Edunology

I have come across a few great websites that host free math tutorial videos.  The videos on these sites are great teachers and students. Many of the videos break down complex math topics into small pieces. They can be used as an instructional tool or a study guide for students. These videos can be embedded or linked into Smart Notebook Lessons, Glogs, PowerPoints or Digital Stories.

I will be adding to this list from time to time as I am introduced to other great sites.

• www.khanacademy.org – A huge collection of Math and Science tutorials. Created by an MIT graduate this site is a terrific resource for students and teachers. The videos are hosted on Youtube so Youtube access is required.

• www.mathtrain.tv – a collection of math tutorial videos created by students for students.

• http://teacher.tenmarks.com -  math video lessons – free. They have loads of math video lessons – 3-5 minutes long – perfect for sharing with kids and parents for grades 3-10. What I like most is the wonderful way they have explained complex math problems by breaking it into smaller pieces.

Today I was introduced to a fabulous website called Khan Academy. The address of the site is http://www.khanacademy.org.  Khan Academy hosts over 1000 math and science video tutorials.  All of the videos are categorized and hosted on Youtube.  Here is a quote from their site

The videos provide a very easy to follow explanation of basic and advanced topics. Salman explains these concepts in a manner that is attractive to students.  Each video is supplemented by software that dynamically generates exercises and captures data on student usage and progress. You can read this document to understand the vision of this site and to review student and teacher feedback.

Another highlight on this site is the SAT review. Khan works out every problem found in a common SAT study guide. This is a free SAT study guide with step by step video tutorials!

This site is a tremendous resource for students and teachers. The tutorials can be integrated into lessons, posted on Moodle pages, linked to teacher web pages or provided to students for review. The tutorials have proven to be an effective tool for special education students. Teachers may decide to incorporate these videos in center activities in the elementary school. I could also envision these tutorials added to a Glog.

I hope you enjoy this resource. I welcome your comments on this post and would love to hear your feedback or implementation experiences regarding this resource.

I came across the website the other day. It is called analyze math http://www.analyzemath.com/. I found it to be a great resource for creating interactive math lessons.  Here is a description from the website:

“The site includes several java applets to investigate Graphs of Functions, Equations, and Algebra. Topics explored are: equations of line, ellipse, circle, parabola, hyperbola, polynomials; graphs of quadratic, rational, hyperbolic, exponential and logarithmic functions; one-to-one and inverse functions and inverse trigonometric functions; systems of linear equations; determinants and Cramer’s rule; inverse matrix and matrix multiplication; vectors, complex numbers, polar equations; absolute value function; slope of a line; angle in trigonometry, unit circle, solutions to trigonometric equations; graph shifting, stretching, compression and reflection. Applets used as Online Math Calculators and Solvers and Online Geometry Calculators and Solvers are also included”

The interactive applets can be found here:

http://www.analyzemath.com/math_software.html
I see a lot of uses for such a site. Here are some of my ideas:

1. The interactive applets can be used on an interactive whiteboard.
2. Teachers can create an interactive assignment on Moodle with links to the applet for practice, links to instructional videos and discussion forums.
3. Create an interactive assignment using Glogster. One section of the Glog could be practice using one of these applets.
4. Advertise the availability of this resource for students to use as a homework helper or study guide.

Enjoy

Jenuine Tech has opened up a new online project called “Everyone Counts“ The theme of the project is the US Census that will be happening this year. She has setup a website with information regarding the project. There are two question sheets that can be used as well as a number of extension activities. This seems like a great project to work on with your class. I have a few ideas regarding extension activities as well. Here is the link to the project information and registration info. I listed some extension activities that I thought were interesting.
http://www.jenuinetech.com/Projects/ec20/welcome.html

• Global Collaboration – We are starting to make a number of connections with schools in the US and overseas for video conferencing and collaboration. A comparison of census data that the students collect would be an interesting idea. I can help make the connection with another class. Jen also offers the opportunity to find another class through her Ning site.
• Math – The collection of census data is a great way to incorporate MS Excel into your curriculum. Students can add the data to a spreadsheet and create graphs to display and interpret the results
• Social Studies / Geography -After reviewing census data for locations students can take a trip on Google Earth to visit these locations. They can identify the type of community and take note of the physical characteristics of each location in relation to the census data (i.e suburban, vs. rural, vs. urban communities)
• This site has some ideas for teaching about the census in your classroom.   http://www.census.gov/schools

As always I am available to assist with and plan all stages of such a project! I would also appreciate it if you would share any additional ideas you have to add to this project.

The National Libary of Virtual Manipulatives was created to supply teachers with interactive mathematics manipulatives. It is available free of charge on the web. Here is a description of their site taken from their about page:

“The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM) is an NSF supported project that began in 1999 to develop a library of uniquely interactive, web-based virtual manipulatives or concept tutorials, mostly in the form of Java applets, for mathematics instruction (K-12 emphasis). The project includes dissemination and extensive internal and external evaluation.”

This site can be used on an interactive whiteboard. Links to individual activities can be incorporated into smart notebook lessons as well. Faculty members can provide links to individual activities on their website for students to access at home.

http://nlvm.usu.edu/

Enjoy!