High school math videos - free

Today I wanted to highlight two companies that both offer lots of free high school level math materials in the form of videos. These are real, commercial companies, yet they have chosen to offer the videos online for free. Both have something else they sell, hoping to make some money obviously from that part of the business.

The video content can really be of help for all students, teachers, or parents who need additional help with high school math (algebra, geometry, calculus). And since I'm highlighting these two, if you have a topic you have trouble with (such as polynomials or factoring or inequalities) you can even check out videos for that topic in both places.

1) BrightStorm Math.

They currently have over 2,000 videos available for free - a free registration is required though. Algebra through calculus. What they are selling is test preparation courses.

2) MathTV.com


MathTV.com has over 6,000 free math videos, including some in Spanish. Prealgebra through calculus. What they are selling is their own textbooks, physical and online. However, their online textbooks are available for free for evaluation and class testing through June 2010.

High school math videos - free

Today I wanted to highlight two companies that both offer lots of free high school level math materials in the form of videos. These are real, commercial companies, yet they have chosen to offer the videos online for free. Both have something else they sell, hoping to make some money obviously from that part of the business.

The video content can really be of help for all students, teachers, or parents who need additional help with high school math (algebra, geometry, calculus). And since I'm highlighting these two, if you have a topic you have trouble with (such as polynomials or factoring or inequalities) you can even check out videos for that topic in both places.

1) BrightStorm Math.

They currently have over 2,000 videos available for free - a free registration is required though. Algebra through calculus. What they are selling is test preparation courses.

2) MathTV.com


MathTV.com has over 6,000 free math videos, including some in Spanish. Prealgebra through calculus. What they are selling is their own textbooks, physical and online. However, their online textbooks are available for free for evaluation and class testing through June 2010.

Introducing Make It Real Learning workbooks

I have recently had the pleasure to add Make It Real Learning workbooks to my site. These books contain real-life math activities with real-life data, companies, and situations. They are written by Frank Wilson.

Arithmetic I



Fractions, Percents, and Decimals I



Linear Functions I


Calculus I



Periodic and Piecewise Functions I

Some examples of the topics included in these activities are: cell phone plans, autism, population growth, cooking, borrowing money, credit cards, life spans, population growth, and music downloads. But there are many more, more than I can list here.

As students work through the problems, they can use the math skills and concepts they have learned in their math curriculum (such as the concept of average or graphing), and apply those to a situation from real life.

Each activity-lesson in the book contains several questions about the situation, starting with basics and going into more in-depth evaluations, and should be adequate for one-two complete class periods.

Why does that benefit you, the teacher? It will motivate the students far more than dull, boring word problems from the textbook. It will show students how mathematics is truly USEFUL. Also:

• The problems are written by an experienced math teacher (Frank Wilson)


• The problems are matched to the learning objectives of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). This means that the concepts and skills required to complete the problems ARE found in typical middle and high school mathematics curriculum. You can simply replace some of the problems in your textbook with these real-life scenarios.
  
  
• These activities are excellent to be used in a small-group setting.
  
  
• Typically, the activities contain challenging parts and therefore allow students to practice real problem solving - not just apply knowledge from textbook examples to other almost identical problems.
  
  
• Gifted students can enjoy the challenge of solving all the questions on their own.

All books include complete solutions to all activities and problems. Please note that Make It Real Learning workbooks do not contain the instruction or explanations of the concepts.

List of available books:

Arithmetic I - for grades 3-6
Fractions, Percents, and Decimals I - for grades 4-8
Fractions, Percents, and Decimals II - for grades 6-11
Sets, Probability, and Statistics I - for grades 6-10

Linear Functions I - for algebra 1 and algebra 2
Linear Functions II - for algebra 1 and algebra 2
Quadratic Functions I - for algebra 1 and algebra 2

Exponential and Logarithmic Functions I
- for algebra 2/precalculus
Periodic and Piecewise Functions I
- for algebra 2/precalculus
Polynomial, Power, Logistic, and Rational Functions I
- for algebra 2/precalculus
Calculus I - for grade 12

Introducing Make It Real Learning workbooks

I have recently had the pleasure to add Make It Real Learning workbooks to my site. These books contain real-life math activities with real-life data, companies, and situations. They are written by Frank Wilson.

Arithmetic I



Fractions, Percents, and Decimals I



Linear Functions I


Calculus I



Periodic and Piecewise Functions I

Some examples of the topics included in these activities are: cell phone plans, autism, population growth, cooking, borrowing money, credit cards, life spans, population growth, and music downloads. But there are many more, more than I can list here.

As students work through the problems, they can use the math skills and concepts they have learned in their math curriculum (such as the concept of average or graphing), and apply those to a situation from real life.

Each activity-lesson in the book contains several questions about the situation, starting with basics and going into more in-depth evaluations, and should be adequate for one-two complete class periods.

Why does that benefit you, the teacher? It will motivate the students far more than dull, boring word problems from the textbook. It will show students how mathematics is truly USEFUL. Also:

• The problems are written by an experienced math teacher (Frank Wilson)


• The problems are matched to the learning objectives of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). This means that the concepts and skills required to complete the problems ARE found in typical middle and high school mathematics curriculum. You can simply replace some of the problems in your textbook with these real-life scenarios.
  
  
• These activities are excellent to be used in a small-group setting.
  
  
• Typically, the activities contain challenging parts and therefore allow students to practice real problem solving - not just apply knowledge from textbook examples to other almost identical problems.
  
  
• Gifted students can enjoy the challenge of solving all the questions on their own.

All books include complete solutions to all activities and problems. Please note that Make It Real Learning workbooks do not contain the instruction or explanations of the concepts.

List of available books:

Arithmetic I - for grades 3-6
Fractions, Percents, and Decimals I - for grades 4-8
Fractions, Percents, and Decimals II - for grades 6-11
Sets, Probability, and Statistics I - for grades 6-10

Linear Functions I - for algebra 1 and algebra 2
Linear Functions II - for algebra 1 and algebra 2
Quadratic Functions I - for algebra 1 and algebra 2

Exponential and Logarithmic Functions I
- for algebra 2/precalculus
Periodic and Piecewise Functions I
- for algebra 2/precalculus
Polynomial, Power, Logistic, and Rational Functions I
- for algebra 2/precalculus
Calculus I - for grade 12

High school math after algebra, geometry, and consumer math?

Question:

"I am a homeschooling mom, with two children still at home. We use Switched On Schoolhouse almost exclusively. My son will be a senior this fall. He took Algebra 1 and geometry but was against taking trig. I had him take Consumer Math this year and I am trying to find him something for his senior year. He is not leaning towards college, but perhaps a tech school. ANY advice you can give will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!"

Well, if you don't want to do trig or algebra 2, consider the book Mathematics, a Human Endeavor: A Textbook for Those Who Think They Don't Like the Subject.

This book by Harold Jacobs covers a wide range of mathematical topics, aiming to show students how interesting math can be. The topics include for example number tricks, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, number sequences, functions and their graphs, large numbers and logarithms, polygons and symmetry, mathematical curves, probability, and topology.

Jacobs always gives you problems where you have to investigate and find out patterns. He aims to minimize the usage of formulas, shows all kinds of interesting ideas and tricks, and thus lets the student fall in love with mathematics.

More info:

Harold Jacobs Mathematics Human Endeavor Curriculum

Review by TOS

Review of Harold Jacobs books by Susan Richman.

Mathematics, a Human Endeavor at Amazon.

High school math after algebra, geometry, and consumer math?

Question:

"I am a homeschooling mom, with two children still at home. We use Switched On Schoolhouse almost exclusively. My son will be a senior this fall. He took Algebra 1 and geometry but was against taking trig. I had him take Consumer Math this year and I am trying to find him something for his senior year. He is not leaning towards college, but perhaps a tech school. ANY advice you can give will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!"

Well, if you don't want to do trig or algebra 2, consider the book Mathematics, a Human Endeavor: A Textbook for Those Who Think They Don't Like the Subject.

This book by Harold Jacobs covers a wide range of mathematical topics, aiming to show students how interesting math can be. The topics include for example number tricks, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, number sequences, functions and their graphs, large numbers and logarithms, polygons and symmetry, mathematical curves, probability, and topology.

Jacobs always gives you problems where you have to investigate and find out patterns. He aims to minimize the usage of formulas, shows all kinds of interesting ideas and tricks, and thus lets the student fall in love with mathematics.

More info:

Harold Jacobs Mathematics Human Endeavor Curriculum

Review by TOS

Review of Harold Jacobs books by Susan Richman.

Mathematics, a Human Endeavor at Amazon.

Online math resources

Resources

These are some of the links I've added to my site recently. Maybe there's some that interest you.

Mathopenref.com
Free online textbook for high school geometry; not finished.

GapMinder
Visualizing human development trends (such as poverty, health, gaps, income on a global scale) via stunning, interactive statistical graphs. This is an interactive, dynamic tool and not just static graphs. Download the software or the reports for free.

How to write proofs
A 12-part tutorial on proof writing. Includes direct proof, proof by contradiction, proof by contrapositive, mathematical induction, if and only if, and proof strategies.

Money Math
Crystal clear tutorial on interest.

Graph Mole
A fun game about plotting points in coordinate plane. Plot points before the mole eats the vegetables.

---

All sorts of sites to explore! But if those didn't fit your bill, if you're in need of a game or tutorial about specific math topic, check my link lists of online math resources; they're organized by level and topic:

Math Help & Tutoring

Math help, Homework help, tutoring

General Math Resources

Math history, Problem solving, Hands-on, For Gifted, Mental Math, Test prep

Elementary Math 1

Basic operations, Times tables, Place value

Elementary Math 2

Time, Money, Measuring, Geometry

Middle School Math 1

Fractions, Decimals, Percent, Integers

Middle School Math 2

Measuring, Coordinate Plane, Geometry

High School 1

Algebra, Graphing, Calculus

High School 2

Geometry,  Trigonometry, Statistics, Logic

Fun & Games Math Sites

Math games, quizzes, or interactive tutorials websites

Online math resources

Resources

These are some of the links I've added to my site recently. Maybe there's some that interest you.

Mathopenref.com
Free online textbook for high school geometry; not finished.

GapMinder
Visualizing human development trends (such as poverty, health, gaps, income on a global scale) via stunning, interactive statistical graphs. This is an interactive, dynamic tool and not just static graphs. Download the software or the reports for free.

How to write proofs
A 12-part tutorial on proof writing. Includes direct proof, proof by contradiction, proof by contrapositive, mathematical induction, if and only if, and proof strategies.

Money Math
Crystal clear tutorial on interest.

Graph Mole
A fun game about plotting points in coordinate plane. Plot points before the mole eats the vegetables.

---

All sorts of sites to explore! But if those didn't fit your bill, if you're in need of a game or tutorial about specific math topic, check my link lists of online math resources; they're organized by level and topic:

Math Help & Tutoring

Math help, Homework help, tutoring

General Math Resources

Math history, Problem solving, Hands-on, For Gifted, Mental Math, Test prep

Elementary Math 1

Basic operations, Times tables, Place value

Elementary Math 2

Time, Money, Measuring, Geometry

Middle School Math 1

Fractions, Decimals, Percent, Integers

Middle School Math 2

Measuring, Coordinate Plane, Geometry

High School 1

Algebra, Graphing, Calculus

High School 2

Geometry,  Trigonometry, Statistics, Logic

Fun & Games Math Sites

Math games, quizzes, or interactive tutorials websites