Review of Math Apprentice

Math Apprentice is a new free website, meant to show students how math is used in real world. In the game, you are like an apprentice at various companies, applying your math skills to challenges similar to those encountered in the real world and real companies.

Main Street - Click to enlarge

To begin, you click the button on the home page of the site that says "Explore the Math". Then choose your character, and you'll be on the main street (see screenshot above) . Then use arrow keys to move right or left, and click to select a company to visit.

The companies you can visit are:

• Sweet Treat Cafe - baking pies

Sweet Treat Cafe - Click to enlarge

• Wheelworks - constructing bicycles and exploring gear ratios
• Game Pro! - keep track of the distance between superhero and the villain in a computer game, using Pythagorean Theorem
• Spacelogic - study speed of a spacecraft & slope, and then angle & distance commands to get the space rover where it needs go.
• Trigon Studios - Explore the usage of sine and cosine functions to create rhytmic or repeating motion of animated objects.
• Doodles - explore polar curves created with sine and cosine. These can be like stars, flowers, or spirals.
  

Doodles - Click to enlarge

• Builders, Inc. - calculate areas and perimeters of shapes

Builders, Inc. Click to enlarge

• Adventure Rides - study the angle of elevation and height of a roller coaster

While the site is targeted to grades 4-7, many of the mathematical ideas are actually far more advanced than that. In the simulations involving sine and cosine, for example, all you have to do is change the values in the equations using sliders and observe. Also, in some activities there are instructions given how to calculate things.

It says the about page: "Some of the mathematics in Math Apprentice may seem advanced for its targeted age group, grades 4-7. That's ok. It's important for students to interact with math concepts beyond the standards. This is where the joy of math can often be found."

Nevertheless, I feel some activities are definitely best reserved for students who have studied the concept (such as Pythagorean Theorem in Game Pro! company).

In general, I think Math Apprentice has well-made and interesting activities, and kids are sure to enjoy it!

Review of Math Apprentice

Math Apprentice is a new free website, meant to show students how math is used in real world. In the game, you are like an apprentice at various companies, applying your math skills to challenges similar to those encountered in the real world and real companies.

Main Street - Click to enlarge

To begin, you click the button on the home page of the site that says "Explore the Math". Then choose your character, and you'll be on the main street (see screenshot above) . Then use arrow keys to move right or left, and click to select a company to visit.

The companies you can visit are:

• Sweet Treat Cafe - baking pies

Sweet Treat Cafe - Click to enlarge

• Wheelworks - constructing bicycles and exploring gear ratios
• Game Pro! - keep track of the distance between superhero and the villain in a computer game, using Pythagorean Theorem
• Spacelogic - study speed of a spacecraft & slope, and then angle & distance commands to get the space rover where it needs go.
• Trigon Studios - Explore the usage of sine and cosine functions to create rhytmic or repeating motion of animated objects.
• Doodles - explore polar curves created with sine and cosine. These can be like stars, flowers, or spirals.
  

Doodles - Click to enlarge

• Builders, Inc. - calculate areas and perimeters of shapes

Builders, Inc. Click to enlarge

• Adventure Rides - study the angle of elevation and height of a roller coaster

While the site is targeted to grades 4-7, many of the mathematical ideas are actually far more advanced than that. In the simulations involving sine and cosine, for example, all you have to do is change the values in the equations using sliders and observe. Also, in some activities there are instructions given how to calculate things.

It says the about page: "Some of the mathematics in Math Apprentice may seem advanced for its targeted age group, grades 4-7. That's ok. It's important for students to interact with math concepts beyond the standards. This is where the joy of math can often be found."

Nevertheless, I feel some activities are definitely best reserved for students who have studied the concept (such as Pythagorean Theorem in Game Pro! company).

In general, I think Math Apprentice has well-made and interesting activities, and kids are sure to enjoy it!

Spread of H1N1 (swine) flu and mathematics

I came across an interesting blog post by Murray Borne titled H1N1 and the Logistic Equation. It explains how a logistic function can be used to model the spread of a virus or a disease in a given population.

Now, maybe you don't know what is logistic function or equation. It is shown in the blogpost; it uses the exponential function as a part of it. Basically, it is like an exponential growth function but it is limited after a certain point so that the growth tapers off, and approaches a certain (upper) limit.

Murray shows the graph, and then shows a real-life example about the spread of swine flu in Mexico last spring. It's a great, yet fairly simple, example of how mathematics is used for modeling real-life situations.

You could definitely use it as such an example with your students, even if you don't understand a THING about logistic equations. You see, seeing how math is used is definitely inspiring and motivating to a lot of students - especially when it ties in with some current "hot topic" such as the H1N1 flu.

Spread of H1N1 (swine) flu and mathematics

I came across an interesting blog post by Murray Borne titled H1N1 and the Logistic Equation. It explains how a logistic function can be used to model the spread of a virus or a disease in a given population.

Now, maybe you don't know what is logistic function or equation. It is shown in the blogpost; it uses the exponential function as a part of it. Basically, it is like an exponential growth function but it is limited after a certain point so that the growth tapers off, and approaches a certain (upper) limit.

Murray shows the graph, and then shows a real-life example about the spread of swine flu in Mexico last spring. It's a great, yet fairly simple, example of how mathematics is used for modeling real-life situations.

You could definitely use it as such an example with your students, even if you don't understand a THING about logistic equations. You see, seeing how math is used is definitely inspiring and motivating to a lot of students - especially when it ties in with some current "hot topic" such as the H1N1 flu.

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