Robocompass

I know you've always wanted an easy way to construct shapes with a compass on the computer. Well, now you can with robocompass.com! Seriously, this is pretty cool.

Science & Math Animated GIFs

Check out these fun sites with animated GIFs to help explain math and science concepts. The science website also has information about how to get your students to create their own animated GIFs over topics covered in your class.
Math: www.mathwarehouse.com/animated-gifs
Science: www.amoebasisters.com/gifs.html 

Math: EquatIO now includes graphing from Desmos

This article and the video above tell more about how EquatIO (formerly g(math)) and Desmos now work together. The EquatIO Chrome Extension allows users to easily add math equations and graphs into most Google things.

To access EquatIO, add the Chrome extension found here. Then open a Google Doc, Form, Sheets, Slide, or Drawing to use the extension. You may need to reboot the computer if it doesn't work correctly right away.

10 Math YouTube Channels Not Named Khan Academy

Richard Byrne at Free Tech 4 Teachers compiled a list of 10 Math YouTube Channels Not Named Khan Academy. Some are more elementary but several include high school level content. Read more. 

12 Excellent Add-Ons for Google Docs

This list of 12 excellent add-ons for Google Docs is worth your time! It includes details on:

1. Revision History Analytics
2. SAS Writing Reviser
3. Easy Accents
4. g(Math)
5. Translate
6. Highlight Tool
7. Rhyme Finder
8. Word Cloud Generator
9. Pupil Pref
10. Doc Tools
11. Orange Slice Teacher Rubric
12. EasyBib

20 Chrome Extensions, Web Apps, & Add-ons for Math

I recently came across this list of 20 Chrome Extensions, Web Apps, & Add-ons for Math. A few are geared toward elementary but there are several that could be helpful at the high school level. Take a look!

Math and Logic Problems

Check out this list of Math and Logic Problems. It covers puzzles for kids through mathematician. 

TED Talks: Math in Unexpected Places

I found this TED Talk playlist of 8 videos on Math in Unexpected Places to be quite interesting!

Graphite's List of Math Apps

Common Sense Graphite put together this list of math apps. Several include high school content. Read more

Happy Pi Day! #PiDay #PiDay2016

Pixar in a Box

Pixar in a Box is a collaboration between Pixar and Khan Academy. Each topic begins with a design focused lesson which is appropriate for grades 5+, followed by a math focused lesson which is grade specific. Our lessons touch on concepts ranging from grade 4 through high school and beyond.

Educator's Guide

Explore how realistic blades of grass are modeled using parabolic arcs.

Explore how clay models are transformed into digital characters using weighted averages.

Explore how swarms of robots were created for WALL-E using combinatorics.

Explore how animators bring characters to life with the help of Animation curves.

Explore how virtual sets are constructed using geometric transformations.

Explore how pixels are painted by solving systems of linear equations.

Environment Modeling

·         Lesson 1: Modeling grass with parabolas - all ages

·         Lesson 2: Calculating parabolas - grades 7 - high school

Character Modeling

·         Lesson 1: Modeling with subdivision surfaces - all ages

·         Lesson 2: Mathematics of subdivision - grades 7 - high school

Animation

·         Lesson 1: Introduction to animation curves - all ages

·         Lesson 2: Mathematics of animation curves - grades 8 - high school

Crowds

·         Lesson 1: Building crowds (combinations) - grades 4-7

·         Lesson 2: Counting crowds (binomial coefficient) - high school

Sets & Staging

·         Lesson 1: Geometric transformations - grades 7-8

·         Lesson 2: Mathematics of rotation - high school

Rendering

·         Lesson 1: Rendering 101 - all ages

·         Lesson 2: Mathematics of rendering - high school+

Math Video Resources

This year our math department has new curriculum. These videos do not match the new curriculum's way of teaching concepts but they may be helpful for struggling students. Feel free to use and share these!

WOWmath.org’s Playlists covers Algebra II, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus AB Practice Problems

The New Boston: Geometry & Algebra

Math Doctor Bob covers Algebra I & II, Calculus, Statistics, Geometry and more

Patrick JMT

Numberphile fun math facts

YayMath includes Algebra I & II, Geometry, Statistics

g(Math) [add-in for Google Forms] now has standalone Handwriting entries

g(Math) [an add-in for Google Forms] now has standalone Handwriting entries!

Google Forms (with the g(Math) add-in and the Flubaroo add-in to grade multiple choice or short answer for you) can be used with BYOD to assess students.

Let Penney Matos (or your DLC) know if you want to investigate more!

TED-Ed: Superhero Science and more cool topics

Superhero Science is a playlist of science lessons published by TED-Ed. The lessons in the playlist feature explanations of what would happen in various scenarios if you had superhero powers like flight, strength, and speed. Each lessons explains the mathematics and science of scenarios frequently found in superhero stories. For example, in the lesson on strength we learn what would happen if a superhero did catch someone falling from the top of a skyscraper.

On that same link, there is alist of all the other TED-Ed lesson series that are available.  Some fantastic stuff!

Actions and Reactions

Animation Basics

Awesome Nature

Before and After Einstein

Behind the Curtain

Click You Fortune

Cyber-Influence & Power

Discovering the Deep

Ecofying Citites

Everyone Has a Story

Exploring Theories

Getting Under Our Skin

Government: Declassified

How Things Work

Ingenuity in the Developing World

Inventions that Shape History

Making the Invisible Visible

Mastering Tech Artistry

Math in Real Life

Mind Matters

Mysteries of Vernacular

Our Changing Climate

Out of This World

Periodic Videos

Playing with Language

Questions No One (Yet) Knows the Answers To

Reading Between the Lines

The Artist's Palette

The Big Questions

The Way We Think

The World's People and Places

The Writer's Workshop

Things they Don't Teach in School (But Should)

Troubleshooting the World

Visualizing Data

What Will You Do with Your Life?

You Are What You Eat

You Graduated... Now What?

If you have never used TED-Ed before, if you create a FREE teacher account, you can customize the questions and activities that go with the videos and you can assign them to your students.

Let me know if you are interested in learning more about it.  I’d be happy to help set it up.

Desmos: Explore Math

Desmos

What it is: Desmos is an incredibly fast online calculator that can graph any imaginable function. It also allows users to add sliders, do regressions, and plot whole data tables, among other things.

Who would love it: Anyone learning math, from middle and high school through graduate school and beyond. Also great for teachers.

Why it’s good: Desmos can be used on any computer or tablet, completely free of charge, and does not even require a download. It seamlessly creates beautiful visual representations and animations, and it allows users to save and share graphs they've created. Desmos makes complex math — whether theoretical or applied — fun, interactive, and accessible.

Why it’s relevant: For many students and math enthusiasts who can't afford graphing calculators, Desmos is leveling the playing field. It is also, in Tech Crunch's words, "platform-agnostic" — so anyone with a computer or tablet can use it anytime. In addition, Desmos is supporting the push toward online textbooks and leading many students to spend their free time creating cool graphs and cultivating a love of math — something that's especially crucial given the growth in STEM-related careers.

Something you didn’t know: The site has an engaging series of classroom activities for teachers. One of these is the Function Carnival, which enables students to watch a video, create a graph, and have that model transformed into an animation. Another is Des-Man, in which students do math artistically — they draw faces with graphs by using domain and range restrictions.

#OurVoice: George Couros at TEDxBurnsvilleED

Worth a watch:

http://youtu.be/kZQKD83rsPw 

Khan Academy revisit

Khan Academy has grown over the past several years and now includes even more subjects. Check out the full list: 

Khan Academy also now includes not just videos but also interactives, assessments, articles, handouts and more!

Overview of KhanAcademy.org: An overview of the different ways to use Khan Academy

PBS Learning Media

PBS Learning Media now offers over 100,000 digital resources in its library for educators!

Read this article for more information or access PBS LearningMedia directly.

Plot.ly: graphing in education

Plotly for Educators

Finally: a scientific graphing tool for students and teachers. Import data from experiments or enter it manually into an online spreadsheet. Make scatter plots, bar charts, lines-of-best fit and much more.

Check out our quick-start to make your first Plotly graph!

Types of charts:

Plotly’s Learn page

GeoGebra

“GeoGebra is dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that brings together geometry, algebra, spreadsheets, graphing, statistics and calculus in one easy-to-use package.”

It looks worth investigating more…

Website

Chrome Add-On

iTunes App

Google Play App

Windows Store

From today's Google for Education newsletter:

Rockin' around the Geome-TREE

Educator Tom Rose of Chowchilla High School in California uses Geogebra, a free web app, to bring complicated math concepts to life. “The app’s ability to move things around and dynamically see what changes and what doesn’t goes much further than the most well-written lecture notes,” Rose says. “Students love working with GeoGebra, and have no problem loudly saying ‘YES!’ when I tell them it’s ‘a GeoGebra day’ rather than another slideshow from Mr. Rose.”