Do you want to improve your grasp of math so you can help your children understand their homework? Did math pass you by at school, or have your skills grown rusty over the years? Do you find it hard to apply what you know to the real-life problems you need to solve now—like using spreadsheets, interpreting data, or assessing risks?
If so, then the free, online, work-at-your-own-pace Citizen Maths course may be just what you need. Instead of abstract routines, the course uses practical problems to help you grasp some “powerful ideas” in math and see how these ideas apply in work and in life.
The course covers five “powerful ideas” that connect several areas of mathematics:
- Proportion (available now)
- Uncertainty (available now)
- Representation (available now)
- Pattern (available in March 2016)
- Measurement (available in March 2016)
Each section is a mix of online video tutorials and interactive problems.
The developers say: “We’ve designed the course to be at the level, in England, of GCSE Maths or Level 2 Functional Skills. This is the level that a 16-year-old school leaver is expected to achieve in maths, though many do not. This means that you will benefit most from doing Citizen Maths if you already have a basic knowledge of percentages, fractions, measuring, and can use simple graphs and tables.”
Registration is free, and there’s no commitment. You can use as much or as little of the material as you need.
Sound interesting? The Citizen’s Maths website has an anonymous check-list with ten quick “Yes/No” questions to help you decide whether the course will help you.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 