Top Ten Lists for Using Technology to Help Students Learn Mathematics

I. Top Ten Reasons for Using Technology to Help Students Learn Mathematics PowerPoint.

II. Top Eighteen Interactive Applets to Help Students Learn Mathematical Concepts in the Elementary/Middle School Mathematics Curriculum

    1. Find Grampy and Find Grampy Strict (from visualfractions.com)
    2. Cyberchase Airlines Builder Game - Drag (and sometime rotate) segments to make a spaceship. A spaceship must be an enclosed shape. Fixed perimeter. Find the shapes.
    3. Making Equal Groups 1 to 5 (Making Equal Groups 1 to 9) - Click New Problem, Type the Total, then Press Enter (E-labs).
    4. Measure in inches - Click New Problem. Drag the ruler to measure.Type your answer and hit Enter. Repeat. (no recording sheet)* Measure in centimeters - Click Measure. Click New Problem. Drag the ruler to measure.Type your answer and hit Enter. Repeat (no recording sheet).
    5. Make a Match - Equivalent fractions, including shaded regions. Has six levels! (Cyberchase Games)
    6. Space Hopscotch Counting On
    7. Counting On from LearningPlanet
    8. Paint Brush Math - basic addition
    9. ClockTime - Match Clocks – Answer questions asking you to show a given time on digital and analog clocks. Time - What Time Will It Be? – Answer questions asking you to indicate what time it will be before or after a given time period. (Virtual Manipulative)
    10. Triangle sorting - triangle terminology and venn diagrams.
    11. Broken Calculator Problem solving. The dimmed buttons on the calculator are broken (they don't work!). Your goal is to use the buttons that do work to compute the numbers from 1 through 15.
    12. Spinners - Can make various spinners with equal or unequal regions. Spin once or multiple times. Results table provided. Activity available at spinner game. (Virtual Manipulative)
    13. Money Three activities: (a) How much money, (b) Pay Exact Amount, (c) Make a Dollar. (Virtual Manipulative)
    14. Platonic Solids - Investigate the solids (cube, tetrahedron, ...). Rotate the shape. Shift-click the edges, vertices, and the faces to color (and count them). V - E + F =  ? (Virtual Manipulative)
    15. Fraction Model II (and I and III). Models fractions and mixed numbers with set, area, and length models (NCTM Illuminations).
    16. Create a Graph Tool - for students (others) to make statistical graphs (NCES).
    17. Forest Fire applet - simulation of a forest fire. Visualize probabilities (Project Interactivate).
    18. Percent of a number Fill in any two of the three numbers in _% of __ is __. (Virtual Manipulative)

III. Top Seven Websites with Interactive Applets to Help Students Learn Mathematical Concepts in the Elementary/Middle School Mathematics Curriculum

    1. VisualFractions.com
    2. Cyberchase (PBS) Games - Click here for my descriptions and my evaluation of the games.
    3. E-Labs
    4. Huge Virtual Manipulatives Site
    5. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
    6. NCTM Illuminations
    7. Project Interactivate (from shodor.org)

IV. Top Four Ways to Use a Computer to Enhance Learning in a Mathematics Classroom

    1. One computer and large display for class demonstrations.
    2. 3-4 computers in the classroom for students to do Quickie Online Activities.
    3. Teacher uses his/her own computer for teacher tasks.
    4. Computer lab - one student (or two students) per computer.

V. Top Ten Tools to Help Math Teachers Do Their Work More Effectively

    1. Equation editor in MicroSoft Word for typing mathematical expressions. Insert menu|object|Microsoft equation.
    2. RubiStar for making rubrics (to print or use online).
    3. QuizStar for making online quizzes.
    4. Class Homepage from Scholastic.
    5. PowerPoint (using equation editor) and PowerPoint games.
    6. SmartBoard interactive software (even if you don't own a SmartBoard)
    7. Graph paper tool to print out or download the program (bottom of the page)
    8. Geometer's Sketchpad or wingeom (wingeom is free) for making dynamic geometric diagrams.
    9. winplot (free) for making graphs.
    10. TI-Connect cable and software.
(11. Dreamweaver® software for making webpages)

VI. Top Six Websites With Ideas and Tools to Help Math Teachers Do Their Work More Effectively

    1. Math Forum
    2. TIPS - Tipping the Scales In Problem Solving.
    3. Jim Olsen’s Teaching Resources page (use find-in-page).
    4. Mathematics Assessment for the ISAT
    5. Mathcounts
    6. Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics - Math World from Wolfram Research. Lot's of interesting topics - many advanced topics.

At present, this page focuses primarily on Elementary and Middle School resources. Secondary resources will be added soon.


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©James R. Olsen, Western Illinois University
E-mail: jr-olsen@wiu.edu
updated May 5, 2006