Math Goodies Blog: Math Worksheet Generator

Math Goodies Blog: Math Worksheet Generator

Math Worksheet Generator

In this day and age of being green, some folks are looking at ways to save paper. Math worksheets are a great teaching resource since math is a practice subject. After much thought about expanding my worksheet library, I decided to work on a way to create online worksheets. I am proud to announce our new Math Worksheet Generator.

Now visitors can create their own worksheets in seconds! Each worksheet is interactive, with a timer and instant scoring. These resources are intended for on-screen use, just like we also provided the option of printing the worksheet and the answer key. Many thanks to Noetic Learning for partnering with us on this venture.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Teacher Appreciation Week is dedicated to the celebration of your favorite teachers. This year it will be celebrated May 6-10, with Teacher Appreciation Day on Tuesday, May 7. Here are some resources to help you celebrate!

Celebrate Pi Day

Each year, Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 by math enthusiasts around the world. You are invited to celebrate Pi Day with our Irrational WebQuest. I like Pi Day, because it makes math fun in a meaningful way. The notion of a "math holiday" is actually quite exciting, not just for math enthusiasts, but for the general student population. There are plenty of real-world connections with Pi Day, too, making pi much more than just a math constant. Apart from Einstein's birthday, students can learn about the history and meaning of pi, and how computers are used to calculate many of its digits. Come and celebrate with us!

Pi versus Tau

		One of the major contributions Archimedes (287-212 B.C) made to mathematics was his method for approximating the value of Pi. For centuries, the number Pi, Greek letter (), has been the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. In 1761 Lambert proved that Pi was an irrational number, which means that the digits never end or repeat in any known way. Throughout history, mathematicians have been fascinated with calculating the digits of Pi. In 1999, millions of digits were calculated at the University of Tokyo using a computer. In 2011 the record was improved to 10 trillion digits.
		Each year, Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 by math enthusiasts around the world (3, 1 and 4 are the three most significant digits of p in the decimal form). The earliest known official or large-scale celebration of Pi Day was in 1988. In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day. Pi Day has become very popular in the mathematics community.
		There is now an online movement to celebrate Tau, the number you get when you use a circle's radius instead. Tau is approximately 6.28, instead of the familiar constant Pi, which is 3.14. There is much opinion and controversy surrounding this new movement.
		The idea of celebrating Tau is now at least 10 years old, having cropped up in a 2001 essay by Bob Palais called "Pi is wrong!" But it exploded on the Internet on June 28, 2010, when Michael Hartl launched the Tau Manifesto, which explains why pi is confusing and should be replaced with tau. This idea of celebrating Tau is now at least 10 years old, having cropped up in a 2001 essay by Bob Palais called "Pi is wrong!" But it exploded on the Internet on June 28, 2010 -- when Michael Hartl launched the Tau Manifesto, a lengthy treatise about why pi is confusing and should be replaced with tau. For more information about Tau and Tau Day, visit this page. I invite you to share your ideas about Pi versus Tau on our Facebook page.

Sets and Set Theory

I just published a new unit of instruction on Sets and Set Theory. When designing this unit, the first thing that dawned on me was the notation. Students often become overwhelmed by set notation, making it difficult to learn the concepts. So my goal was to start off with an elementary and visual approach, with real-world connections. I did not introduce Set-Builder Notation until later in the unit.

The other difficult task was deciding when to introduce Venn diagrams. This was done in stages, so that other topics, such as basic notation, types of sets, and equality could be introduced first. It was a lot of work over the course of many months to finish this unit. I am quite proud of the final result.

Unit 15: Sets and Set Theory In-Depth Instruction on Sets 1 Introduction 2 Basic Notation 3 Types of Sets 4 Set Equality 5 Venn Diagrams 6 Subsets 7 Universal Set 8 Set-Builder Notation 9 Complement 10 Intersection 11 Union 12 Extra Practice 13 Challenge Problems 14 Solutions Coming Soon!

The Common Core Standards in Math

The Common Core State Standards in mathematics (and reading) were released in June 2010. Launched by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Common Core Standards represent a set of expectations for student knowledge and skills that high school graduates need to master to succeed in college and careers. As of this writing, the majority of states have formally adopted these standards.

As a classroom teacher of mathematics, I have experience with various curricula and math standards. In fact, when I first started teaching in the early 1990's, the NCTM had released a new set of standards. I also had the opportunity to participate in a curriculum writing project for a school district where I taught.

When I first learned of the Common Core Standards (CCSM), I was skeptical. At first glance, the CCSM seemed to be just another set of standards that math teachers would have to grapple with. However, having taken a closer look, I now believe that the CCSM could be the most successful standards ever embraced!

I explored the standards myself through by aligning my lessons to the standards for Grade 3. Next, I created a related standards for each unit of instruction. For example, For Unit 1, Perimeter and Area of Polygons, you can view related standards for that unit. It took some time, but I managed to create a set of related standards for each of my 14 units of instruction. This when I became excited about the ease and the transition of the CCSM, at least the domain mapping.

I attended a webinar about the CCSM. I learned that:

1. A small writing team created these standards, eliminating the politics that are usually associated with such projects.
2. The structure of the standards is by domains, not strands.
3. There is a focus on both conceptual understanding and computation.
4. These standards are intended for all states, removing the difficult separation across state lines.
5. There is a large advisory board to ensure that the needs of all states are addressed.
6. The CCSM will be a work-in-progress in which time is taken by the creators to reflect upon and improve these standards.

I am excited about the CCSM and hope you will join me as we explore together!

Math Connections

I have always been fascinated by connections between math and other disciplines. From my experience, students are more motivated to learn math when these connections are made in the classroom. I have completely rewritten my article, Math Connections, which is devoted to connecting math with other disciplines, and with the real world. For example, Exponents and Scientific Notation, Graphing and Social Studies, Math and Technology, Percentages and the Consumer, and Math and Writing, are among the connection you will find. This article includes teaching ideas as well as links to related resources.

11-11-11 is a Special Palindromic Date

Today, Veteran's Day, has special significance for many reasons. Today we honor all who have served in the armed forces. Today is also 11-11-11, a once-a-century palindrome. This date has special significance with regard to binary numbers, too. Now if you ask me, I think that's a lot of special meanings for one particular date, and I think it will show up in the history books someday!