Volume 3, Number 2

12 January 1998 Vol. 3, No. 2 THE MATH FORUM INTERNET NEWS SkyMath | SchoolNet Word Problems for Kids | MATH-TEACH: Calculators PROJECT SKYMATH: MAKING MATHEMATICAL CONNECTIONS http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/blynds/Skymath.html A site for middle school mathematics teachers from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). The SkyMath Module, "Using the Science and Language of Patterns to Explore Temperature," includes lesson plans for 15 activities with reproducible masters in English and Spanish. They take at least six weeks to cover: 1. Brainstorming: Temperature and Temperature Changes 2. Be a Weather Watcher 3. Introduction to Blue Skies 4. Reading Celsius and Fahrenheit 5. Make Your Own Temperature Scale 6. Making a Rule to Convert Between Fahrenheit and Celsius 7. Is Our Room All One Temperature? 8. How Can We Describe Our Room Temperature? 9. Sampling and Comparing Temperatures 10. Line Graphs 11. Exploring the StowAway Data 12. What's Been Happening? 13. Were the Predictions Correct? 14. Answers and Questions 15. Presentations and Reflections The SkyMath curriculum is designed to use real-time weather data to involve classrooms in hands-on mathematics, engage students in purposeful projects, and inspire reflection and communication. It aims to demonstrate that acquiring and using current environmental and real-time weather data will promote the teaching and learning of significant mathematics, consistent with the NCTM Standards. -|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|- WORD PROBLEMS FOR KIDS - SCHOOLNET http://juliet.stfx.ca/people/fac/pwang/mathpage/math1.html GRADE 5: If a ball is dropped from a height of 100m, each time it hits the ground it bounces 3/5 of the height it fell. How far will the ball have travelled in the 5th bounce? GRADE 8: The Adams family was going to buy a car for $5800. The car dealer offered the Adams family two options for buying the car. They could pay the full amount in cash, or they could pay $1000.00 down and $230.00 a month for 24 months on the installment plan. How much more would they pay for the car on the installment plan? GRADE 11: It takes 4 1/2 minutes for Elton John to listen to his favorite song on a record recorded at 45 r.p.m. (revolutions per minute). One day, Elton accidentally played this record at 33 1/3 r.p.m. What was the number of revolutions required to play the song? How long did it take to play it at 33 1/3 r.p.m.? From Rescol Canadien/Canada's SchoolNet, this site provides approximately 50 questions designed to help improve students' problem-solving skills for each grade from 5 through 12. Hints are available for difficult problems, and teachers may request complete solutions via email. -|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|- CALCULATORS: 3 MATH-TEACH DISCUSSIONS http://mathforum.org/epigone/math-teach/ Recent conversations on the newsgroup MATH-TEACH range from the advantages and disadvantages of calculators to parental input, curriculum decisions, the difficulty of designing and evaluating educational research, and whether children have the right to choose when and how they will use available technology. "Calculators": http://mathforum.org/epigone/math-teach/tholperdblol "Calculators PS": http://mathforum.org/epigone/math-teach/goxsnanhin "Calculator story": http://mathforum.org/epigone/math-teach/skumspolyil "Take a simultaneous equation problem... 'You have Kona coffee at 2.50 a pound and Colombian coffee at 3.75 a pound. How many pounds of each do you need if you want a blend of 50 pounds of 3.00 coffee?' It used to be that setting up the problem was the easy part and grinding out the answer was the hard (although somewhat trivial) part. With the ti-85, that is reversed, except that setting up the problem is critical and not trivial at all. And this is where students are having difficulties and need the most work and practice." - Kim Mackey "In Ohio, they used to have sales tax tables to help clerks calculate the sales tax. Now, with laser scanners, it is all done automatically. Telling an employer that your students can do all those calculations in their heads will not convince them to junk the scanners. The employers are not going to give up the accuracy and efficiency." - Karl Casper "Why does the pendulum have to swing so far to one extreme? Learning math facts doesn't have to deaden thinking. That is a premise that is unproven and that I believe is causing so many problems for reform. Does the rote learning that is necessary to learn French in a classroom a mind-deadening thing? No it's just boring and I'd rather do it in Paris. But it doesn't ruin your ability to think." - Susan Friedman "Mathematics is not button pushing; it is not number facts; it is not computational skills; it is not shapes. Yet all of these are part of the vehicle for teaching mathematics." - Ron Ferguson The few excerpts we can offer here don't begin to do justice to the discussions, so we encourage you to visit the Math Forum's MATH-TEACH archive. For information about this discussion group, see: http://mathforum.org/discussions/about/math-teach.html -|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|-\-/-|- CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITE: The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/ Ask Dr. Math http://mathforum.org/dr.math/ Problems of the Week http://mathforum.org/students/ Internet Resources http://mathforum.org/~steve/ Join the Math Forum http://mathforum.org/join.forum.html Send comments to the Math Forum Internet Newsletter editors _o \o_ __| \ / |__ o _ o/ \o/ __|- __/ \__/o \o | o/ o/__/ /\ /| | \ \ / \ / \ /o\ / \ / \ / | / \ / \

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