My Algebra Activities

Resources

If you are not already a member of The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics you should be. Their journals are an excellent resource for activities and ideas. Their catalog includes many useful books and materials. Their regional and national conventions are worth attending.

The Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications is an excellent resource for activities demonstrating how math is used in the real world. Their materials are particularly useful for high school and college. They also have a textbook which incorporates many of their activities and applications.

The Graphing Calculator software used in some of my activities is available for both Macintosh and Windows from Pacific Tech. This is powerful graphing software that can simply expressions, solve equations, graph equations, and create animated graphs of equations. Version 2 includes many additional features.

Algebra Experiments I and II by Mary Jean Winter and Ronald Carlson is an excellent resource for hands-on activities which involve gathering data and using algebra to understand the relationship between the variables. These kinds of experiments give students a chance to apply their knowledge of algebra.

Teaching Mathematics by Max Sobel and Evan Maletsky is an excellent resource for mathematics teachers. There are many wonderful activities and ideas that are ready to use in your classroom. I find treasures in this book every time I open it.

The Teaching Gap by James Stigler and James Hiebert looks at how mathematics teaching is done in Japan, Germany, and the United States. The authors studied videos of many typical 8th grade lessons from each country. The style of teaching in each country was quite consistent. Their conclusions and their suggestions for improving education in the United States are worth reading.