International Webcams - I Want To See What I'm Getting For My Money

Although this webcam doesn't have anything to do with math directly math is still involved. When students start thinking about college they there are a variety of qualities that have to be explored and looked into. Aside from the college having the major you are interested in you want to know what it looks like and the feel of it when school is in session. After all you or your parents are paying for the best education and the best experience you could get. Most students are able to visit the colleges they find attractive, but when you're just exploring the international webcam come in very handy. The following link is to a webcam from the University of Miami:
http://www6.miami.edu/webcams/. It looks beautiful! If I were choosing this as one f the colleges I wanted to attend and I couldn't go there physically to see it the webcam is great. After all tuition is crazy nowadays and you want t know what you're getting for your money. Math is always around us !

Geography and Math

Geography doesn't just address where a place is located. There are many aspects that are addressed when referring to the geography of a place such as, history, demographics, economy, religious institutes, emergency services, education, references, external links, etc. There are numerous amounts of math being used everyday through many of the aspects listed above. For example, when looking at the demographics of Thornwood, NY it addresses how many square miles the town is along with how many people reside there and how many families reside there. There are certain percentages of how many of families have children under 18 living with them. You can figure out the exact number. It's wild! Math is definitely evident in the economy aspect of Thornwood. Review the site and give an example of where math is used pertaining to the economy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornwood,_New_York

Middle School Math Content

The following link contains an outline of the eighth grade curriculum. It includes the core content, processing skills and activities (which is where you can see how math is useful in everyday life), what can be incorporated into the lesson other than math (Science, Art, English, etc.), evaluation techniques, and technology components.

http://www.min201.org/*DetailedCurriculumPDF/G8%2007-08%20Course%203%20Math%20(7th%20high).pdf

Math Socialization

A social space is comprised of a couple different things. One type of social space is a chat room. Some chat rooms could be considered My Space or Facebook, but a great deal of parents don't want their kids involved in those social spaces due to the dangers they could create. There are all kinds of predators out there and the computer seems to be one of the easiest ways to lure kids in. I found a chat room that deals with homework help. I know kids like to socialize about things other than homework, but I realized that when kids go to do their homework they have questions that I'm not there to answer, or their parents don't know how to do, or that tutorials don't address directly. Therefore, this homework help chat room could be really beneficial and it's safe. If you decide to try it let me know what you think. Enjoy!

http://math-and-reading-help-for-kids.org/homework_help_chat_room.html

Tutorials for Math

Learning a topic in class and having your teacher there to assist you when you need it is great. However, sometimes trouble arises when you go home and have to practice problems on your own. Of course you have your notes to follow, but if you don't understand the concept it's hard to understand what it is you're doing. In seventh grade one of the on going problems are integers. Even though we practice and use them from the beginning of the year it is the one topic that students seem to get students all the time. i found a great tutorial link that explains integers very clearly. One thing that is great about it is the kids can play it over and over again until it sinks in. Another fantastic quality is if the parents are trying to help they can watch and learn as well. I have many parents who want to help their kids, but have trouble with the math themselves. So this is not only good for the kids, but for the parents as well. Integers are used in everyday life. Think about the temperature. In the summer we have high temperatures like 85 degrees Fahrenheit and in the winter we have temperatures that are -10 degrees Fahrenheit. Check out this site and tell me where else integers are used in real life. There are other topics that the tutorials address as well, such as fractions. So feel free to explore those and let me know where you could use any of them in real life too. When you go to the site go to the links for Virtual Library Home. Click the Science and Math link. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Visual Math Learning. Next click on Lessons. Now you can choose whichever lesson you'd like to explore. Have fun!

http://www.math.fsu.edu/Virtual/

Musical Math

Math is definitely involved in learning about music. It is involved with counting beats and measures when reading music. I know a great deal of my students are in band and whether you know it or not every time you go to band you are practicing math at the same time. You may not be writing equations or solving problems, but you are using basic math skills to stay on tempo. I found this link that explains how music can be incorporated into math lessons. One of the lessons for the seventh grade discusses musical intervals, frequency, and ratios. Another lesson for the eighth grade addresses keys and scales. It's very interesting to see how musical aspects are built-into math. Have a look for yourself!

http://cnx.org/content/m11638/latest/

Mathematical Art

Just like math and science go hand in hand a great deal of math and art go hand in hand. I know this blog focuses on math used everyday, but some math stems from history. The website I found, http://mathforum.org/~sarah/shapiro/, addresses how math was used back in the day. The ancient Egyptians used to use string for a great deal of their math. This website consists of a great deal of links that include lesson plans that contain ancient Egyptian methods of how to do math. One of the links within the site is"Family Math", which describes a lesson dealing with measurement and using string to measure. It's fascinating. Have a look and tell me your thoughts.

Math Involvement with the Local, State, and Federal Government

I've researched these sites and found that math is involved in everyone of them. It is particularly involved in the financial branch of each of the governments. I want you to check out each site and give a specific example of how math is used in any of the many financial branches of each government.

Local Government
http://www.pleasantville-ny.gov/Pages/index

State Government
http://www.ny.gov/

Federal Government
http://www.usa.gov/

The Math Museum

When I was younger I thought museums only dealt with historical stuff. Boy was I wrong! There are all sorts of museums for all different subject areas, and they are awesome! A museum is the perfect place to see where math is used everyday and in so many different ways. Math is used in many different forms of art and a million different types of science. The site http://www.mathmuseum.org/ is a math museum where math is looked at through art and science. It is called Goudreau Museum of Mathematics in Art and Science. Not only does this site show you all the different aspects of math, but there are links that help you if you have a math project or report. It even assists teachers with the curriculum and lessons. There is a plethora of information and a library of resources for kids, parents, and teachers. You will be taken back after looking at this amazing site. Check it out!! Let me know what you think of it.

Weather: Math and Science Go Hand In Hand

Most people relate math and science together. Well the weather is something that we deal with everyday, which has a great deal of science involved and a great deal of math involved. I found this fantastic link that has numerous amount of math related situations. For example, when you go to this page there is a line graph which is constantly being updated that deals with the time at the weather station and the speed of the wind every 5 minutes. You can actually see the line move! You can find the weather anywhere in the world. When you click on the link go to the top left and type in the area you want to find the weather for. Check it out and let me know where else math is used in the site.

http://www.n4nw.org/

Every Student Loves The Smartboard/Whiteboard!!

I don't know about anybody else's students, but the minute I offer to do anything on the smartboard/whiteboard my student's hands go up like it's going out of style. They love to participate when technology is involved. I can't blame them I love working on the smartboard/whiteboard. There are lessons that I plan, such as learning about Pythagorean Theorem, where I discuss real life situations and the smartboard/whiteboard makes it possible for me to visually show the kids what I'm talking about. For example, I have a friend who is a photographer. He needed to take a picture that was diagonally across a body of water, in which he required the distance so he could properly focus his camera lens. He called me up and said, "You know when your students ask you when they are ever going to use the stuff you teach them?" I just starred laughing. I asked him what happened and he told me that he had to use Pythagorean Theorem to figure out the distance diagonally across the water (because he couldn't physically measure it) so he could adjust his camera lens to take the best picture. He was so excited that he used something in real life that he never thought there would be a use for. I was so excited that he was able to remember it and use it. I always tell my students this story because I want them to know that they are not just learning this information for the heck of it. The smartboard/whiteboard allows me to simulate these types of situations, which is great and motivates the kids to participate. The following link has many different smartboard/whiteboard activities that the students can participate right at their own computer. Take a look!

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/15.cfm?s=15&p=245,index

Believe It Or Not Math is Linked to Foreign Language

People might think, how is foreign language and math related. Besides the obvious part of being able to say math terms in another language studies show that there are other academic benefits of learning a foreign language. By learning another language at an early age it enhances the student's mental development resulting in an advanced development of their academic skills, specifically their aptitude in math. The following website talks about how math is effected by learning a foreign language.

http://www.utm.edu/departments/french/flsat.html

The following websites are also listed in the site containing more benefits of learning a second language.

http://www.yearoflanguages.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3651

http://www.learnalanguage.org/oflta/Benefits.htm

http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/brain.htm

Math Freeware: Full Downloads

Learning math is like building a house. There has to be a solid foundation and from there we continue to build. As we build throughout the years the house is getting bigger, higher, and harder to build. Math is the same way. As the years go on the topics are getting bigger and the levels are getting harder. At my school we have 9 periods that are about 40 minutes each. Some of the topics I teach are within one period. Not all students are expected to master that topic in one period. Some students need a great deal of practice and repetition. Today students have learned to love the computer and Internet, which is a very vital piece of technology. The Internet has an unbelievable amount of math freeware available at their fingertips. Math freeware is just free software that the kids can download and use to help them within minutes. The following site has various forms of freeware from using different calculators to algebra to geometry and so on. Some of these packages of freeware not only assist with math confusion, but provide strategies to use and practice problems that are applicable to real life situations. Please try to use any of the packages and let me know what you think about them. Good luck and enjoy!



http://www.fulldownloads.org/categories-home-education-mathematics.htm

Math Can Be Fun

As with every subject there are some fun topics and there are some not so fun topics. Once a topic is learned using games to practice it make it fun and reinforces the material. It keeps the kids interest in the subject and they can use the games to help them review for quizzes and test. The following site has a plethora of math games and activities that are awesome. Some of them show real world applications, which allows the kids to see where the topic can be used outside of the classroom. Please take advantage of this cool site!

http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/web/2000/heal/siteslist.htm

Writing in Math?

Today math is not just doing the problems and getting the answer anymore. The students are required to explain or justify their answer. They have to make sure they are showing all of the appropriate steps in order to receive full credit. Most of them can do the problem, but when they have to explain it confusion arises. I tell my students to pretend as if they are explaining how to do the problem to a person who doesn't know how to do it at all. They have to be as clear and specific as possible. Some problems simply ask the kids to explain a situation that has been provided for them. For example, the eighth grade New York State Assessment from this year had a real life problem. They had a graph of a line steadily increasing that dealt with gallons and minutes. It showed that as the minutes went by the gallons increased. The kids had to write a situation that represented the graph. They could write whatever situation they wanted to, but it had to deal with as minutes increased the gallons increased. Many of the students used filling a car with gas, but some had trouble because the line did not start at zero. So they had to first say that the car had some gas in it before they got to the gas station. However, because they were focused just on the minutes passing by and the gas increasing as they filled the car they only received partial credit. The following website has some good guidelines on writing solutions. Hope it helps!

http://mathforum.org/elempow/writing.html

Math To The Rescue

When in doubt think about math. Think about it, many of the medications, cures, and methods that keep advancing towards finding medications and cures for diseases are created by research and experimentation. All of the research is mathematically related. It is done by collecting data, analyzing data, interpreting data, and evaluating data in order to successfully perform experiments. The experiments require measuring and converting certain amounts of substances to combine in order to create the medication or cure. As we all know there are some diseases that still don't have a cure, but thankfully there are many researchers, scientists and mathematicians out there who are continually working toward a cure. I found this very motivating and interesting link (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/now/20080605/bethany-hedt-using-math-to-improve-disease-monitoring.html) about a woman, Bethany Hedt, who used math to establish methods that have helped to improve efficient surveillance and disease monitoring , specifically for HIV/AIDS in areas that have limited resources.
My students in seventh grade collected, analyzed, and interpreted data at the beginning of the year when they were working on bar graphs, line graphs, circle graphs, and histograms. I know her research was much more extensive and extremely difficult, but it's amazing that this highly qualified woman used the same mathematical procedures as these twelve year old kids. So I hope that kids are starting to see that math can be used in so many different ways and in so many different contexts. Math everyday helps doctors find ways!

What does math have to do with sports?

Math is everywhere! Some students may joke and say the only math they know that's involved with sports are the scores because the games are based on how many points are accumulated. However, all teams keep track of their rank, which is a ratio. For example, the lacrosse team is 2 in 0 right now, which means they won 2 games and have lost none. In baseball the players are always talking about their batting average. I played volleyball in middle school, high school, and college and there was always someone keeping track of the stats. They would mark down the number of serves, bumps, sets, spikes, and shanks each person had. Those statistics allowed the coach and players to visually see what the teams strengths and weakness were, as well as the individual players. We were then able to pin-point exactly what we needed to work on, which as a result improved our playing. So let's not forget that math is not just involved in the score of the game!! The following link contains the various sports that are offered at my school - Westlake Middle School.

http://wms.mtplcsd.org/www/mtplcsd_wms/site/hosting/ltr_re_Interscholastic_Athletic_Programs_to_Parents-Guardians_7.2.07.pdf

State Assessments - AHHHHH!

I think that many teachers, no matter what subject they teach get nervous for their students come time for the state assessment. Questions run through their minds such as , "Did I teach the subject well enough" or "I hope I prepared them as well as I could." I can go on and on. Some teachers may wonder what are some of the most logical and best ways to prepare their students for these grueling state assessments. The provided website for all of the New York State Assessments is wonderful. It has all of the past state assessments in every subject and in every grade level. As for the math assessments, they are provided with answer keys and explanations. This site is not only useful for teachers to prepare their students, but for parents to help prepare the kids as well. A great deal of my parents are always asking where they can find extra practice for their kids. I tell them about this website and they're ecstatic. What makes them really happy is that there is an answer key with explanations, which is a valuable asset since some of the math is new and they may have a hard time helping their kids with it. Therefore, the explanation is not only helpful for the kids, but their parents as well.
The focus of this blog is where math is used everyday. In this past year's New York State Assessment for the seventh grade there was a question about temperature that dealt with using integers. There was another question about a bucket with a 5-gallon capacity, which dealt with conversions. On the eighth grade test there was a question about consumer math. So even the state tests address where math is used in the real world. This first website listed below is the home page and the second website is specifically the math state assessments from 2006-2009

http://www.nysed.gov/
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/elintmath.html

If you have any questions or comments about the site or my post please let me know. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts.