MATH TOOLS NEWSLETTER - APRIL 6, 2007 - No. 50 ***OPPORTUNITY FOR TEACHERS OF GRADES 3-5 Free Online Professional Development Workshops Tools for Building Math Concepts http://mathforum.org/toolsandconcepts/ This workshop sponsored by Microsoft Corporation introduces the use of computers to develop fundamental concepts of multiplication, fractions, division and area through the process of generating data and examining patterns. ***OPPORTUNITY FOR TEACHERS OF GRADES 5-9 Free Online Professional Development Workshops Using Technology and Problem Solving to Build Algebraic Reasoning http://mathforum.org/nsdl_mathtech/online/ Teachers explore how technology can help students build algebraic reasoning as they model and solve contextualized problems using a variety of representations, including graphs, tables, equations, and words. ***OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENTS 2007 Tess Contest Pedagoguery Software Inc. is accepting entries now through May 15, 2007, for their 2007 Tess Contest. Winners will be announced May 25, 2007. The grand prize is US$200, a set of die-cast polyhedra models, a site license and an individual license for Tess. Download a copy of Tess to enter the contest. http://mathforum.org/mathtools/tool/17926/ ***FEATURED SUPPORT MATERIAL The Nine Fundamental Reasons for Technology in Education John Page http://mathforum.org/mathtools/support/30622/ John Page, author of the free online geometry textbook Math Open Reference, offers nine fundamental reasons why he thinks technology is important in education. ***FEATURED ACTIVITY Central Limit Theorem Activity The SOCR Resource http://mathforum.org/mathtools/activity/30183/ This activity represents a very general demonstration of the effects of the Central Limit Theorem (CLT). The activity is based on the SOCR Sampling Distribution CLT Experiment and provides the capability of sampling from any SOCR Distribution. ***FEATURED TOOL Percent Shopping Colleen King http://mathforum.org/mathtools/tool/30423/ Students practice calculating the percent discount and sales price of toys they buy at the store. ***FEATURED TOOL WCMGrapher Tom Downey http://mathforum.org/mathtools/tool/30458/ WCMGrapher is a free graphing application. Use it to create graphs of functions, format the graphs, then copy and paste them into other applications. It runs on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux systems. ***FEATURED TOOL Arbitrary Precision Calculator Nick Exner http://mathforum.org/mathtools/tool/30468/ This applet is meant to demonstrate the importance of significant figures in measurement. This applies especially to significant figures in chemistry. ***FEATURED TOOL TI-Nspire Texas Instruments http://mathforum.org/mathtools/tool/30267/ TI-Nspire and TI-Nspire CAS handhelds and computer software provide students the option to use any of these as a stand-alone learning tool, at school and at home, extending the learning process beyond the classroom. The TI-Nspire handheld comes with a snap-in TI-84 Plus Keypad that provides the same keystrokes as TI-83 Plus, TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition graphing calculators. CHECK OUT THE MATH TOOLS SITE: Math Tools http://mathforum.org/mathtools/ Register http://mathforum.org/mathtools/register.html Discussions http://mathforum.org/mathtools/discuss.html Research Area http://mathforum.org/mathtools/research/ Developers Area http://mathforum.org/mathtools/developers/ Newsletter Archive http://mathforum.org/mathtools/newsletter/ \`. .--------------.___________) \ |//////////////|___________[ ] `--------------' ) ( '-' The Math Forum @ Drexel -- 6 April 2007