Measurement and Cooking Fun Math 1512 Post #5

Measurement--We see and use it every day!  We measure things in miles, drops, steps, feet, inches, gallons, quarts, milliliters, and the list goes on forever!  How do we keep these all straight?  To be honest, I don't

I keep a magnet on my refrigerator much like the one pictured here.  I refer to it when I'm making some juice or cooking.  My eyes are glued to it when I can vegetables.  You are probably thinking, "Um, so?" 

Here is my point.  Why memorize this?  Let's show our students HOW and WHEN they will use these measurements as well as distance, space, and other types of measurement.  Have fun with it! 

I think cooking activities are perfect for this.  It's simple.  Here is a site to hundreds of EASY cooking ideas for children.  I think the important thing is that the students take their time and pay attention to the measurements.  I don't think it's important to remember how many quarts are in a gallon, but students should know that a gallon is indeed larger than a quart.  Here is an ADORABLE video of a couple of kids cooking.  They are missing the explanation of measurements, but they sure had fun! 

Place Value Blocks Math 1510 Post #5

My favorite teacher in elementary was Mrs. E.  She was my first grade teacher.  You may be surprised as to what made me like her class well above the rest.  It wasn't snack time, nap time, or extra play time.  It wasn't stickers or prizes.  OK, you got me...it was the PLACE VALUE BLOCKS.  Yep, I said it.  I loved playing with those place value blocks more than anything.  It was more than the fact that I could get them figured out before anybody else.  I'm sure the sense of pride helped my liking, but I think it was the overall experience of using the blocks to solve math problems that I enjoyed the most.

Place value blocks are an excellent way to differentiate instruction to suit our students' specific types of learning.  For the most part, I'm a visual/spatial learner, so the blocks worked well for me.  However, there are different ways to use the blocks to tailor the instruction to suit the other models as well. 

Here is a video of base ten blocks in action!  The video will also explain how to eplain the blocks to the students as well as what to do when they don't quite understand.

Place value blocks, also known as base ten blocks, can be used for so many different things!  Here is a link to a site that has ideas for learning place value as well as basic algorithms.  We have to teach the basics before we can go wild, right?  Why not make it fun?Base Ten Blocks

Math 1512 How do I solve that? Post #3

I was always so terrified of geometry.  I really thought about why--until this course.  The reason I disliked geometry was because I was afraid of forgetting formulas. 

Whenever my teachers prepped us for state testing, they told us that the formulas wouldn't be on the test.  Similarly, when we had chapter tests, the formulas were nowhere to be found. 

What is my point?  This only brings me back full circle to my last post!  Instead of being shown the real-world application of these formulas, I was worried sick about memorizing the formula for finding the volume of a cylinder. 

I've linked these nifty websites featuring the Area of Shapes as well as the Surface Area of 3D Figures.  They helped me with my homework for this class.  Instead of rummaging through the book for my homework problems, I was able to have these up in another window. I'm not going to lie!  At first glance, when I was asked to find the volume of an ice cream cone, I thought "Oh crap no!"  After I realized it was simply a half sphere and a cone I was able to refer back to my handy websites and compute the answer rather quickly.  I hope my students see the image as a half sphere and a cone...and not an ice cream cone.

These sites would assist me during a direct instruction or classroom discussion activity.  We would have these sites to quickly refer to.  I also think it's appropriate to have posters  with the formulas for surface area and volume posted in the classroom.  I don't care if my students can/can't memorize the formulas.  I just want them to be able to apply them. 

I thought this would be a fun way to find perimeter and area.  This is a video about using Google Earth to find the perimeter and area of various things.  I think it would be fun because they could find the area of their house or neighborhood and then compare it to larger things such as the Mall of America or Target Field.  Google Earth is so much fun and could be used for so many different activities!

Making Math Fun-Math 1510 Post #4

I think part of the reason students dislike math is because of the way things are worded.  As I was creating my MindMap for the Math 1510 class, I thought, "If I was a student trying to learn the basics of estimation and computation, what would keep me engaged?"  After I looked through a few websites, I found my answer. 
I was able to find games that have recognizable characters in them.  For example, in this link to Multiplication Games, students are able to play a game with "Ben 10."  If we used real-world objects in the classroom, I think our students would be much more interested in what is going on.  We could even tailor the material to certain students.  For example if a certain group of young men enjoy cars, why not find the circumference of one of the tires?  I assure you this is much more interesting than finding the circumference of a stupid circle.
Although I think students in the younger grades would benefit from physical examples (actually bringing in real toys or food) I think that using interesting language would be just as helpful.
For example, "I have one hundred marbles.  I will go to the store tomorrow and purchase 25 marbles.  The next day, I will give 23 marbles to my cousin Ted." OR "I have one hundred Yu-Gi-Oh cards.  I will go to the video game store tomorrow and purchase 25 more Yu-Gi-Oh cards.  The next day, I will give 23 Yu-Gi-Oh cards to my cousin Ted." 

If you were an eight-year-old boy, which problem would you prefer to solve?

Real world application and targeting what students are interested are key in retention of information.  This is video about real-world application and how one school keeps their students engaged.

Math 1510 Post #1

Ahh!  Now that I'm caught up, I'm feeling very confident with the content of our class thus far.  It seems like it was so long ago that I studied sets and properties.  Although some things were very familiar to me, the fog was pretty think over some of the concepts.  I don't think I ever encountered expressing numerals with different bases, Mayan or Babylonian symbols.  I was confused at first, but I was able to understand it after working through a feel problems. 

Upon becoming angry confused, I began thinking, "This is stupid, I'll never use this...Why do I even need to know this."  This sounded all to familiar to me.  This is how I have always seen math.  I've always hated disliked math as a whole.  Every semester, I would erase what I had learned as I didn't feel any of the things I was learning would be relevant to my life.  Surely, this was before I decided to pursue a career in education.  I have really been kicking myself for not trying to retain a bit more information. 

Anyway, onto the actual meat and potatoes! The first two weeks gave me good refreshers of some basic math.  I was able to get back into the groove and even bought a calculator.  I was able to brush up on things such as intersections and unions as well as the properties of addition and multiplication.  I encountered base ten representation and was able to work through the formulas with the help of our wonderful MyMathLab.  I'm not sure where I would be without the "Help Me Solve This" button.  It's my lifeline!

Mainly, the most interesting concept from the past two weeks has been the Mayan and Babylonian number systems.  These were literally foreign languages to me.  Here is a Simple Mayan Explanation to explain this new concept.  Here is another link to Different Number Systems that explains the Babylonian, Egyptian, and Mayan number systems.  It also explains a bit about the history of numbers.

It's always nice to have sites like these that explain the concepts a bit further.  Sometimes textbooks are a bit unclear on concepts that only appear in the book once.  Students often benefit from having more pictures and less text to explain new concepts.

I won't get into the explanation of the Mayan number system.  If you are interested, use my links.  The image above also explains the formula that is used to read the symbols used to illustrate large numbers.  Once I practiced a couple, it was super easy!