Archives - February 2003

activity of the month | web site of the month | book of the month

Dear Math Teacher,

Thank you, thank you, and thank you for all the kind emails we received about January's activity. We hope you and your students enjoyed exploring the number line.

Free Math Activity of the Month
This month's activity is a brand new idea that we have never presented to teachers before, but we think you and your students will benefit greatly from it. It's a simple and powerful activity that uses easy-to-find materials to help students explore both number sense and algebra. Imagine your students understanding what slope and y-intercept mean! In addition to a great activity this month, we even offer an "udderly" silly quiz you can give your students for fun. In this quiz you'll learn why February 17th is such an important date.

If you and your students like this activity, you can find many more like it in our book The Pattern and Function Connection published by Key Curriculum and available on our web site.

Click HERE to download "Milk Carton Apartments."

The free activity is in PDF file format (236k) and will take approximately 1.5 minutes to download with a 28K modem. Viewing this activity requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. Click logo to download a free version of Reader.

More Free Math Activities
If your students like this month's project, remember that you will find many other free activities from our books and workshops to download from our web site.

• from our books - free lessons on fractions, geometry, and algebra.
• from our workshops - handouts from recent conferences in Palm Springs and Asilomar, CA.

Two New Books
Our popular title, Simply Great Math Activities: Number and Operation is now in its second (and thicker) edition. The new title is Simply Great Math Activities: Number Sense.

We have also just finished our latest and much anticipated book, Simply Great Math Activities: Fractions, Decimals, and Percents.

Mathematics Web Site of the Month
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
You can find here conference and membership information and online publications with plenty of entertaining math activities. Resources are provided for teachers (elementary, middle school, and high school), family, leaders, and researchers. The latest version of the NCTM Standards is also available online. This is a good resource for everyone to have.

Mathematics Book of the Month
Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem, by Simon Singh

This is an excellent account of the 300+ year struggle by the world's foremost mathematicians to prove Fermat's Last Theorem. It is an engaging book containing not only the complete history of attempts to solve this easily stated problem, but fascinating accounts of the personalities involved. It has been a national bestseller, and gives the public an excellent introduction to many of history's famous mathematicians and mathematical thought. This book gives a great insight into many mathematical concepts as well as the mathematical process of proof in a non-technical fashion.

Comparison shop for this book at Best Book Buys

Workshops & Conferences
If you would like to attend conferences and workshops by Bill and Brad, read on:

• February 8: Greater San Diego Math Conference, San Diego, CA (858) 273-5257
• February 15: Number Sense, Shasta County Off. of Ed., (530) 225-0242
• February 18 & 19: Algebraic Thinking, Orange Co. Dept. of Ed., (714) 966-4391
• February 29: Standards-Aligned Math Games, Orange Co. Dept. of Ed., (714) 966-4391
• March 1: Standards-Aligned Math Games, Orange Co. Dept. of Ed., (714) 966-4391
• March 7: Various topics: South County Consortium
• March 8: Algebraic Thinking, Shasta County Off. of Ed., (530) 225-0242
• Full workshop schedule and registration information.

To host a workshop in your area, or to just send in a comment you can contact Bill and Brad at these email addresses:

Happy teaching,
Bill and Brad