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Keep your class motivated with this is behaviour management tool where teachers can award virtual badges for anything. Choose from a large collection of badge designs. The children can see their progress with their own personal login. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Management+%26+Rewards

by dr. sarah-marie belcastro, "You might wonder why one would want to knit mathematical objects. One reason is that the finished objects make good teaching aids; a knitted object is flexible and can be physically manipulated, unlike beautiful and mathematically perfect computer graphics. And the process itself offers insights: In creating an object anew, not following someone else's pattern, there is deep understanding to be gained. To craft a physical instantiation of an abstraction, one must understand the abstraction's structure well enough to decide which properties to highlight. Such decisions are a crucial part of the design process, but for the specifics to make sense, we must first consider knitting geometrically."

This is a must try site which provides an amazing 3D world which teaches English and maths core skills. Players race against two other randomly chosen online players of a similar level. The questions start out very easy and adapt to the performance of the player. The questions are read out and some are displayed on the screen. The player just clicks on the correct multiple choice answer to increase their speed. There is a download for PCs and Macs as well as apps for iPad and Android. There are teacher accounts which allow you to make logins for lots of children quickly. When there log in students will be asked to design an avatar. Because the resource requires a sizeable download it takes a little time to set up, but because it runs on your local device game play is very smooth and quick. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Profile of a reissue of Elements of Euclid with colored designs and graphics by Oliver Byrne, 19th century engineer and mathematician

"Italian psychologist Geatano Kanizsa first described this optical illusion in 1955 as a subjective or illusory contour illusion. The study of such optical illusions has led to an understanding of how the brain and eyes perceive optical information and has been used considerably by artists and designers alike. They show the power of human imagination in filling in the gaps to make implied constructions in our own minds. Kanizsa figures and similar illusions are a really useful way to encourage learners to 'say what they see' and to explain how they see it. It offers a chance for others to become aware of the different views available in a diagram and share their own thoughts without the 'danger' of being wrong; many people see different things."

A site with a collection of maths videos designed to get students drawing graphs. Watch the motion of objects or values on scale in the videos and plot the numbers. The videos have the correct answers at the end.

"The participants of this study were undergraduate students at a university in Western Canada. They were enrolled in a Secondary Mathematics methods course as part of their program. A total of 21 students (10 males and 11 females) in the class participated voluntarily, ranging from ages 20 to 45 years old. " Surveyed before and after they design math games for the classroom.

Abstract: Educational videogames can be designed to provide instructional feedback that is responsive to specific actions. However, existing research indicates that students tend to ignore videogame feedback and subsequently use less effective help-seeking strategies. Research on help-seeking in learning environments has primarily focused on the role of cognitive factors, the nature of the help, or issues of timing and frequency. There is a noticeable gap in understanding regarding how to motivate and increase the use of feedback for improved learning. Using a pre-algebra videogame, this study examined the relationship between an incentive to use feedback and math achievement. A randomized-control design was employed, which compared learning outcomes of students who received the incentive to those who did not. Results indicated that students given the incentive to use feedback had significantly higher normalized change scores on math items (d = .53), with stronger effects for students with low academic intrinsic motivation (d = .88 - 1.17).

A great new resource from the creator of 'A Maths Dictionary for Kids'. Download and print beautifully designed and wonderfully useful maths posters on a good range of topics. Your classroom walls will never be the same again. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

Prometheus Books The Glorious Golden Ratio [978-1-61614-423-4] - "For centuries, mathematicians, scientists, artists, and architects have been fascinated by a ratio that is ubiquitous in nature and is commonly found across many cultures. It has been called the "Golden Ratio" because of its prevalence as a design element and its seemingly universal esthetic appeal. From the ratio of certain proportions of the human body and the heliacal structure of DNA to the design of ancient Greek statues and temples as well as modern masterpieces, the Golden Ratio is a key pattern that has wide-ranging and perhaps endless applications and manifestations. What exactly is the Golden Ratio? How was it discovered? Where is it found? These questions and more are thoroughly explained in this engaging tour of one of mathematics' most interesting phenomena. With their talent for elucidating mathematical mysteries, veteran educators and prolific mathematics writers Alfred S. Posamentier and Ingmar Lehmann begin by tracing the appearance of the Golden Ratio throughout history. They demonstrate a variety of ingenious techniques used to construct it and illustrate the many surprising geometric figures in which the Golden Ratio is embedded. They also point out the intriguing relationship between the Golden Ratio and other famous numbers (such as the Fibonacci numbers, Pythagorean triples, and others). They then explore its prevalence in nature as well as in architecture, art, literature, and technology. "

"This engaging book presents the essential mathematics needed to describe, simulate, and render a 3D world. Reflecting both academic and in-the-trenches practical experience, the authors teach you how to describe objects and their positions, orientations, and trajectories in 3D using mathematics. The text provides an introduction to mathematics for game designers, including the fundamentals of coordinate spaces, vectors, and matrices. It also covers orientation in three dimensions, calculus and dynamics, graphics, and parametric curves. "Visit the book's companion web site, gamemath.com, to download the example code and access other resources.

Abstract: "the researcher attempted to investigate how to better measure engagement and refine the measurement of engagement in this study. To frame the engagement, three domains of engagement - behavioral, cognitive, and emotional- are analyzed in detail to be able to examine the qualities of each type. Moreover, three game attributes -clear goals, immediate feedback, and balance between challenges and skills- are presented and discussed as fundamental features of virtual manipulatives and educational games used in this study to make an impact on students' engagement. To measure effects of educational games and virtual manipulatives on three domains of engagement, the researcher designed an engagement survey that examines each domain separately with their sub-domains. The Cronbach's alphas for engagement pre-test and post-test were found .89 and .91 respectively. In this pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design, four fifth-grade classrooms (N=86) from four schools in southwest Virginia were assigned as three experimental groups and one control group. In the first experimental group, participants played an educational game called Candy Factory and in the second experimental group, the students played another educational game called Pearl Diver on iPod Touch for eight days consecutively, for 20 minutes each. In the third experimental group, participants performed activities with virtual manipulatives, whereas in the control group, participants did paper-and-pencil iii drills for the same duration. All of the groups studied on the same topic, fractions. According to the results of ANCOVA, experimental group students' engagement scores were found significantly higher than control group students', F(1,80)=11.568, p=.001. When three domains of engagement were analyzed, significant differences were found among all three domains between experimental and control groups. When the researcher conducted separate analysis for educational games group and vir

(Abstract only online, full text requires subscription) "The pipeline toward careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) begins to leak in high school, when some students choose not to take advanced mathematics and science courses. We conducted a field experiment testing whether a theory-based intervention that was designed to help parents convey the importance of mathematics and science courses to their high school-aged children would lead them to take more mathematics and science courses in high school. The three-part intervention consisted of two brochures mailed to parents and a Web site, all highlighting the usefulness of STEM courses. This relatively simple intervention led students whose parents were in the experimental group to take, on average, nearly one semester more of science and mathematics in the last 2 years of high school, compared with the control group. Parents are an untapped resource for increasing STEM motivation in adolescents, and the results demonstrate that motivational theory can be applied to this important pipeline problem. "

New York Times story of Neil Heffernan's creation of a computerized tutor designed to emulate actual teachers, eventually becoming ASSISTments

A great area and perimeter resource where users set the design for a party. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

Your students' future and education needs are not like yours and mine. For the most part, we are a product of an education system heavily influenced by the industrial age - lectures and rote memorization. This style of teaching was primarily designed to produce factory and skilled trade workers.

A wonderful cross curricular site with 100s of well designed resources for your English, Maths, ICT, Science and humanities classes. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Cross+Curricular

Do-it-yourself designs

kanakku is a free web 2.0 application that is a combination of a spreadsheet and a calculator. This application is designed to be used on either IE 7+ or Firefox (Safari seems to be compatible, but further testing is ongoing). All operating systems that use these browsers should be able to use this Website.