Story Math

Story Math is a cool website that I recently read about on iLearn Technology.  Story Math is a collection of three math-based activities that use storytelling as a means of presenting a problem.  The stories are interactive and put math concepts into authentic situations.  The three stories that are currently available are "Mystery on the Block", "The Perfect Arrangement", and "A Suitable Partner".   Each story focuses on a different math skill including geometry, permutations, and puzzles.  In addition to the interactive story, each activity also includes extension games and interesting information.  I went through the "Mystery on the Block" activity and found it to be very engaging and the interactivity was well placed.  I could definitely see this being used as a whole class activity.  To see what an activity looks like check out the image below...

Now What?

Story Math is a really cool site for introducing a new concept or reviewing what has already been taught.  At my school, we have a block called content literacy where math teachers focus on breaking down math problems and pulling out the important information.  These stories would be excellent to use for deciphering important information.  After completing one of these activities you could also have the students discuss the math connections that were made and how they can they be applied.  You could also discuss new vocabulary that was introduced.  Students could even create their own math story based on a concept learned in class!

Math in Movies

Mathematics in Movies is a website developed by Oliver Knill who is a Harvard Mathematics professor.   While browsing around Mathematics in Movies I was surprised to see the size of their collection of movie and television clips.  For each clip there is the title of the show/movie and a quick link to a math concept.  The clip that immediately stood out to me was Oscar from the The Office explaining to Michael the definition of a surplus.  Click here to check it out.

Now What?

Mathematics in Movies is a great site for introducing a concept or reinforcing a concept after it has been taught.  I could also be a good way for students to review by browsing the library of clips.  What's nice about this site is that they also provide a link to the .mp4 version which you can download and show offline.  You can even concert that file to a .flv and use it in Smart Notebook.  For more on that click here.

Math Reasoning Inventory by Scholastic

Scholastic recently underwent a massive overhaul introducing a number of great new free resources for teachers. One of the new features that I just noticed is the Math Reasoning Inventory which helps teachers to formatively discover what students know and are able to do mathematically.  From what I can see on the site, they currently offering questions geared toward whole numbers, decimals and fractions which seem to be difficult concepts for students in middle school to grasp.  The Math Reasoning Inventory is made up of written expression as well as interview questions.  Once completed the website will generate reports at your discretion which can be used to monitor progress or submit to your SRBI team for data collection.

Now What?

Many schools are already using some form of standardized testing to track student progress but if you are not this could be a great start for your teachers.  Even those who are using those tests might be interested in the anecdotal evidence that is derived from the interview questions.  I could see this being a teacher goal for middle school math teachers who are looking to enhance data collection in order to facilitate higher achievement.