MATH ---- Free sites, resources!

In conjunction with SERC's Math Conference on Tuesday, September 28^th, here are some sites to check out!

Learning Today blog, http://blog.learningtoday.com/ excellent free resources are offered by this software company. Also check out the "Teacher Resource" tab. Lots of K-5 stuff including materials for all levels of learners that will help with differentiation.

Math Snacks, http://www.mathsnacks.org/, designed by educators at New Mexico State University with NSF funds are engaging animations and games designed to help learner in grades 6-8 truly understand math concepts.

Harcourt School Publishers at http://www.hbschool.com/thinkmath/index.html is indexed by grade level for K-5, web-based math activities and concepts including numbers, data analysis, operations, algebra, geometry, time money and measurement.

Math Apprentice, http://www.mathapprentice.com/ provides opportunity for students in grades 4-8 to put math skills to work in one of eight businesses.

Jim Dornberg has created a wiki housed at http://smartmeasurement.wikispaces.com/ . Grades K-6 can view activities about length, time, money, perimeter, area, temperature, weight, volume, surface area, and angles.

Minute Math, http://www.10minutemath.com math.com is a high school teacher sharing knowledge with students and colleagues across the world. There are extra assignments for his calculus class, a set of non-linear graphs with the labels and scale hidden in a Word document for teaching exponential growth, a review Jeopardy game created with a Flash-based online game creator, explore some of the past posts for more.

And last but not least, Math and the Movies!, http://mathbits.com/MathBits/MathMovies/MathMovies.htm uses over 20 movies as teaching tools. Movie options contain information about which clip to show and provides student worksheets. Most activities are developed for grades 6-12 and movies range from a 1941 Abbott and Costello film, Proof, Castaway, Star Wars, Star Trek, to Harry Potter.

Wow – that's a lot of FUN Math!

The Be Cool Series

Teaching conflict management from a student's perspective can help students "be cool" in many difficult situations. This series by James Stanfield is now available on DVD at the SERC Library. This series has modules designed for lower elementary, upper elementary, middle school and high school students. The program teaches the key elements of emotional intelligence: impulse control, empathy and self-awareness. Students are shown being challenged by a difficult person or situation and then modeling three possible responses to the conflicts. Topics include criticism, teasing, bullying, anger of others and one's own feelings of anger.

The National Science Digital Library

Okay --- we know --- again with one of our favorite things --- free resources!!!! We cannot help ourselves --- like the SERC Library, this could be one of the best kept secrets around!!! Check out the The National Science Digital Library, http://nsdl.org/. The NSDL is a free online library for education and research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The site was established by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2000 as a free online library which directs users to resources for STEM education and research. The site has content that is aggregated from a variety of other digital libraries, NSF-funded projects, publishers, and NSDL-reviewed web sites. The site is designed primarily for K-16 educators, however, anyone can access NSDL.org and search the library at no cost. Some content providers do require a nominal fee or subscription to retrieve their specific resources, however, there is a great deal of free resources!