Get The Math!

 

I love it when I stumble across interesting websites.  I came across one titled "Get the math" which is a lovely site geared for middle and high school students by showing them real life applications of algebra and other levels of math.  

Each lesson has an introduction where someone shares basic information on the topic.  This is followed by a challenge which requires students to use material from the introduction to help solve the problem.  

The challenge is set up so it introduces the issue and provides enough help to work on it but not enough to fully give the answer. It even allows students to try again if they don't get it right. Once the challenge is done, students are given the opportunity to view a video on how others solved the challenge.  The section has one more challenge so students can practice what they've learned in the previous challenge.  

This site covers math in music, the fashion industry, video games, restaurants, basketball, and the use of math in special effects.  The math challenges are not the standard problems one associates with textbooks. Instead, they are the things that people face within that line of work.  For instance, in the math in music section, students learn about beats per minute and how to mix two different tracts into one so they are moving at the same speed and matched beautifully.

In restaurants, students learn how the prices they see on the menu are set by the chef.  Students are giving the job of calculating the price for guacamole next year based on previous costs.  This activity has students making predictions based on previous prices to come up with the future price.  In fashion, they get to change a design so it is able to be sold at a specific price point after learning how math is used by fashion designers.  For special effects, they learn about distance and light to get just the right exposure for the look they want.

The site lets you look at only the challenges, or the videos if you want but it also includes lesson plans for each situation.  The lesson plans include an overview, learning objectives, list of resources and materials needed for the lesson.  It also includes a list of things to be done before the lesson, the lesson itself with two activities and the culmination along with end of course questions that cover the same algebraic concepts as covered in this lesson.  There is also a long list of common core standards the lesson touches on.  

Finally the site allows you to download the lesson plans, all handouts, and end of course questions for each section so you have the material on your computer.  In addition, if you or your students have issues with the internet, it is possible to download all the material including the videos and challenges so it can be done locally.  

I love this last part because not all schools have great internet and if this is something you want your students to do as a flipped activity, it can be easily done by sending the videos home on thumb drives.  I am impressed by the way the math is introduced to students.  It is done in a friendly way without all the mathematical equations we see in textbooks.  I think students might find it easier to understand the concept.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.