It has been awhile since I’ve succumbed to my Kickstarter addiction, but felt the need to place a pledge last night for “Turing Tumble: Gaming on a Mechanical Computer.” The good news is that the project has already far surpassed its funding goal, and there are still 27 days to go in the campaign. The bad news is that the projected date I will receive it is not until January of next year. Turing Tumble looks like it will be a great addition to my classroom. Because marbles!!!! And logic puzzles in a comic book!!!! And learning the basics of how computers work!!!
If I haven’t convinced you yet, check out their Kickstarter page, which gives a very thorough explanation (better than mine) and video of the Turing Tumble in action.
Check out the Turing Tumble, invented by Paul Boswell (above) on Kickstarter!
Leland Melvin is a former football player. He also happens to be a retired astronaut. (The two careers happened in that order.) Steamography has joined with Leland Melvin to create a site that tells his story as the first in what they plan to be a series of “ographies” about people who have lived STEAM-driven lives. You can learn more about Steamography’s mission here.
I can’t think of anything that might be more interesting to children than a football player turned astronaut – except a football player turned astronaut who loves dogs. Fortunately, Leland Melvin fits that description, as you can see from the cover of his recently published book, Chasing Space. (There is also a Young Reader’s Edition of this book.)
On Steamography’s Leland Melvin page, your students will be greeted with fun comic-like graphics, short videos from Melvin on such topics as, “What it’s like to spend Thanksgiving in space,” and eight STEAM activities.
If this site is an indication of the future Steamographies that will be featured, then I am looking forward to this being an incredible resources for my students to inspire and motivate them to learn more about STEAM careers.
Chris Shore is quick to note that he did not invent Clothesline Math. However, he is the author of the Clothesline Math website, and producer of many of the materials on the site, so I think he definitely deserves some credit!
When I first ran across this site, I was a bit dubious of the value of a Clothesline Math activity. Basically, the teacher gives out a set of number tents to students, who then must hang them on a clothesline (which represents a number line). However, once I watched Shore’s video explaining how he introduces Clothesline Math, I realized how this seemingly simple activity could really start some incredible math class discussions. There are many decisions students need to make when they determine what benchmarks to use on the numberline, the order to place their numbers, and the amount of space in between. Even with a set of 3 fractions (1/2, 1/3, and 1/4), you could take up an entire class period.
Shore provides different sets of printable numbers (from various math disciplines) and an answer document on his site. Of course you can DIY with your own supplies and number sets based on whatever you are studying in math class at the moment.
I like the idea of students reasoning through this, and having to justify their responses. It can also be a great visual and kinesthetic activity that will be much more meaningful that choosing from multiple choice answers on a worksheet.
Questions like, “How Many Combos are there on a Coke Freestyle?” are sure to elicit curiosity from your students. Kaplinsky shares the image, a challenge, questions to be asked by the teacher to encourage discussion, and background information regarding the facts and the math related to each image.
Robert’s site inspired me to look for some other free images that might spawn some intriguing math questions, and I found this one on Pixabay:
Can you think of math questions for your own students that would correlate to this picture?
About three years ago, we tried out a tool called, “Flipgrid” for a project that my students were doing for Genius Hour. We were using a trial version and I decided against a paid subscription and I didn’t think I was ready to invest in that at the time. However, I am seeing a lot of features that make Flipgrid a potentially exciting classroom tool. Basically, Flipgrid allows you to create a topic, and other people can add videos to respond to the topic. All of the video responses are collected on one page, which makes it easy to access them. This means that people can reply asynchronously, (as opposed to a Skype interview, for example) which allows for participants from all over the world to add videos when it is convenient in their time zones. For global learning, this can be an invaluable tool.
Recently, Flipgrid started offering a free account. Although it obviously offers less features (you are limited to one grid instead of unlimited, for example), it is still something worth trying. One grid still allows unlimited topics. Another way that you can experience Flipgrid for free is to participate in its “Explorer Series.” In the first edition of this series last October, Flipgrid offered weekly videos from an Antarctic marine biologist along with questions to which students could respond. Flipgrid just launched the second edition, which will be two weeks of posts from Mike Billington of the University of Minnesota Raptor Center. The first topic is, “What is a common bird in your community? What can you do to support their environment?” Mike’s first video shows him with a live bald eagle, a site many students don’t get the chance to see. It would be interesting to connect this experience with Beauty and the Beak, and certainly a great way to make the last few weeks of school engaging and educational.
UPDATE 2/9/2021 – Since this post has collected more than 15 sites, I’ve created a Wakelet collection, which you can now find here. The Wakelet collection will be updated with any future awesome math sites I find.
My students, especially my 4th and 5th graders, love math challenges. If I can, I find ones that don’t show the answer so we can all try to figure them out. I think it’s good for the students to see me struggling (and I really do!), and how I handle frustration over particularly devilish problems. Last week, my 5th graders and I spent a good 30 minutes on this “easy” problem on Steve Miller’s Math Riddles page. (Technically, they had an excuse since they hadn’t exactly learned the math skill needed to solve the problem – yet.)
If you are looking for some unique math problems that will feel more like brainteasers than standardized test practice, here are some sites that I haven’t mentioned before:
With more and more articles coming out every day about the importance of modeling a good attitude toward math (like this one and this one), it seems kind of as simple as 1+1=2 to come to the conclusion that the people who have fun doing math will be more inclined to do it more often.
UPDATE 4/26/17 – I can’t believe I forgot to include this one: Estimation 180. So, there’s a bonus for you!
UPDATE 5/8/17 – I may have to change the title of this post soon because I keep finding more great sites! Here is another one: Robert Kaplinsky’s Real World Problems.
