Quick Review Solving Equations in Algebra 1 or 2

If you need a quick thorough review of solving LINEAR and QUADRATIC equations then follow the link below to my classroom.   There are numerous examples, diagrams and videos to help you.
Take a quick look or stay for an hour and relearn several chapters on solving equations -ALL in one Lesson!

  Solving Equations
Easy:    2x/3 =   44       to more challenging:    2x³- 8x²+ 8x = 0

Questions?   Email me. Susan Johnsey   my contact info is somewhere on these web pages!

3 Million Dollars for Math homework!

If you are interested in math study the LINK below will introduce you to some of the great math minds of our decade.  These individuals are interested in many areas of math and physics.  You can find something that perhaps interests you here. 

Dr. Maxim Kontsevich who works at the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies outside Paris  was awarded 3 million dollars by Yuri Milner a few years back.  Yuri Milner is a Russian who dropped out of graduate studies in physics and became a successful investor in Internet companies like Facebook.
Just recently, Mr. Milner told him Dr. Kontsevich that he was one of five inaugural winners of the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics.  The awards are financed by Mr. Milner and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook; this prize also comes with $3 million.  Mr. Milner officially announced the winners on Monday, June 23, 2014.

"The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics is the latest effort in Mr. Milner's crusade to make science lucrative and COOL in a society that much more often celebrates athletes, entertainers, politicians and business tycoons.  'It is really out of balance', he said. 'This is really to emphasize the importance of fundamental science in our world today'."

READ more  here 

Summer Ideas for Math

Do you need some clear goals for the summer?
Should you review last years math problems?
Improve your calculating skills?
Look to your new subject that will begin in the fall?

Math is an awesome skill to have.  Your skills and knowledge and even speed can improve each day.
What do you want to learn this summer?

It can be fun!   It can be interesting!   Are you ready for math this summer.

Here is a link for fun ideas in improving your math skills this summer.
 Summer Ideas for Math!


Need more Algebra or Geometry?  Then try this link:
Math classes for review or for new skills

Factoring Class offered by Math in a Box dot com -- FREE

Factoring Polynomials

Factoring and working with POLYNOMIALS is a very important skill for Algebra and Calculus students.
If you have studied Algebra 1 and are not sure you can still factor (there are at least 5 types) polynomials then consider completing this class before you start your next math class.

You do need to know some algebra:  exponents, variables, order of operations, signed numbers, and all of these combined into 1 problem!

Here is the link to the free class.  Factoring Polynomials.

What is Stealth?  Make your choice:

1.  it is teaching a child a topic or concept without them know it!
2.  an object that is not detectable, but it really is there!
3.  both of the above.

1.
Can we really teach our children without them realizing they are learning a "school topic" or life lesson?
Sure.   Read this person's blog to see the fun they had learning-   build a pendulum in your living room.
Stealth learning may not always appear orderly, but it’s natural and it can work!   It doesn’t have to be used exclusively, but it’s worth trying now and then and seeing how it might work for you and your child.
Stealth Learning 

2.
As you might expect, hiding a giant plane is no easy task. Northrop Grumman, the defense firm that won the bomber contract, spent billions of dollars and nearly 10 years developing the top secret project. The finished product is a revolutionary machine -- a 172-foot wide flying wing that looks like an insect to radar scanners! The craft is also revolutionary from an aeronautics perspective: It doesn't have any of the standard stabilizing systems you find on a conventional airplane, but pilots say it flies as smoothly as a fighter jet.   The B-2 bomber has a completely different design: It's one big wing; it is like a boomerang.
BUT how does the B-2 fly and how does it vanish?   LOTS of  MATH and science learning needed for this job.

Shall we make it stealth learning or book learning?

Wonderful article that does not support Math education!

Wonderful article that does not support Math education!

View this article about the need for algebra in the life of Liberal art students.

The article is written by Barbara Ellis in support of the book Shakespeare Didn't Need College Algebra, author Barbara G. Lenmark.

Read her article here.

You may also want to review the book; but, I could not find it even with Google search and Amazon!  If you do find it then let me know!

Transitional Students need your help for their schooling

Transitional Students Need Your Help!

My friend Cheri Thompson has a farm in Kenya.  The farm helps street kids make a new life for themselves.

Education is, of course, a part of that new life.

Will you help?   Read the December 2012 post by Amy at Challenge Farm to see the present news and needs of their children.

Education is such an important part of what we do at Challenge Farm.  This week standard 8 students are taking exams to see if they qualify for high school and we very much appreciate your prayers for them.   For some students it doesn’t matter how much they study and how many times they take a test – they are just not going to qualify for high school.  These are our transitional students and this is the new CHALLENGE for Challenge Farm.  Read more and accept the challenge: Click here to visit the full blog post.

New approach to developmental college math

I can give a definite "YES" to these comments about math curriculum changes proposed in California by Katie Hern of Chabot College, director of the California Acceleration Project.

" A growing number of community colleges have developed an innovative new approach for students who are under-prepared for college math. It is less expensive than the traditional curriculum and significantly more effective. The innovation has been spotlighted by several national organizations focused on college completion."

Please read the complete article here:
New approach to remedial math challenged

The need for math is present in almost all areas of study, but more so in sciences, engineering, business, and mathematics. Algebra, geometry and trig skills need to be very strong for these majors.
But for English (and other languages), elementary education, art or music majors, they usually need only a couple of college math courses. Those are usually finite math and statistics. Algebra maybe helpful, but not a must for finite math and statistics. If students are very well prepared with today's definition of pre-algebra skills then these students can be successful without college algebra, precalculus or calculus.

New Factoring Polynomials lessons- free math class

Please visit my new class.   Do you need to learn or review Factoring Polynomials?
The class is free, but you must register first.   No strings attached.  I have other classes that require a fee, but this one is free.

My Factoring Polynomials Class    A new window will open for you.

Susan Johnsey   

Experts: Remedial college classes need fixing

 Remedial math college classes

The student debt for taking remedial classes is growing and it discourages students from completing their degree.   Read the full report at the Gainesville Sun:

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120528/WIRE/120529609/-1/entertainment?p=1&tc=pg    or  go to www.gainesville.com and search for remedial college classes.

You can complete my online math courses and have the knowledge you need to make higher scores on the college placement tests.   Prices range from $80 to $180.   Many adults have taken my courses and then moved onto college at a higher level. 

Visit www.mathinabox.com for more info about myself and my Algebra and Geometry courses.

 

This was posted by the Gainesville Sun on Gainseville.com :

"The Associated Press

Published: Monday, May 28, 2012 at 8:07 p.m. 

Last Modified: Monday, May 28, 2012 at 8:07 p.m.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Each year, an estimated 1.7 million U.S. college students are steered to remedial classes to catch them up and prepare them for regular coursework. But a growing body of research shows the courses are eating up time and money, often leading not to degrees but student loan hangovers."

Math Resource links for middle school students

A few Math resource links that are helpful for middle school students:

Math Dictionary

Triple A Math

Algebra Practice

Cool Math - Pre-Algebra

Pre-Algebra Textbook    for Alabama 
  You can find your state too.

That Quiz
  Try the Algebra (under Integers column) and Geometry levels 1 to 4.

Need help finding the right apps for your child's iPad™?

eSpark creates personalized curriculum on iPads™ to meet student needs!!

eSpark uses your child's student data to determine the child's learning needs and then helps you set academic goals for them.  You or your child are guided through a tailored set of excellent 3rd party apps, games and instructional content.

View there entertaining visual map to see what they offer: eSPARK apps for iPAD

One of the apps suggested by eSparks is Motion Math.




eSparks promotional video:

  

Need INSPIRATION for TEACHING~ create "BLUE SKY" in your classroom!

Teaching students can be exhilarating or draining. If you are in need of some new motivation then read the book published just a few months ago by Walter Lewin (with Warren Goldstein): For the LOVE of PHYSICS.    Lewin is the wonderfully inspiring MIT professor of PHYSICS.   Watch his videos on YouTube; I guarantee that you will be inspired to improve your class presentations and enjoy them. You do not have to be a physics teacher.

One of the many hundreds of his activities for teaching is to create a "blue sky" and then "white clouds" inside his MIT classroom! Do you think his students will remember why our skies are blue and clouds are white?

Even Bill Gates has watched many of his YouTube videos.

Purchase the book at AMAZON or watch his videos at YouTube. See his enthusiasm in his writing and his classroom presentation.

Walter Lewin writes: "I've always tried to make physics come alive for my students.  I believe it's much more important for them to remember the beauty of the discoveries than to focus on the complicated math.  My goal is to impart enthusiasm to my students, to help them see the beauty of the world all around them in a NEW way.   What counts, I found, is not what you cover, but what you uncover. Students love being apart of that discovery." 

Math in a Box appreciates your support and comments.

Top 100 Tools for Learning

Jane Hart offers valuable info for educators, students, and entrepreneurs with her top 100 Tools for Learning. At her web site she also gives the next top 50 - the 101st to 150th web software/apps/sites- that are quite helpful for learning, teaching, creating and communicating with your students or clients.

Most of the tools are free!

• Find tools for quick communication or for producing your own movie or screen cast.
• Geogebra will help you teach Geometry or Algebra online or in your classroom.
• Free tools  for drawing, painting, editing pics and docs.
• Watch Science and Math videos.
• Read research papers.
• Build visual maps
• Store your files in safe place with easy network or internet access
• Create a Slidecast (narrated presentation)

 And remember these are the top of the line software, apps and web sites. The offerings will produce quality goods for you or allow you to experience excellent goods.   I use some of these in my work and will probably  try some others in the new year.

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2011

View more presentations from Jane Hart

Free Web whiteboard - Tutor students online - includes audio

Scribblar
Scribblar is a Flash-based hosted web site that is ideal for real-time tutoring and web collaboration. Built with simplicity in mind, Scribblar is

• Easy to use – no training required
• Browser based and cross-platform
• Customizable and brandable to fit into your existing website

Try it now  for free at Scribblar.com. The application requires no large downloads.  It has a clear, user-friendly interface so it’s easy to get up and running quickly.

Send your students a link to your whiteboards and then they can join you.     You can speak with them by turning on the microphone icon (one click), but of course, you must have a mic on you computer.  If you do not have a mic then you can still chat with the student in the CHAT box beside the Whiteboard.

You can write, type, write math equations with LATEX, draw geometric shapes,   use different colors for the text or background or shapes.   You can even upload documents or pictures and edit these together.     SAVE the EDITS or new Creations on the whiteboard and then send to your students
I have used this with several students.   

   

Math and Tornadoes

Scientists still do not understand the formations,  movements and growth of tornadoes.  Tornadoes  strike sometimes before a tornado warning can even be issued.  

Many warnings (sirens and radio-TV broadcasts) were issued and heeded by Alabama residents this week and lives were saved.  Please pray for the citizens of my home state. At least 200 people lost their lives.  Thousands have lost friends, family, pets, homes, businesses, and jobs. 

Our state is blessed to have brilliant and compassionate weather forecasters and broadcasters, as well as, brave reporters. Many reporters were in the field chasing and sometimes running from the tornadoes in order to help the weather broadcasters better warn the people of our state.

So what about the math?    MORE is needed.    Numerical modeling has provided us with some insights as to how a tornado occurs.  Video observations and numerical modeling has helped us  discover and better understand the formations,  movements and growth of tornadoes. The numerical modeling allows researchers to create computer simulations which can validate their ideas, as well as, uncover new information about tornadoes.   

Can tornadoes be slowed down or detoured? Are you ready to study more math so you can help in future years?   Think about it, and please pray for guidance.

Quaternions: Are they from outer space, depths of the sea or are they surreal?

Quaternions 
Would you believe that they are NUMBERS, that is 4-dimensional numbers used to describe dynamics of motion in 3-D.  Although created in 1800's they are today used for virtual reality games, robotics and geometry of space-time.  Quaternions are implemented in flight software for the NASA Space Shuttles.  If you have heard of complex numbers, a+bi where bi is the imaginary part, then think of quaternions as complex triple imaginary numbers.   a+bi+cj+dk.

 Irishman William Hamilton devoted his life to studying and teaching about his invention, quaternions. He founded a school of "quaternionists" and popularized them in several books.  He was from Dublin and belong to the Irish Royal Academy.  

In the 1900's the MATHEMATICS of quaternions was replaced with VECTOR analysis.  Who would have thought that 100 years later they would be revived for NASA and  for virtual reality games of the 21st century.

 

Super Egg in Geometry!

Super Egg - 
The upright egg was created in 1965 by a Dane, Piet Hein. 
 The 3-D  shape is a superellipse defined by the graph of the relation:

  

The ellipse is then revolved about the z-axis.    In most super eggs that you see a/b = 4/3 !  Or have you not seen one yet!.

Hein's super eggs were popular as toys in the 1960's.  The world's largest super egg can be seen outside Kelvin Hall in Glascow, Scotland, UK.  The super egg with a/b= 6/5 was used as a round-about road in Stockholm, Sweden.  Traffic flowed more fluidly with the super egg design.

You can purchase a set of super eggs on Amazon!   They were designed by Hein as salt and pepper shakers.    They will wobble a bit but do not fall over!

I gleaned this from a book you may want to consider reading at your public library.
The Math Book : from Pythagoras to the 57th dimension, 250 milestones in the history of mathematics by  Clifford A. Pickover.

Need more information about the SUPER ELLIPSE?

Learn to create your own here:

Math World at Wolfram

iPad 2 and its Classroom possibilities

Do you enjoy learning the newest technology?  Have you tried out the new iPad 2?

Houghton Mifflin this month, April 2011, introduced new apps for their Algebra 1 curriculum.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a Boston company known for such educational products as textbooks, said it is launching HMH Fuse: Algebra 1, the first core K-12 education solution developed exclusively for the iPad. 

"The portability of a complete Algebra 1 course on an iPad enables students to learn in the classroom, on the bus, or at home — anytime, anywhere," the company said.

These are current prices, updated each day:


With iPad, the classroom is always at your fingertips.






 
At the iTunes App Store, there are thousands of apps available to download.
Apple’s iTunes U is home to more than 350,000 free lectures, videos, readings, and podcasts.  Universities such as Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Beijing Open University and The University of Tokyo, as well as broadcasters such as PBS, offer free content on iTunes U.

Graph Sine and Cosine using GEOGEBRA

You should print this worksheet, see below,  or you can make up your own functions to study.  
Then click link to go to the Graphing ACTIVITY.


Click here for the Geogebra activity: Graphing Sine and Cosine Functions with Variations

Worksheet for Graphing Sine and Cosine:
 Use pencil and paper to copy each of these graphs that Geogebra will create for you.
You should have 12 separate graphs.
Can you predict the graph changes?
Try some yourself.     If you use  y=2sin(x)  what graph will you have?
Change the 2 to 3 or -3, what happens to the graph.  The amplitude changes.
Try other combinations.     y=sin(2x). This 2 will affect the period of the function rather than the amplitude.

1. SINE function
A. period=2pi amplitude = 3 Equation_________
B. period=2pi amplitude = 3 up 3 Equation_________
C. period=2pi amplitude = 3 up 3 left pi/4 Equation_________
D. Complete each graph and also state the "5 points" for B. and C. on the graph.
Does your graph match the info I gave you for C? I hope so HOW can you know for sure?
2. SINE function
A. period=pi amplitude = 3 Equation_________
B. period=pi amplitude = 3 down 1 Equation_________
C. period=pi amplitude = 3 down 1 right pi/2 Equation_________
D. Complete each graph and also state the "5 points" for B. and C. on the graph.
3. COSINE function
A. period=2pi amplitude = -2 Equation_________
B. period=2pi amplitude = -2 up 1 Equation_________
C. period=2pi amplitude = -2 up 1 right pi/4 Equation_________
D. Complete each graph and also state the "5 points" for B. and C. on the graph.
4. COSINE function
A. period= 4pi amplitude = 3 Equation_________
B. period=4pi amplitude = 3 down 2 Equation_________
C. period=4pi amplitude = 3 down 2 right pi/3 Equation_________
D. Complete each graph and also state the "5 points" for B. and C. on the graph.


Let me know if you need help.       If you need the equations then email me.  Be specific in you request as I have many online students studying different topics.
Susan Johnsey  sjohnsey at bellsouth dot net