I am sure that most of us have seen the picture that bemoans
the fact that “Yet another day has passed and I didn’t use algebra once”. If you haven’t, here’s the link http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMy1iOThiNjQ3OWZiYjM5ZmIy
Given the very real challenges of making content relevant
for students, I am always looking for ways to allow students so see practical
uses for math in real life. The following
is a list of resources that I have found.
This site includes lessons on financial literacy
(buying vs. leasing a car, accruing simple or compound interest in saving
accounts, calculating area and perimeter to determine materials needed for home
improvements, applying ratios, proportions, and conversions working with
recipes.
This site provides ideas and lessons for
integrating Google Earth into the math curriculum. Activities include finding the volume of
solids while viewing the Great Pyramids and other 3D buildings. They can use scientific
notation as they "climb" Mt. Everest.
This site shows distorted world maps to give a
quick sense of statistics on world resources and consumption of resources,
health, education, income, disease, causes of death, natural disasters,
economics, pollution, transportation, and more
What Did it Cost
100 Years Ago? In this activity, students are introduced to
inflation and the consumer price index as they compare changing prices across a
century using online resources.
Kelly!
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an excellent point about making math relevant. There are many areas that are easy for us to show students "real life" connections to what they are doing! Financial units and measurement are ones that I personally find easy to make real world connections for students; however, I have heard students tell me that they don't understand why they should care about parabolas and algebra also.
Thanks so much for sharing some of these awesome resources! Below is another that I found really interesting and is developed for grade 9 to 10 students. It comes from the University of Waterloo and includes the solutions! VERY COOL!
http://www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/resources/real-world.html
Thanks for the great links, Kelly! I think making math relevant really helps students understand the scope of possibilities when they've mastered a math concept.
ReplyDeleteI think another idea for students in high school, especially as they begin to consider career paths, is to interview professionals in your classroom. Fashion, computers, management, science, engineering, construction, banking and even a burger flipper at McDonald's; practically any job will use math in some form.
And if students need a little cash incentive, here is an article that states the highest-earning colleges degrees all have one thing in common - MATH! http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/18/college-majors-lucrative-lead-cx_kb_0618majors.html
Wow, what great sites you have found. I also think that it is very important to give students real life examples of how they can use the math that we are showing them. I also tried this year to give my students examples of how I use math in my everyday life. For example I have a second job doing income tax returns and use a lot of the concepts taught in grade 7 and 8. I also often used examples that my husband gave me of how he uses the Pythagorean theorem in his construction work. This shows students that even if you have what you think is a "regular" job you will continue to use these concepts and it will make your job easier.
ReplyDelete