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MathNotations Contest for Middle-High School

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

math-team-edit
[Photo by ccarlstead.]

Can you can put together a team of 2-6 middle or high school students for an afternoon of mathematical play? If so, then Dave at MathNotations is running a math competition you just have to check out.

Teachers register by email on or before Thursday, January 29, and will receive the six thought-provoking contest problems and official answer form by return email. Hold the contest at your convenience on Tuesday, February 3, allowing your team up to 90 minutes to complete and electronically submit their answers.

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Free Online Math for Middle School and Up

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

alcumus

The Art of Problem Solving people recently announced their new Alcumus program, which provides online lessons on assorted math topics, including probability and combinatorics, which most math textbooks do not cover well, if at all.

Update October 2011:

Alcumus currently complements our Introduction to Algebra, Introduction to Counting & Probability, Introduction to Number Theory, and Prealgebra textbooks, as well as our Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Introduction to Counting & Probability, Introduction to Number Theory, and Prealgebra 1 online courses. We expect to continue to expand topics in Alcumus.

— AoPS Alcumus information page

I am signing up all my MathCounts students. If you’re a homeschooler, we would love to have you join us!

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2009 Mathematics Game

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

new-year
[Photo by Amanda M Hatfield.]

Have you made a resolution to exercise your mental muscles this year? Then please join us for the 2009 Mathematics Game. Here are the rules:

Use the digits in the year 2009 and the operations +, -, x, ÷, sqrt (square root), ^ (raise to a power), and ! (factorial) — along with parentheses, brackets, or other grouping symbols — to write expressions for the counting numbers 1 through 100.

  • All four digits must be used in each expression.
  • Only the digits 2, 0, 0, 9 may be used.
  • The decimal point may be used, as in .9, .02, etc.
  • Multi-digit numbers such as 29 or 902 may be used, but preference is given to solutions that avoid them.

By definition: 0! = 1 .
[See Dr. Math’s Why does 0 factorial equal 1?]

For this game we will accept: {0}^{0} = 1 .
[See the Dr. Math FAQ 0 to the 0 power.]

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MathCounts — Ready or Not, Here It Comes

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

[Feature photo above “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch” from CheezBurger.com.]

Okay, kids, I know you’re on break, but Mr. Grinch would tell you that’s no excuse to laze around playing games and eating cookies. There is only a month until our school MathCounts competition, which doesn’t give you much time to prepare. I’ve collected several resources to build up your mental muscle-power before the test…

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Blogging Without a Computer

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

funny pictures of cats with captions

In case you’ve been wondering, my old computer finally bit the dust a couple of months ago. I’ve been living out of a flash drive, begging time on my kids’ computers between “homework” sessions — do you know how hard it is to drag a teenage girl away from Facebook? — and barely keeping up with email.

But I do have some blackboard quotes saved up from this semester and a few drafts on the back burner. I will get back to blogging someday, I promise!

Contig Game: Master Your Math Facts

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

[Photo by Photo Mojo via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).]

Yahtzee and other board games provide a modicum of math fact practice. But for intensive, thought-provoking math drill, I can’t think of any game that would beat Contig.

Math concepts: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, order of operations, mental math
Number of players: 2 – 4
Equipment: Contig game board, three 6-sided dice, pencil and scratch paper for keeping score, and bingo chips or wide-tip markers to mark game squares

Set Up

Place the game board and dice between players, and give each player a marker or pile of chips. (Markers do not need to be different colors.) Write the players’ names at the top of the scratch paper to make a score sheet.

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Math History Tidbits: Agnesi, Euler, and China

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Alexandria JonesI’ve fallen behind on my project of transcribing my Alexandria Jones stories. Finally, here are a few more tidbits from math history, along with links to relevant Internet sites and a few math puzzles for your students to try.

I hope you find them interesting.

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