Group items tagged

From rockets to stock markets, many of humanity's most thrilling creations are powered by math. So why do kids lose interest in it? Conrad Wolfram says the part of math we teach -- calculation by hand -- isn't just tedious, it's mostly irrelevant to real mathematics and the real world. He presents his radical idea: teaching kids math through computer programming.

"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.

Both wikis and blogs provide teachers with a a dynamic process for integrating Web 2.0 technology in their science and math classes. These two types of online tools offer students a more engaging process for learning. Both are relatively easy tools which do not require teachers or students to learn any special program tools or computer skills. Their uses and applications are only limited by the vision and purpose for helping students learn.

Free program with teacher management tools to help students review and learn basic facts. Progress reports can be emailed to parents.

Collection of materials re Count me in too program

A superb site with free downloadable pdf textbooks for adults on subjects such as IT and Programming, travel guides and science. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Cross+Curricular

MathMovesU is an innovative program sponsored by Raytheon designed to engage middle-school students with math. MathMovesU.com features content that appeals to things they are most passionate about, such as sports, music, and fashion, while delivering math subject matter in engaging ways, like games, polls, and fun math facts. Play math games, win prizes, and more!

1,000 Scientists in 1,000 Days volunteer program announced for scientists, mathematicians, engineers: "We seek scientists who are willing to volunteer to advise on curricula, answer a classroom's questions, or visit a school-for instance, to do a lab or to talk about what you do. How much you choose to participate will be up to you."

GeoGebra: Do the Math is a series of screencast tutorials for teachers and/or students. The tutorials were initiated as a project to support Maine math teachers in the integration of technology in the classroom. What is GeoGebra provides an overview of the program and its capabilities. Several tutorials present the program's menu options and tools in step-by-step format. Another group of tutorials provides examples of GeoGebra learning activities in major math content areas. These tutorials are intended as a visual supplement to printed guides and documentation. GeoGebra users can find a wealth of guidance and examples at www.geogebra.org. A web search such as "GeoGebra Pythagorean Theorem" will yield hundreds of additional articles, examples, and applets.

Abstract :"The nation's remedial math programs are failing students. New, effective, and dramatic changes are required to reverse the trend. Acknowledging the plight of community college remedial math students, this white paper discusses critical variables in planning and implementing instruction. Absent of a consensus in the U.S. political landscape on how to effectively provide remedial mathematics instruction, the authors suggest instructional variables to support mathematics faculty, administrators, tutors and advising staff in changing the disheartening data and experience."

"Estonia said it plans to adopt an innovative math curriculum developed by a UK-based group called Computer-Based Math. The effort is the brainchild of Conrad Wolfram, brother of Stephen Wolfram who cofounded Mathematica, a computational software program designed to help with project workflows in almost any industry. "

from the article: "it's algebra, the academic subject that more than any other strikes fear in grown-ups' hearts. But these are 5th graders. And some are struggling learners. The lesson is plenty rigorous, as you'll see. But the kids get a useful assist from the "manipulatives," concrete objects -- pawns and blocks -- that support a program called Hands-on Equations. Kids use the objects to build and break down algebraic equations."

Maria Chudnovsky, mathematician, is one of 23 MacArthur Fellowship recipients in 2012. She is an associate professor in the department of industrial engineering and operations research at Columbia University and specializes in graph theory. With colleagues she successfully solved the "Srong Perfect Graph Theorem" which was proposed in the 1960s, and her research is potentially "deepening the connections between graph theory and other major branches of mathematics, such as linear programming, geometry, and complexity theory." A video featuring the awardee can be viewed on the web site.

Among the awardees, "The Monterey Institute of Technology and Education for NROC Developmental Math, a program to help financially disadvantaged students pass developmental math courses before starting college math courses;"

"Developing a 21st Century Global Library for Mathematics Research discusses how information about what the mathematical literature contains can be formalized and made easier to express, encode, and explore. Many of the tools necessary to make this information system a reality will require much more than indexing and will instead depend on community input paired with machine learning, where mathematicians' expertise can fill the gaps of automatization. This report proposes the establishment of an organization; the development of a set of platforms, tools, and services; the deployment of an ongoing applied research program to complement the development work; and the mobilization and coordination of the mathematical community to take the first steps toward these capabilities. The report recommends building on the extensive work done by many dedicated individuals under the rubric of the World Digital Mathematical Library, as well as many other community initiatives. Developing a 21st Century Global Library for Mathematics envisions a combination of machine learning methods and community-based editorial effort that makes a significantly greater portion of the information and knowledge in the global mathematical corpus available to researchers as linked open data through a central organizational entity-referred to in the report as the Digital Mathematics Library. This report describes how such a library might operate - discussing development and research needs, role in facilitating discover and interaction, and establishing partnerships with publishers."

Design Zone, at Franklin Institute in Philadelphia through April 1, introduces children to creative challenges at intersection of math engineering and science.

"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.

"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.

Description of projects supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)