What could be more fun than making a pie chart, bar graph or map?  This site encourages readers to download templates for maps, graphs, charts, venn diagrams etc. and create your own visual representations of song lyrics, popular sayings or whatever’s on your mind

like this:

or this:

or this:

or this:

I hope you enjoy the site, and sharing the templates with your kids so they can make graphs, charts and diagrams of their favourite songs!

So, I’ll leave you with something that should keep you and your kids entertained for about a week or so.

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives has a few very cool interactive algebra tools online.

My personal favourite is the equation solver, which is done by first setting up your equation by creating a “balanced scale” (I often wonder, do kids today even know what those kinds of scales are anymore, or have they become an anachronism?) and then performing mathematical operations to both sides to discover the missing value for x. Of all the interactive websites I’ve seen to visually represent the process of solving equations, this one stands out as my favourite. (If you have others you’d like to share, simply leave a link in the comment field below.)

You can choose the option to use negatives or simply work with positive numbers (two different links) so even if your child doesn’t yet have experience with negative numbers, you can let him/her loose on the site and see whether he/she is ready for this tool.

Also, be sure to check out “Stick or Switch” which is “The Monty Hall Problem” and an excellent introduction to simulations.

One caveat: I was thoroughly unimpressed with the “Function Machine” and I hesitate to recommend it simply because at no point does it ever reveal what the function in use actually was.  And, the two times I tried it, the function machine was using (only because I know how to figure out the function myself) first a quadratic function and then secondly an exponential function — not exactly easy for your child to discover on their own.  (The patterns, yes.  The actual functions, no.) So, use this as a number pattern recognition game perhaps, but unfortunately it will not help teach “functions.”  (How can one learn about functions if you never see the function in use by the machine?)

So, be sure to visit the Algebra equation solver, either with negatives or without negatives, the “Let’s Make a Deal” simulation, and whatever other puzzles from the list you find interesting.  I’ll see you in early February!

In Oshawa, UOIT has opened its CSI house to students with a summer camp running over the next three years to stimulate interest in the forensic science course.

Registration information from UOIT

. . .
Each camp runs Monday through Friday, with camps for students in Grades 7-8 and sessions for high school students.

Before entering the CSI house, the students at camp are given a crime scene kit complete with all the tools they need to solve the mystery of a fictional killer. Armed with a ruler, toothbrush for cleaning away soil, caliper to measure bones, tape measure, pocket protector, pen/highlighter, flashlight, calculator and disposable camera, they must crack the crime.

Students are also briefed with background information on the crime, which provides the events leading up to it, a police search, a victim and suspect description and police comments.

“The camp will help foster a love for science that will stay with these students through their entire lives,” said Shari Forbes, professor of forensic science at UOIT.

I’ve always been interested in the mathematics of voting, perhaps even more so than in the election results themselves. A wonderful math activity is to learn about the upcoming Ontario referendum on electoral reform and then use past election data to see how or whether the proposed changes would have affected the outcomes of past elections. You can also find information on other voting systems (using a sample lesson plan with activity sheets or a web-based lecture for example) and discuss concepts such as strategic voting, fairness and representation.

I hope you have as much fun on Oct. 10, 2007 as I do!