Help your child get inventive with these resources

Do you have students who love inventing, experimenting, and computing? Then check out my article on Answers.com which features quality, free or inexpensive places you can turn to help your students discover, explore, and develop his or her inner inventor. 

Visit "Help your child get inventive with these resources" to find out about more about resources like Super Awesome Sylvia, Tynker, and Makey Makey.  

Preparing students for real-world financial success

Students often begin pursuing employment as early as high school, but they are not taught best practices when it comes to managing their money. Everyone should know how to make healthy financial decisions, yet it is rarely found in the high school curriculum. While the new Common Core Standards stress the importance of career readiness, it’s not clear in what context students would learn strategies for real world financial concerns--like staying out of debt and the benefits of having good credit.

Whether or not we are teaching this, students are watching it. It is not unusual for a young person to witness from their own family how smart choices can lead to a comfortable lifestyle or how one mistake with your personal finances can take years to erase. Knowing which is which can indeed lead to not only career, but also life, success. Despite the obvious necessity of this, it seems as though it is kept as some sort of secret, or in some cases, it is almost a shameful topic. The result is that in many cases neither families nor schools are helping students understand the importance of building credit, planning for the future or knowing how to think about life after work, how to save, or knowing when to take social security benefits.

5 reasons less is more when it comes to STEM

This post was original featured on Smartblogs on Education in Inspiring Others, Public Policy

Schools are missing the boat when it comes to addressing the problem of preparing students to recapture America’s leadership in producing scientists, inventors, engineers, programmers and more through STEM initiatives. The answer has little to do with more teachers, more common graduation requirements, more tests or more school as our policymakers and corporations who stand to profit off this have suggested.

Instead, if we listen to what the experts in these fields are telling us we discover that when it comes to producing successful STEM graduates, the key lies in the adage “less is more.”

Five lessons from STEM experts

Family Learns Together Through App Creation

Guest post by Kevin Scritchfield

My family’s dream of creating apps for the App Store began over 3 years ago when our kids were involved in the National Bible Bee when it first began. The Bible Bee organization would send you all of the materials - mainly specific verses on different sized cards - for you to study and memorize in preparation for the local competition in order to work your way up to the National stage. My son had the idea of creating a specific type of memorization app that would have helped in the process of memorizing the hundreds of required verses. That conversation grew into talking about other apps that we might be able to create and how we could go about doing that.

Even though my son was only 13 at the time, he had already gone through (at home) a couple of the courses that I teach at my school called Web Page Design (where he learned HTML - the programming language that is at least the shell for all web pages) and Introduction to Computer Programming in C (the programming language than many other languages are based on). He had also played around with the iPhone SDK which is what Apple provides to app developers to create iPhone apps in, as well as Corona SDK which is a third party application that is very similar to Apple’s. With all of this knowledge under his belt, we thought he would be able to create the code for these apps that we had been thinking of  developing. We thought we would start with the one that we pictured doing the best in terms of potential sales within the App Store and to the widest possible potential audience. So our goal was to become an app-developing family!

Should the new math be financial literacy?

Regardless of which side you fall on when it comes to the math wars, most will agree that many students leave high school, and even college, unprepared to handle their own finances. Some would agree that we have become distracted with the potential ability of math to predict future academic success or support critical thinking? In the meantime, we have lost focus on preparing young people for what will matter in their real lives. If the education system were to provide some financial literacy classes for kids, it could make a tremendous difference in the economic success of society.

Why it Would Help
If the educational system provided financial literacy classes, it could change the way that people operate later in life. People would be know how to save money, how to invest, and how to avoid debt. If more people were able to hold onto their money, society would be much wealthier overall, which would lead to fewer problems.

Does Khan Academy = Education?

Encourage Entrepreneurship, Stop Teaching Math!

Guest post by Christeil Figueroa Gota    

My homeschooled kids can’t get through a math worksheet.  No, really.  Not one single worksheet. If they solve one algorithm or word problem, that’s it.  My 10 year old will even get bored 75% through reading a word problem.  He’ll blurt out the answer, and never even bother to write out the solution. This issue lasted about 3 days in our first year of home education before we employed the solution:  I stopped teaching math.

Instead, our kids just lived alongside us, as we lived our lives as business people and entrepreneurs.  Luckily we took to home education freedom very quickly and soon abandoned all things schooly – especially when it came to math.  Though not our initial intention, abandoning conventional math opened us up to real-world entrepreneurial internships that our kids relish.

We played many games together.  We did it just for fun, not for homeschool.  But because we didn’t have to report to a ringing bell every 55 minutes or need to show up with no. 2 pencils at any particular place, we sort of gave in to our board game vice and played constantly.  Besides Monopoly, we played The Wonder Number Game, Sum Swamp, Dino Math Tracks, Pay Day and Money Bags.

10 Fun & Innovative Ways To Learn From Animals

While learning is often associated with textbooks, tests, and teachers, there is an another source from which children can learn some fantastic life lessons.  One of the best learning resources are the creatures that live among us. Animals! There are so many great ways to learn with and from animals.  Here are ten fun and innovative ways that young people, and the adults in their lives, can get in touch with their warm and wild side and learn a lot in the process.

My adorable cousin and her bunny.

• Get a pet - Pet’s are a great way to help children develop responsible behavior,provide a connection to nature and  teach respect for other living things.
• Watch a pet - There are a number of reasons that a family may not be able to get a pet. When this is the case, another option might be to offer to watch a pet for busy neighbors. This provides several of the benefits of getting a pet and can also turn into a part time job for the pet-loving child.  
• Walk a pet - What better way to engage in physical fitness than with a pet. Go for a run in the park or around the block. This too can turn into a part-time job for the child who has a way with animals and wants to become the neighborhood dog walker.
• Learn about endangered species with UStream - UStream is doing some amazing work with capturing endangered species live on film.  Children can watch animals catch prey, mate, reproduce, and much more. Another great feature is viewers can chat with experts and others who are interested while watching the animal in the wild.  Additionally, there is a lot of educational information on many of these pages. Start on the general Pets / Animals page at http://www.ustream.tv/pets-animals. The following are some wonderful pages that are educationally sound and terrific starting places.
• http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles
• http://www.ustream.tv/greatspiritblufffalcons
• http://www.ustream.tv/eaglecresthawks
• http://www.ustream.tv/riverviewtowerfalcons

Prepare students with math they’ll need in the real world with YummyMath

Guest post by Brian Marks

Editor's note:  Those who have followed my math rants know that I am critical of the disconnected math skills taught in schools that take the subject out of context. I also am not a fan of the drill and kill math games like Mangahigh that are more interesting than math worksheets, but pay little attention to the real-world relevance of why these skills are necessary. In this post Brian Marks gets to the heart of the math problem by sharing a resource that puts real-world relevance at it's core.

I can still remember my own math classes as a kid.  I remember working out of a text book, listening to my teacher as she taught us three example problems so that we could do problems 1 – 43 (odds only) for homework.  Of course problems 1- 43 were all the same problem, they just had different numbers or letters in them.  At the time I thought they were just letters, but now I know they were variables.  Maybe at the time I knew they were variables, but did I know what a variable was?  

Let’s fast forward to the present.  What has changed? Often math classes still look the same as they did decades ago.  Students enter the room and check their homework, which is followed by direct instruction on some math skill that is meaningless to most of them.  Students get to practice a few problems in class and look forward to more homework full of practice problems and maybe some contrived word problems.  The only thing different today might be the availability and variety of math resources on the Internet.  Students might be using text books less and worksheets more.  The Internet is full of websites that provide teachers with skill worksheets that focus on algorithm practice, which means tediously doing the same procedure over and over again.  There are even some popular websites that help kids learn the steps to successfully work through an algorithm.  On some websites if you get ten of these problems correct in a row you get to move on to a new skill.  What is concerning is that many of the math resources on the web are simply making it easier for teachers to teach skill procedures and for students to memorize procedures.  We have yet to see sweeping changes in math education in terms of: student learning to conceptual development of math concepts, student discourse, critical thinking, number sense reasoning and a purposeful use of technology, all of which can help prepare students for the challenges of the real world.

Great Gift Idea for Students - Learn Authentically by Giving with KIVA.org

Editor’s note: If your children receive money this holiday season Christeil Figuroa Gota has a great suggestion for how they may want to consider spending some of it while they learn many significant life lessons.

by Christeil Figueroa Gota

People are always talking about bringing education to life, literally, by living their lives and letting their children learn the ins and outs of living in our modern world.  Home Educators and Unschoolers are expert at this.  Those in the conventional education world are sometimes incredulous that simply living ones life is enough of an education for children.  So, I thought I'd take some time to illustrate our paradigm with just one example - Being KIVA Lenders.

 

My husband and I got involved with KIVA in 2006.  KIVA.org is a non-profit that networks worldwide to provide micro-loans for business and housing.  That sentence alone started a conversation with my children about micro lending and the state of business and housing in the world.  To be a lender, one can start with as little as $25.  You can connect with a borrower anywhere in the world.  Simply log on to Kiva.org and browse by loan type or country.

The loans you give are interest-free and will be paid back to you by each borrower.  No other guarantee is made.  We started with $100 to lend and have added more money to our account each year.  Although you can lend anonymously, we can correspond with the borrowers and they can send messages to lenders.  Their stories are posted as well as updates on their loan repayments and progress. As the loans are repaid, we have an opportunity to re-lend as many times as we want.

How to Help Stop Math from Sucking

When in comes to math, for many Sal Kahn, the flipped classroom (if you don't know what it is skip down to the infographic below), and flipped classroom materials like this are all the rage. But for others, we're not so enamored.

Here's why:

While there are some for whom math is magical, there are even more of us that will never ever, ever get excited when you suggest we're going to learn about polynomials, integers, or slopes.  Sure, we get that fact that if we want to go to college, we need to jump through hoops to memorize and regurgitate, but we aren't learning in meaningful ways.  For that we need to rethink math instruction.  

Below are some guys who've done just that.

Geometer Sketchpad Available as iPad App for Exploring Dynamic Math

If you’re a fan of Geometer Sketchpad and you own an iPad, you’ll be thrilled to know that Sketchpad Explorer is available here for free to educators until September 1st. It will be $3.99 after that. Sketchpad Explorer provides an intuitive environment for exploring Dynamic Geometry mathematics. It offers users access to the vast library of The Geometer’s Sketchpad mathematics content on the Web – including Sketch Exchange, the Sketchpad Resource Center and dozens of teacher-published websites – where users can view and share sketches across a range of mathematics topics and levels.

When I provided professional development for teachers in a couple dozen schools where we launched one-to-one laptop programs I found that Geometer’s Sketchpad was popular among math teachers because it offers students a tangible, visual way to learn mathematics while increasing their engagement, understanding and achievement. Students are able to create mathematical models in multiple ways to explore principles, test conjectures and illustrate myriad concepts. 

The Geometer’s Sketchpad has been used successfully in elementary and middle school math, algebra, geometry, precalculus, calculus and higher education applications. In addition to supporting the Standards for Mathematical Practice, The Geometer’s Sketchpad addresses concepts in the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Content, guiding educators to successfully implement the standards as their students benefit from hands-on learning.

A Math Hater's Five Fav Math Resources

I took math in school, but never learned math and I still have nightmares about Algebra. Despite my distaste for the subject, there are some resources that I like.  Here they are. 

My top five fav math resources
1) Chat with others about math on Twitter with the tag #mathchat http://t.co/wUiAJcY - I have had some lively debates doing this.
2) Lots of free and pretty good quality games with MangaHigh.com http://t.co/zfR6igO
3) This self-proclaimed "mathmusician" has a passion for math and helps others learn with passionate and witty delivery http://t.co/qVADJMc
4) Would kids rather learn math from a boring adult like Sal Kahn or other kids? If your answer is the latter, check out these "Mathcast" videos made by kids for kids at http://t.co/TSZe33x
5) I think this is my favorite math resource. Mathalicious teaches math using real world examples. Cool beans. That is what I needed if I were to learn math in school. Read all about it at http://t.co/GhhGD1s

Those are my fav five. If you want more ideas visit http://t.co/GUoDQ9K.

What's the point?

by Jeff Branzburg (branzburg.blogspot.com)

Want to be learn how to be a great math teacher? Have a #Mathchat

Twitter takes the cake as the best tool for professional development, self-directed learning and connecting with those who share your passions.  I recently sent a Tweet using the #mathchat hashtag asking math chatters what I should share with preservice teachers about teaching math.  Not only did they share a number of fantastic resources which I've captured here, but when I asked specifically for information about #mathchat (a forum for anyone involved with Mathematics to discuss and share ideas about issues affecting them) @ColinTGraham agreed to write a post to explain to others exactly what it was.  I sent him my explanation of #edchat (a general Twitter chat about education) to show the type of post that might be helpful. Colin Graham did not disappoint.  Just in time for my guest appearance, he wrote a fantastic post which you can visit at What’s it all about #mathchat?

The Burden of Proof

Vickie Bergman blogs about education and parenting at Demand Euphoria.
 

It seems like math teachers do not care enough if you know how to get an answer. They care more that you can prove that you know how to get an answer. Here is an example to illustrate the difference:

I was helping an 11-year-old with his math homework. The assignment was to find the greatest common factor (gcf) for eleven pairs of numbers. He is really good at this. In fact, he figured out the answers to all eleven problems completely in his head, in less than one minute. This should be a good thing. This means he "knows" this concept. On to the next concept! Right? No, wait... what does that say on the assignment? Something about "showing your work..." Yes, that's right, even though this child did absolutely no work to get these answers, he has to write down some work. But not just some work. A lot of work.

So for the pair of numbers (60, 18), the gcf is 6. My little friend got this answer immediately upon looking at the numbers, as anyone who knows the concept would. But instead of writing down "6" and moving on, he has to write all this:

     18             60
      ^              ^
   6   3         6     10
  ^              ^      ^
2  3           2  3  2  5


18 = 2*3*3
60 = 2*2*3*5

Both numbers have one 2 and one 3 in common, so the gcf = 2*3 = 6

An assignment that was completed in less than one minute has turned into an hour-long session of unnecessary writing. He has to write this process over and over again, eleven times, to prove that he knows the steps. Even though he did not use these steps to get the answer in the first place! I don't know a better way to make a kid feel like math is boring and hard and requires tedious processes.

I ask: WHY? Why do teachers do this? It would take one minute of a teacher's time, sitting with this child, to realize he knows this concept. Instead, so much of his precious childhood is eaten up filling out paperwork like this, night after night.

This is a child who is brilliant in math. He often arrives at answers to complicated problems in his head, without writing down any work, and without being taught any steps. Sometimes it takes me ten minutes, after he has already told me the right answer, to explain the steps he needs to write down for his teacher's benefit.

On tests, he often loses for not showing work. I have already shared some of my feelings about tests in general (Part I and Part II). But here is another great example of TESTS (Teaching Everyone Some Terrible Stuff). Now this mathematically gifted child is bringing home test scores in the "C" range, even if most of his answers are correct. This is harmful to both his confidence and his interest in math. How can he ever believe he is good at math if he brings home such low grades? And this will only get worse as he gets older.

I can remember being upset about this when I was a student, but fortunately it did not completely turn me off from my favorite subject. And I have both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in math to prove it.

This practice is ruining math for our children. Can we please make it stop?

Spend $0 on math resources and still get the best for your students

I often complain of the distaste I had for the boring and irrelevant math instruction I received as a student. As I did in this post Math Class Doesn't Have to Suck - Help for Not Very Good Math Teachers and this one Innovative Ideas That Make Sense for Those Hungry for Math Instruction

As an innovative educator one of my goals is to share ideas with others that may help prevent future students from receiving the same dull and crappy math instruction I received. I previously posted on the launch of Mangahigh.com in 2009 where I shared some games they offered to students like Save Our Dumb Planet, Flower Power, Pyramid Panic, BIDMAS Blaster and their most powerful game at the time, Prodigi, which is a math learning engine that features thousands of math problems with worked solutions and hints that adapt to each student’s ability and learning speed. The site has matured a lot since then, with 450 math lessons covering grade 2  to 10 and Algebra 1, Geometry and 11 math games.  The Mangahigh math games are high quality and original.  New games include Sigma Prime, a game where players use multiplication and division with primes and prime factorization to defeat the alien invasions and Algebra Meltdown where players solve linear equations to guide atoms through the reactor. 

At the time of my last post, teachers could receive a few games for free and "light versions" of other games. Today, Mangahigh has recently gone completely free for US schools.  Teachers can access all of the content on the site and set work for all their students. They also have analytics which provide the ability to compare students effort and achievement to national averages across different lessons.

This video provides an overview of the functionality and content.

If you're a math teacher looking for something to get your students excited and engaged at school or at home, it might be time to give games-based math a try. 

Learning by Doing - Students Can Solve The Issue of Sanitary Drinking Water with Global Experiment

Guest post by Alan Parker

In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama noted that “We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair.”  The International Year of Chemsitry (IYC), a yearlong, international celebration of chemistry organized by some of the leading international chemistry institutions in the world gives students an opportunity to be a part of just the sort of activity the President was referring to.  Andrew Liveris, president of the International Council of Chemical Associations, notes, “95 percent of the things that touch our lives — such as food, water, shelter, transportation, and medicine — are made possible through chemistry,” and the purpose of the IYC is to help show people just how integral chemistry is in everyday life.  

Students can participate in the celebration by joining the Global Experiment called “Water: A Chemical Solution,” which could potentially be the largest chemistry experiment of all time.  Students from across the world will join in the water themed experiments by testing how chemistry can be used to purify water so it can be consumed. More specifically there are four activities that students will complete while taking part in the experiment: 1) acidity 2) salinity 3) filtration 4) solar still.

While The Global Experiment requires the involvement of parent or teacher to ensure safety and provide guidance and support, an education in chemistry is not required. The experiment comes with precise directions with regard to the methods and tools necessary for the successful completion of the modules.  According to the IYC, the experiments will cost very little, if anything at all, to get as many people participating as possible.  The experiments are open to students of all ages and there are options for students in elementary, middle, and high school.

The International Year of Chemistry begins February 6th, and the Global Experiment runs all year. If you believe that your child or your class would have fun participating in the experiment visit the website!  It is a simple yet terrific method to get students engaged with science, and it also gets students involved in helping to solve the issue several countries have finding sanitary drinking water.  When Liveris was in grade school he says he became “hooked on the knowledge that chemistry would open the door to innovations that would make the world a better place.”  The Global Experiment, will give more students the opportunity to feel this way.

Alan Parker is a blogger based out of New York, NY who writes about alternative energy, green business, sustainability, and climate change.
Follow on Twitter @AGreenParker

Math Class Doesn't Have to Suck - Help for Not Very Good Math Teachers

"If the math curriculum wasn't so appalling and the teaching methods so atrocious," people like me wouldn't appreciate people like Vi Hart as much as we do. Vi Hart is a self-proclaimed mathmusician who's on a mission to help girls enjoy mathematics and even embrace being a little nerdy and smart. She recognizes that for most people, math class was, in her words, "fuzzy, unfocused, and all together not very good."

This is why after more than 12 years in math classes I was forced to take if I wanted to get the job that I have because I wasn't enough of a hot shot to get a waiver, I learned, well mathematically speaking, zero, ziltch, nada about math. What I did learn is that the way we teach math in the U.S. sucks about as much as the way we teach language, but that's fodder for another post.

As was recently reported in The New York Times Vi has created a series of videos, because "I want people to feel they can do this. People can. It’s mathematics that anyone can do.” Vi shares in her videos appreciation for math classes that don't bore students to death and suck as much as the classes that most of us experienced in school and left us with mathematical nightmares that still haunt us into adulthood.

If you teach math today, you don't have to suck anymore. Vi is here to help math teachers make math magical, musical and fun with her series of videos where you'll find the following.

• The infamous series of videos about doodling in math class.
• Experiments with music boxes! Videos and explanations of music boxes with a mathematical flair. Currently features a Möbius strip music box and Pachelbel's Music Box Canon.
• Instruments made of paper! Videos of them being played (while on fire, too), recordings, and instructions on how to make your own recorder, hand flute, and xylophone.
• Mathematical Balloon Twisting! Instructions and photos for the platonic solids, balloon tangles, and more!
• Other art, now featuring figure studies of hyperbolic planes. Also includes various digital art doodles, some old charcoals of mathematicians, wire sculpture, and even my award-winning StarCraft comic!
• Mathematical beadwork: how to bead a hyperbolic plane.

If you're a student or have a child, share this post with your math teacher. If s/he won't watch, you can watch the videos yourself as they give you ideas for lots of fun things to do while sitting in a boring math class with a teacher more interested in having you drawing and label axis then explore the wonder and relevance of math.

This video will give you a flavor for her work.

At the feet of the Math Lord, the Rooster will Crow

By Jacob Gutnicki

The dark prince of math had arrived. Mocha Latte and thermos in hand, Michael Lotta was ready to teach. The students were tired of his highness. Many times they considered dropping a lump of sugar in his coffee just to teach him a lesson. However, the students feared the wrath of the math lord. As always, Mr. Lotta started his class with a 5-minute rant. Today’s rant featured the following pearls of wisdom; “So… I made some more phone calls last night! And you guys think it’s a joke. Well let me tell you something. Prom night is coming up soon. Just try me and I’ll ruin that for you too! And if you’re thinking of spiking my coffee… think again. Ask yourself… Was it worth it? Was it? Was it? Was it?”

The coffee must have been really strong today, as he seemed rather animated. After this engaging monologue Mr. Lotta started teaching us about the rooster method. I thought it was a strange name and asked, “What is the rooster method?” Mr. Lotta exclaimed, “Rooster Method! Rooster Method! Rooster Method! There is no Rooster Method! It is the Roster Method. For if there was a Rooster Method, I would flap my wings and crow like a rooster on the top of my lungs like this!!!”

For the next 5 minutes Mr. Lotta crowed like a rooster. No one dared laugh for fear of what he might do. We also wondered if this could be real. One thing is for sure; someone needs to observe his lessons more often.

BLOGGER’S NOTE: Michael Lotta is fictional. The story of the rooster method is not. It makes you wonder.

Like this story? Read more about Mr. Lotta here.