iTEAM - Enhancing Math Instruction

Link: http://tinyurl.com/lpsrdo

This article from the Wall Street Journal discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a new type of search engine called Wolfram Alpha. This new service from the same people that brought you Mathematica bills itself more as a computational engine than just a search engine that has the ultimate (and lofty) goal “to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone.”

I looked at Wolfram Alpha when it first came out a month or so ago, ran through some sample searches, and went along my merry way. But after reading this article and heading back to Wolfram Alpha to see what came back when I entered things like “caffeine” or “aspirin” or “derivative of y=3x+2″, not knowing if that last one made any sense at all or not, and I began to catch the vision of how this tool could be an amazing resource for classroom instruction and teaching.

But then I thought that any teacher having seen this tool would potentially make their students turn in all future work and take all future tests with a slate and a piece of charcoal…

Take a look at Wolfram Alpha for yourself. Throw some math, chemistry, or anything that can be potentially calculated or summarized at it, and decide for yourself.

Link: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/11/08/the-best-science-math-websites-2008/

Yes, I know that it is 2009, but don’t all of the “Best Of…” lists come out the year after? Check out this article from Larry Ferlazzo’s Blog of what he thought were the best websites for Math and Science teachers that he ran across last year.

Might be a way to trick your students into learning something during these last days of the school year! ;) Enjoy!

Link: http://www.thatquiz.org/

ThatQuiz.org is a nice quick quizzing and review site for Math. They also include vocabulary quizzing for Spanish, French, German - even English and geography quizzes as well.

Math quizzing is the focus here, and students can log in a do some quick review or skill reinforcement with the site. Check it out!

Thanks to Wayne, Amilyn, Brad, Sarah & Brittany for meeting with me Tuesday morning. We missed Gary, but someone needs to teach these crazy kids how to drive! Today, we discussed Google Docs in detail. Follow the Read more! link below for the specifics.

Read more »

Link: http://my.hrw.com/math06_07/nsmedia/homework_help/geo/geo_ch09_02_homeworkhelp.html

Lots of homework help from HRW for learning how to find the perimeter and areas of circles and regular polygons. The Guided Practice section has examples, video tutorials and interactive practice with answers available. The Practice and Problem Solving section has two parts. The first part offers practice with a complete video explanation for the type of problem with just a click of the video icon. The second part offers practice with the solution for each problem only a click of the light bulb away.

Thanks Victoria for passing this along!