And since this is supposedly a teaching blog, here are some “educational” links:
Rewriting the History of Math
Here are a couple of quick links to math in the news:
- MathTrek: A Prayer for Archimedes
It turns out Archimedes was even closer to discovering calculus than we had thought.
- Tales of the golem: With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
While Pythagoras, on the other hand, sees his place in math history threatened by an experimental disproof of the Pythagorean Theorem. [Hat tip: jd2718.]
More Fun with Hexa-Trex
My elementary Math Club students had fun practicing their math facts and “out of the box” thinking with Hexa-Trex puzzles. The object of Hexa-Trex is to find a path through all the number and operation tiles to make a true equation. The “Easy” puzzles are just the right level for my 4th-5th grade students, although they get stumped whenever the equations require Order of Operations. One girl enjoyed the puzzles enough to take our extra pages home for her dad.
Hexa-Trex puzzles were featured in the October issue of Games magazine, and now you can enjoy Hexa-Trex away from the computer with Bogusia Gierus‘s new book, The First Book of Hexa-Trex Puzzles. If you are thinking ahead to Christmas (can it be that time already?!), and if you have a puzzle lover in the family, this little book would make a fun stocking-stuffer.
Carnival of Math #19
Mark at Good Math, Bad Math came up with the most creative theme I’ve seen for a blog carnival yet, with his Carnival of Math: The Spam Edition. Apparently most of us have been too busy to send anything in. Even though it’s a small carnival, there are several good articles to visit. Enjoy!
Quiz: Those Frustrating Fractions
[Photo by jimmiehomeschoolmom.]
Fractions confuse almost everybody. In fact, fractions probably cause more math phobia among children (and their parents) than any other topic before algebra. Middle school textbooks devote a tremendous number of pages to teaching fractions, and still many students find fractions impossible to understand. Standardized tests are stacked with fraction questions.
Fractions are a filter, separating the math haves from the luckless have nots. One major source of difficulty with fractions is that the rules do not seem to make sense. Can you explain these to your children?
Start with an easy one…
Question #1
If you need a common denominator to add or subtract fractions…
- Why don’t you need a common denominator when you multiply?
How to Solve Math Problems
That’s a Tough One!
What can you do when you are stumped? Too many students sit and stare at the page, waiting for inspiration to strike — and when the solution doesn’t crack their heads open and step out, fully formed, they complain: “Math is too hard!”
So this year I have given my Math Club students a couple of mini-posters to put up on the wall above their desk, or wherever they do their math homework. The first gives four questions to ask yourself as you think through a math problem, and the second is a list of problem-solving strategies.
What Do We Mean by “Assume”?
Almost all math problems call for the student to assume one thing or another. Without assumptions — definitions, postulates, axioms, common notions, or whatever you want to call them — mathematics of any kind is impossible. Tony at Pencils Down (who plans to be a math teacher when he grows up) reminds us that, necessary though it may be, we are stepping on dangerous ground when we assume:
Math Carnival #18
Carnival of Math #18 was posted Saturday evening at JD2718. Jonathan has put together a tremendous list of 52 blog posts, with these instructions:
1) Scroll, 2) Click, 3) Enjoy, 4) Repeat.
It is too much to take in on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, but I know I have some great math reading to look forward to this week.
Edited to add: There is an addendum post, too. Enjoy!
Quotations XVI: Back to the Blackboard
Classes are back in session at our homeschool co-op, so I am again collecting short quotes for the blackboard. Here are the ones I used in September:
Any fool can know. The point is to understand.
Life without geometry is pointless.
You don’t understand anything until you learn it more than one way.
Blog Carnivals = Browsing Pleasure
92nd Carnival of Homeschooling
Charlotte Mason Carnival: Music/Composer Study
And the Homeschool Blog Awards site is gearing up for this year’s program, for anyone who reads homeschooling blogs — and that’s all of us, right?
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 