Using Web Sites to Teach Math

Transcription

1 Using Web Sites to Teach Math This workshop covers the following topics: Outreach and Technical Assistance Network Basic Math / Pre-Algebra Resources including fractions, decimals, percents, word problems, and teacher resources Alg ebra I Resources including basic equations (with manipulatives), factoring, binomials, polynomials, quadratics, word problems, and teacher t resources Geometry Resources including basic geometric figures, measurements, high school level geometry I, General E quivalency Diploma (GED) Preparation and teacher resources Special Area Resources including California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), specific vocational applied math, online resource listings for future exploration 11/14/09

2 OTAN activities are funded by contract CN from the Adult Education Office, Secondary, Postsecondary, and Adult Leadership Division, California Department of Education, with funds provided through Federal P.L., , Section 223. However, the content does not necessarily reflect the position of that department or the U.S. Department of Education.

3 Table of Contents List of Math Resources Links... 2 Recommended Algebra Web Sites for Instruction... 3 Algebra Supplemental Sites... 6 Check List for Evaluating Math Web Sites... 9 i

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5 List of Math Resources Links 1. Math Resources - Tutorials, Formulas, Calculators, Directories 2. National Library of Virtual Manipulatives 3. A+Math; Worksheet Generator, Basic Math 4. Math for Morons Like Us: Pre- Algebra Tutorials 5. Math Drexel: Listing of Math Resources 6. hlab/beg_algebra/ West Texas A&M Beginning Algebra 7. National Library of Virtual Manipulatives Index 8. Math Guide: Resource Center for Teachers and Students 9. Algebra Help: A collection of lessons, calculators, and worksheets created to assist students and teachers of Algebra Sure Math University of Hawaii, Approach to Solving Word Problems High School Ace: Directory of high school level math resources, including Geometry and Algebra Math.Com: Tutorial and exercise site for basic Geometry GED practice test site CAHSEE California Mathematics Content Standards High School Math Resources Pre Algebra videos, worksheets, /prealgebra/index.html#arithmetic and quizzes ABE Web site 2

6 Recommended Algebra Web Sites for Instruction Reviewed by Dave Williams, Beaumont Adult School, August 2005 Math Guides Level of Instruction: None given, but site content is Algebra I and II (to Pre-Calculus), and Geometry. Instructional language is simple and relatively easy to comprehend. Site Content: Algebra I and II (to Pre-Calculus), and Geometry. Instructional language is simple and relatively easy to comprehend. Instruction: Instruction is divided into lessons and quizzes. Algebra I covers basic operations with integers to quadratics and linear equations. The lesson on quadratics is simply the quadratic formula and there are no lessons on polynomials, just quizzes. Practice: The quizzes provide the majority of practice for students, however there is an exercise sheet generator and assessment helper for instructors. Ease of Navigation: Good. Topic areas are divided into lessons and quizzes with separate links. Quizzes can be accessed directly from the lesson page or from main menu. There is a definite lack of advertising on the site which helps considerably in navigation. Recommendation: Very high. This is an excellent resource for instructors. Separate section for teacher resources and the exercise sheet generator should be very helpful. Beginning Algebra (West Texas A&M) Instructional Level: Algebra I (site is intended as a remedial resource for students who did not test high enough to be admitted to college Algebra I) Site Content: Basic algebraic principles with some remedial basic math and introduction to Geometry. Instruction: Site is designed as a series of tutorials to help remediate a student trying to gain entry into college level algebra. Instructional language is high school/beginning college, but a large number of detailed examples are provided to help explain algebraic principles. Site does have a guide for site use and a good How to Succeed in Math Class tutorial. Practice: Each tutorial has several practice problems (non-interactive) with detailed solutions and discussion. Each major group of tutorials has a practice test (non-interactive, but answer keys are given for self grading) to help determine student mastery. Approximately 50 questions per practice test. Ease of Navigation: Very good. Straight forward link logic with easy to find labels. 3

7 Recommendation: Excellent. This is an excellent site for beginning Algebra instruction. The site also has a nice tutorial on reasoning skills. Other than quadratics, this appears to cover the rest of Algebra I standards (very good section on graphing). Cool Math Algebra Level of Instruction: Grade 7 through Adult Site Content: Algebra I through Pre-Calculus Algebra Instruction: Provided through a series of tutorial lessons on each topic area. Tutorials are shown in a graphic format similar to writing on a chalkboard or a whiteboard and can sometimes be a bit hard to read. Practice: Seemingly endless interactive practice problems available through the Crunch Some sections for each major topic area. Only down side to these practice problems is that no explanation is provided when the student provides an incorrect answer. Ease of Navigation: Good. Tutorials and practice problems appear in a Java applet window. Main page says that you need to have Flash Player installed to view lessons and practice, but I had no problem with either. Recommendation: Good. Simple language of instruction and some pretty jazzy graphics should make this site appealing to many students. Note: Don t bother looking at the teacher resources unless you are prepared to purchase a program. Algebra Help Instructional Level: None given Site Content: Basic algebraic principles up to factoring polynomials (no quadratics or graphing) Instructional: Very detailed multi-page lessons on algebra basics. Instructional language is simple and easy to understand. Practice: A very large number of worksheets are available for each algebra topic; each worksheet contains approximately 20 practice problems. Worksheets are interactive and provide students with step-by-step solutions. Site Navigation: Good. Relatively simple sequence of links for both lessons and worksheets and all are well labeled. Site does contain a number of advertising banners but they are also well labeled as advertisements. Recommendation: Very good. This site provides excellent instructional materials with ample student practice; unfortunately it does not quite cover all of the topics normally associated with Algebra I. 4

8 Purple Math Instructional Levels: None given Site Content: Basic Math principles through Advanced Algebra Instruction: This site is all instructional material. Major sections include review of basic math principles (rounding, order of operations, fractions, etc.), beginning, intermediate and advanced algebra lessons. Each section contains a large number of self-contained lessons. Instructional language in the lessons is simple and relatively easy to understand. Individual lessons may be printed out by students for their personal use. There are copyright restrictions on the use of the lesson material from this site and an instructor should read those to ensure that there is no license infringement (they are fairly liberal). There are instructions on the site to assist printing lessons from various browsers. Practice: None. Site is constructed entirely of lessons with examples but no practice problems are provided. Ease of Navigation: Good. Each lesson has a link from the main menu. There are some cross reference links within the lessons for related topics and some links to related tables (for unit conversions, etc), but all in all a very simple site to navigate. (A lack of commercial advertising banners definitely helps in providing ease of navigation). Rating: Excellent for providing instructional material that is given in simple language and easy to access. This site only lacks practice problems for students to exercise the principles given in the instruction. SOS Math Instructional Level: High school through college Site Content: Review of math principles from Algebra through Calculus with a basic math review section - fractions, decimals, conversions, etc., but these reviews are provided at a relatively high instructional language Instructional: Very basic statement of math principles related to the topic area. Site is intended as a review of these math topics through multiple examples and practice problems. Practice: Major portion of the site content is devoted to detailed examples of the various math principles listed in the main menu with multiple practice problems for each principle (generally from three to six problems). Detailed solutions to practice problems are provided. Ease of Navigation: Fair. Links from examples to practice problems and follow-up examples can be a bit confusing, but with a little familiarization to the site it is not too bad. Note: There does not seem to be any particular order to the sequence of topic listings on the main menu (example, quadratics are placed well before solutions of linear equations on the main menu). 5

9 Recommendation: Fair. I would not recommend using the site material for primary instruction with students new to Algebra. It could be useful as a supplemental program (for the practice problems) after students had been introduced to algebraic principles. Algebra Instructional Level: None given. Site covers principles of Algebra I and II. Site content: Series of instructional lessons covering principles of Algebra I and II (includes discrete algebra) Instruction: This site is strictly for instruction. Principles and definitions of algebraic properties are given in a very textbook fashion. Only one example of the principle being shown is usually given and no examples of applications of algebra are shown. Practice: None Ease of Navigation: Very good, but site is constructed in a very simple fashion. Each link from main page only has one page with return link to main page. Recommendation: An instructor could use this site for a direct teaching class or lab, but with few examples and no practice or applications it would only be useful to a student on their own if they were reviewing algebraic principals after having received instruction through other means. Rating: Low (due to lack of student practice problems) Algebra Supplemental Sites Algebra Word and Story Problems Instructional Levels: K-12 Subject Area: Word problems using algebraic principles for solutions Site Content: The problems, and their solutions, on this site provide a base for integrated thematic instruction in mathematical problem solving. Instructional: This site is primarily instructional in a standardized approach to solutions of word problems. A great deal of material for teachers, including lesson plans on word problem solving. Site does provide many examples of word problems and development of their solutions using a standardized Request/Response/Result methodology. Site does not provide instruction on algebraic principles, but shows how these principles are used in real world word and story problems. Practice: A very large amount of guided practice problems are provided (including a link to a sister site that has even more examples), however there are no practice problems that leave a student entirely on their own to develop answers, all examples have shown solution 6

10 development. There are some interactive solution development examples that allow a student to choose the steps to a solution. Ease of Navigation: This is a very complex site that contains a great deal of material and the navigation is a bit complex. Recommend an instructor spend some time reviewing the site and its contents before placing students on the site. Be sure and scroll all the way down the page for the word problem menu. Rating: Very good for instruction in applying algebra principles to word and story problems, but students need a basic grasp of algebra notation and concepts before using this site. National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics Level of Instruction: K-12 Site Content: A library of virtual manipulative (interactive) java applets that demonstrate mathematical properties and principles for a variety of mathematic topics (including basic math operations, Geometry, Algebra, measurement and data analysis and probability) Instructional: While this is not a primary instructional site, it does provide very interesting and unique supplemental material to assist in instruction of some common math principles. Practice: Student practice is provided through very visual oriented graphic manipulatives. Ease of Navigation: Good. Each java applet is listed separately in the library section and is clearly marked for grade level and topic content. Applets do open in separate browser window. Recommendation: Very good for supplemental material. Not recommended for primary instruction. SCORE Mathematics Lessons Level of Instruction: K-12 (divided into K-7 and 8-12 levels) Site Content: Series of lesson plans for mathematics from Algebra I through Calculus. All lessons have correlations to California state math standards. Lesson plans are Internet based with students using a number of Internet resources to complete assignments. Instructional: Site is all lesson plan based. Most lesson plans also include some association with related science topics to demonstrate the math principles. Algebra I section includes eight separate lesson plans. Practice: Students practice through working at their Internet based research to complete their assignments for the lessons. Ease of Navigation: Good. Although I did not check every Internet link embedded in the various lesson plans. 7

11 Recommendation: Could be a good supplemental resource for teachers to use to help reinforce math principles. Students require Internet access to complete lessons and should be fairly proficient in Internet computer use; otherwise instructors will have to spend a great deal of time assisting students in completing assignments. As in any lesson plan generated by an outside source, teachers will need to spend some time in familiarization of the lesson (especially involving accessing multiple internet sites) before introducing them to the students. Professor Freedman s Math Help Level of Instruction: Adult learner Site Content: This site provides information about basic math, algebra, study skills, math anxiety and learning styles and specifically addresses the needs of the community college adult learner. Instructional: An interesting series of math tutorials that were (evidently) generated by math students. The basic algebra section of the tutorials goes up to quadratics. A large number of tutorials in each algebraic topic area address a number of different learner styles. Practice: While the site advertises a student homework assignment section for each topic area, I was unable to access any of them. Evidently, the homework assignment areas require a RealPlayer midi plug-in to function and I could never get it to install successfully. It kept freezing up my browser. Ease of Navigation: Poor. Aforementioned problems on the homework sections and I found a couple of bad links from the tutorials back to the menu page. Recommendation: Normally, I would not include a site with as many navigation problems as I encountered here, however I felt the large number of student generated tutorials were unique enough and might be of help to struggling algebra students to list it as a possible supplemental site. 8

12 Check List for Evaluating Math Web Sites Language level is the language comprehensible for your students Appropriate content is it designed for, or at least appropriate for adults Math Level - Does the math content match the level of your learners Navigation is it easy to use, not too commercial, not too much on one screen Depth of content does the site provide enough practice problems, and/or explain concepts with enough depth Evaluation: 1 = unsatisfactory, 5 = Excellent Site 1: Evaluation Area Rating Comments Language level Appropriate content Math Level Navigation Depth of content Is this site effective for ABE GED HS None Site 2: Evaluation Area Rating Comments Language level Appropriate content Math Level Navigation Depth of content Is this site effective for ABE GED HS None 9