Half Yellow Fraction Art Students explore part-whole relationships while creating unique designs! This math art project was discovered by my mentor teacher. Second and third graders were asked to create art using geometric pattern blocks. The only catch was that their design had to be half yellow, meaning they had to base their artwork around yellow hexagon blocks. Before they recreated it on a sheet of paper, I went around and checked their math. If you want to incorporate technology or do not have access to geometric pattern blocks or a stencil, you can use Illuminations’ Patch Tool! This project is a fantastic way to assess students’ knowledge about fractions. Erin Bittman is a second-/third-grade student teacher in a multi-grade classroom at a German Magnet School.
Global Math Challenge: an online contest for math lovers worldwide. Einstein Year 10 Revision Competition | sxpmaths – the PROcrastinator @mathsjem today published this blog post about resources for stretching able Year 10/11 GCSE students and it triggered my memory of a revision competition I ran with my top set year 10 class in my last school. The materials I used as the basis were the Foundation of Advanced Mathematics papers (this is an FSMQ offered by OCR/MEI). There are a dozen or so past papers available which is more than enough! I’ll detail the process exactly as I ran it, but you may well think of adaptations to improve this for your own classes. Some set-up Create a scoring spreadsheet with each student’s name and enough columns for the number of papers you will eventually work through. Before Print one of the papers, laminate it and slice it to separate the questions – Rule 1: don’t let the students write on the questions! During After When the time is up, collect in all the questions and get the pairs to swap answer sheets.Project the mark scheme from the OCR website – it’s great these papers are multiple choice!
5 Best Practices for Connecting STEAM with Special Ed My STEAM journey began five years ago as a special educator co-teaching 7th grade math and science. Immediately, my co-teacher and I contemplated how we could build more buy-in from our students. How could we plan hands-on lessons that would connect our math, science, and ELA (English Language Arts) standards? We also reflected on the missed opportunities that our students with special needs faced. These students oftentimes go to intervention classes in place of arts classes (technology, art, music, etc). Challenges Tasked with the challenge of integrating the arts with a cross curricular approach, we planned our first STEAM project. By purposefully keeping the guidelines open-ended, the students happily surprised us with a variety of presentations. After the success of this cross-curricular STEAM project, our grade-level team planned several others to our students’ delight. Give options rather than a set outcome Allow for wait time Make it concrete, not abstract It’s simple.
Educating MrMattock: Multiplicative counting - the different types In preparing for teaching the new GCSE, one of the new topics is the explicit use of multiplicative counting. While preparing problems I came to a realisation that there are 3 different types of counting here (at least before we get into the whole permutations and combinations area), and I thought I would take this opportunity to share my insight. 1) Powers for counting Students and teachers of A-Level stats modules will likely be intimately familiar with this idea through the binomial theorem. 2) Multiplying for counting This one is probably the most familiar to GCSE teachers, as it is a reasonably well used stretch for pupils on systematic listing. 3) Factorial counting. This is perhaps the one that will be least familiar, although still familiar to the A-Level aficionados amongst us; this occurs when an outcome is removed once used and the process repeated until no outcomes are left. Anne, Barry, Colin and Damien book 4 seats next to each other in the cinema as shown.
STEAM Resources for Any Classroom Here’s a list of the many resources that are out there for STEM and STEAM: from explaining what it is, to sample lessons, to ways that it connects to the Arts. This is a living list, so please feel free to add any resources you have found in your travels in the comment section below! STEM presentations: Creating a Global Focus on STEM education is a very well-done powerpoint that gives a “big picture” to STEM. The STEM Education Coalition has a whole section of resource links to over 50 different presentations worldwide. The Journal highlights how teachers and administrators are looking for resources to support STEM. What is STEM education is a prezi from Todd Ensign that was provided to West Virginia teachers. STEM/STEAM Lessons: How to Smile is a site that houses fantastic math and science activities, with a dose of creativity thrown in. PBS STEM Resource is a phenomenal site with lessons for K-12 in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math as well as professional development for teachers.
What's New - Graphs and Transforations Full STEAM ahead: Arts, STEM, and 21st century learning SmartBlogs It’s autumn in the Rockies and a season for debate and confrontation. In nature, the bugle call of the male elk woos mates and incites challengers for control of the harem. In politics, President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney return again and again to the West to assert their positions. Why fight it? This month, let’s take a look at the argument for adding an “A” to STEM to create STEAM and acknowledge the role of the arts in 21st century learning. The acronym STEM already suffers from lack of clarity, so why add to the confusion by including the arts? Many scientists I’ve met integrate art into their work intentionally or unconsciously. In Boulder, Colo., associate professor in the College of Music and jazz saxophonist John Gunther recently received funding to explore ways to enhance the pedagogy of STEM through music and the arts. Doug Haller is the principal of Haller STEM Education Consulting.
Resourceaholic Project Steam Project Steam is a railway preservation society based in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is dedicated to the restoration of steam locomotives formerly operated by the New Zealand Railways Department, with its goal to restore at least one locomotive to main line operating conditions in order to operate excursions from Dunedin Railway Station. The society is currently the only one of its kind in Dunedin; the Ocean Beach Railway operates small tank locomotives but on private trackage, and the popular Taieri Gorge Limited is run solely by diesel locomotives. During the celebration of the Dunedin Railway Station's centennial in October 2006, P 107 was displayed in partially rebuilt condition at the station. Project Steam's first home was a location by the Leith Stream in central Dunedin.