College of Education
One of the things we build into our program in the College of Education is using interactive sites to build and reinforce math skills. Our goal is to provide a broad set of experiences which are both practical and current. To find activities which support this idea we often turn to the internet.
While there are many sites and collection of sites out there, they are often scattered. This may require some patience and detective work to find what you are looking for. There is also the problem with limited content, distracting advertising, inconsistency of format, ease of access, and ease of use. Two that I would highly recommend are the Shodor site and the Illuminations site from the National Council of Teacher of Mathematics (NCTM).
One of my favorites from the Shodor site is the tessellation creator Tesselate! Here you can explore an endless variety different patterns and colors. Note the colorful school of fish below right.
Working with Pattern Blocks is always a good way to learn:
- geometric shapes
- area ratios
- symmetries
- arranging objects on a plane surface
Illuminations has good site Patch Tool which is easy to use for all sorts of math problem solving scenarios. Below I have created a pattern using all the available choices to show reflective symmetry. Another favorite is in the Math Playground collection which is the Virtual Geoboard. Here you can explore geometric figures without worrying about your students or children finding other creative ways to use rubber bands. The example shows the relationship of a triangle to a rectangle. There are hundreds of possibilities waiting out there for you to explore and more coming along every day. They are
educational, free, and fun and perhaps best of all easy to put away when done.