive representation for numbers and arithmetic operations to foster conceptual understanding and numbers sense, and provides a set of 2-player games to develop strategic thinking and reasoning skills. The game runs on computers and interactive white boards, and as an augmented reality application at a science centre. We compare its use in special education and mainstream education with respect to usage, performance levels and learning gain. The game has been used by teachers in special educations, with gains in mathematical understanding, strategic thinking and communication skills as effects."

"Math Quest is a role playing game that could be used as a tool to learn numbers and basic mathematic operations. The Math Quest package consists of two main modules; learning and game modules that can be executed separately. The use of the learning module as a tool in learning will allow for a highly individualized and interactive environment. This paper presents the design of the learning module for numbers and their mathematics operation. Due to its interactive and stimulating nature, the module is suitable for school children age 9 to 12 years old to learn the subject. The development takes into consideration of constructivism learning theories where learning is based on students' active participation in problem solving and critical thinking regarding activity that they are involved in. The framework for each of module is as follows: objectives, concept, examples, exercises, quizzes. A heuristic evaluation on the design was conducted and positive feedback was obtained."