Math Facts: 5 Minutes a Day

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

free-rice-image

Y of x reminded me about one of my old favorite websites for math fact practice with a purpose:

5-10 minutes of daily practice will cement the math facts in your student’s mind, while at the same time doing a good deed. For each correct answer, a Free Rice sponsor donates a very small amount of rice to feed hungry people worldwide through the UN World Food Program.

Even very small amounts of rice add up. Since Free Rice started in 2007, its sponsors have bought more than 63 billion grains of rice, just by paying for one right answer click at a time.

You and your students can practice other topics as well:

Continue reading Math Facts: 5 Minutes a Day

Can You Read the Flu Map?

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

swine-flu-map-with-circles
[Map as of early afternoon on May 4th, found at the NY Times.]

Compare the dark circles (confirmed cases) for Mexico, New York and Nova Scotia in the top part, or Mexico and the U.S. in the lower part of the map. It’s easy to see which has more cases of the flu — but how many more? Which would you guess is the closest estimate:

Mexico : New York : Nova Scotia

  • = 7:3:2 or 20:5:3 or 16:2:1?

U.S. : Mexico

  • = 1:2 or 2:5 or 3:7?

Continue reading Can You Read the Flu Map?

Tangrams and Other Dissection Puzzles

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

tangram-cat[Photo by jimmiehomeschoolmom.]

One of the things I meant to do with my elementary math class (the one that got canceled due to low enrollment):

And then we would play around with Tangram puzzles, and perhaps make up a few of our own.

Continue reading Tangrams and Other Dissection Puzzles

Kids’ Project: More Math Calendars?

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

tulips-by-kuzeytac[Photo by Kuzeytac.]

Several people enjoyed the April calendar and asked if there would be a May version. Unfortunately, my homeschool co-op classes are out until next fall, so I don’t have enough kids to make up problems for me. But if your children would like to send in some puzzles, I will be glad to put another calendar together. If we get enough participation, we could have calendars every month for the rest of the year!

Continue reading Kids’ Project: More Math Calendars?

Carnival of Mathematics Resurrected

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Carnival of Mathematics

The Carnival of Mathematics is back:

There is a nice balance of articles. My favorite comes from a new blog (just started this month!): The Numbers Go Social Networking.

A winner has been announced and a solution posted for last week’s Monday Math Madness:

Watch for the new puzzle coming next Monday at Wild About Math!

And don’t forget: The next installment of Math Teachers at Play opens next Friday, May 1, at I Want to Teach Forever. To contribute, use this handy submission form.

Free: Calculus Student’s Best Friend

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

calculus-made-easy

Considering how many fools can calculate, it is surprising that it should be thought either a difficult or a tedious task for any other fool to learn how to master the same tricks… Being myself a remarkably stupid fellow, I have had to unteach myself the difficulties, and now beg to present to my fellow fools the parts that are not hard. Master these thoroughly, and the rest will follow. What one fool can do, another can.

— Silvanus P. Thompson

For years, I have recommended Calculus Made Easy as summer reading (and future reference) for high school or college students headed into a calculus course — and for the parents of those students, who may have studied calculus in ages past and now need to dredge out the dust bunnies of memory so they can help with homework.

The original book (second edition) is now out of copyright and available for free online:

[Hat tip to Sam and Michael for finding the Scribd version, which set me off searching for a clearer copy.]