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PrNumber sense
is a content skill that encompasses many areas. This skill
needs to be explored using whole numbers, fractions, decimals,
percents, ratio, money, and estimation. Being able to handle
numbers comfortably and competently is important to adults
as parents, workers, and community members. Estimation, mental
math, computation, and calculators are all tools that develop
number and number sense.
Be sure to look
at the different set of resources
listed at the Student/Learner webpage for this topic:
AAAMath
This interactive site provides basic math skills in many
areas: addition, algebra, comparing, counting, decimals, division,
equations, estimation, exponents, fractions, geometry, graphs,
measurement, mental math, money, multiplication, naming numbers,
patterns, percents, place value, practical math, properties,
ratios, statistics, and subtraction. What makes this site
terrific is that it not only provides interactive practice
on each topic, an explanation of the math topic, and challenge
games, but it also allows the teacher to direct student by
content and grade level (from Kindergarten through Grade Eight
and World Levels).
 BasketMath
Interactive
BasketMath Interactive is a site with activities to reinforce
basic math skills in a wide variety of areas. Some topics
covered are exponents, perimeters, distance, rounding, bar
graphs, and reasoning. (There is a hyperactive animated basketball
player at this website. He is sometimes hard to ignore!) NOTE:
This site can be viewed in Spanish or English.
 Cynthia
Lanius’ Index of Math Problems
Cynthia Lanius is the Executive Director for the Center
for Excellence and Equity in Education at Rice University
and the co-director of GirlTech (http://www.girltech.com
), as well as an experienced math teacher. Lanius has developed
wonderful interactive, cross-curricular activities using online
resources. We have referred to a few of these problems in
the learner section and have given an example in the Mathematics
of Cartography. Each lesson has teacher notes. These are well
worth exploring for use with learners in your programs. Some
can be done independently, but group activities are encouraged.
Some activities have references to "kids" on the
pages, but these activities are still valuable. In the Learners
section of this special collection, we refer to several of
these activities:
Ratio and Proportion
(good for low-level readers), Fun and Sun Rent-A-Car (tables,
graphs, linear functions), Let’s Graph (graphing and
data analysis), The Million $ Mission (exponential growth,
Fun with Calendar (linear functions), and Fractals. Some particularly
good sites are:
All
About Ratios: This website, another great activity
from Cynthia Lanius, is a good one for non-readers. There
is a series of activities in determining equivalent ratios,
culminating "The Famous Texas Chili Problem" and
a quiz. The teacher’s notes are found here. The introductory
language at this site is labeled for "kids", but
that is easy to bypass with directions from an instructor.
No
Matter What Shape Your Fractions Are In: This interactive
game helps students visualize fractional areas using pattern
block shapes. Students are not given fraction rules, but
explore geometric models of fractions in order to discover
relationships among them. As with all of Lanius’ lessons,
the teacher notes are extremely helpful.
Pattern
Blocks Program: This online pattern block program,
for which you need the JAVA plug-in, was developed by Cynthia
Lanius for use with the above fractions online activity.
There is a clear description of how to use this program,
suggested activities, and instructions for acquiring JAVA,
if you don’t have it already.
 Fun
Brain.com
There is an index of math games at this website. Some
are not age neutral in terms of language and graphics, but
others are fine. (See the Learner Number Sense site for two
examples) Check out this index of math games at this website.
FunBrain.com is an interactive site that allows teachers to integrate games and assessment quizzes into their daily lessons. http://www.funbrain.com/teachers/index.html.
 Math
Forum
The Math Forum offers a wide range of math resources at
many levels. In addition to resources by subject, teachers
may link to math education topics and other key issues in
math. The Math Forum features Ask Dr. Math, Discussion Groups,
Forum Showcase, Internet Newsletter, Problems of the Week,
Teacher to Teacher, and Web Units and Lessons. Two sites we
like are:
Math
Forum’s Tour of Fractions: This website gives
the instructor a tour through the resources dealing with
fractions found at the Math Forum. Math Forum offers many
sites and resources for teachers.
Math
Forum’s Magic Squares: This
is one of Suzanne Alejandre’s math lessons at the Math
Forum. Included in this site is a history of the magic square,
a discussion of "where’s the math", magic
starts and other math links.
 Pi:
the Never Ending Number
This website, part of the larger website, "Math in Daily
Life", provides a quick explanation of the origin and
meaning of Pi. The website uses small print and complicated
language, but it is a good resource.
 Project
Interactivate
Interactive JAVA-based lessons, discussion, and activities
enable the teacher to extend hands-on activities in the classroom
and provide new content and practice in four areas; Number
and Operation Concepts, Geometry and Measurement Concepts,
Function and Algebra Concepts, and Probability and Data Analysis
Concepts. Each activity comes with supplementary pages that
can be accessed from the activity page. "What" gives
background, "How" gives instructions, and "Why"
gives curriculum context. The Number and Operation Concepts
includes working with fractions and decimals, clock arithmetic
and finding number patterns. Lessons for the teacher are also
available. More information about Project Interactivate and
additional teacher resources can be found at: http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/teacher.html
One of the most interesting sites is:
Fraction
Four: This game from Project Interactivate provides
practice in simplifying, converting, multiplying decimals,
percentages and fractions.
 A
Question of Scale
Take a journey from the inside of a proton to the
farthest reaches of the universe. These images are loosely
based on the book, The Powers of Ten, by Philip and
Phyllis Morrison and the Office of Charles and Ray Eames.
See how powerful the power of ten can be.
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