Did You Hear That?

Sounds are all around us, and we make a lot of sounds every day. Oral stories predate the written word, and may even outlast it. Think of the power of sound: it can break glass – and eardrums. It can move a nation. What wakes you up in the middle of the night? Often it’s a mysterious sound. And how about the infectious quality of a laugh? Explore the world of sound.

Connect:

• The University of Washington’s web site “Neuroscience for Kids” provides several fun learning activities to help child build aural acuity. The site also has a tour of the ear, appropriate for high school students: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chhearing.html
• This thinkquest by fifth and sixth graders explains each sense: http://library.thinkquest.org/3750/hear/hear.html
• The Soundry, another thinkquest, has several sections covering the process of hearing, the physics of sound, the role of sound in daily life, a timeline about sound-related technology, and an interactive sound “lab”: http://library.thinkquest.org/19537/?tqskip1=1
• This website offers free computer games to build auditory skills: http://www.up-to-date.com/saitwebsite/computergames.html
• Do you think animals sound the same around the world? People in different cultures hear them in different ways: http://bzzzpeek.com/ and http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/animal.html

Create:

• The Science of Sound for Kids (http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sound.html) offers games and other sound activities.
• Aural Urban Fabric Project provides interactive exploration of spatial narrative through aural perception: http://www.jpda.net/proj_aural.html
• You’ve heard of landscapes; what about soundscapes? You can create a soundscape at http://www.wildmusic.org/soundscapes/buildsoundscapeFamilies have great stories to tell. You can capture them on a computer, and turn them into a podcast. 
• This website discusses podcasting for children, and links to sites to guide children to create and upload podcasts: http://coolpodcasts.wordpress.com/2006/09/09/podcsat-for-children/
• If you have a Mac, explore Garage Band. For PC, try Garage Door and MixCraft. Try telling a story just through music and sound effects.

Care:

• This Light is a radio show featuring young activists for social change: http://soundsforsocialchange.com
• Create a musical or narrated podcast about your favorite social cause. You can also record interviews of social activists, and make podcasts to disseminate their ideas.
• The oral word has special meaning for visually impaired people. This website gives you tips on reading to the blind: http://www.ehow.com/way_5130602_reading-blind-people.html
• Produce a poetry slam for a social cause; go to http://www.poetryslam.com for help.
• Create a soundscape about a social cause.

Careers:
How does a career sound to you? Here are several possibilities: in entertaining, science, engineering, forensics, history, ethnography. Explore these websites:

• http://www.audioproductionschools.org/jobs
• http://audio.tutsplus.com/series/how-to-work-in-audio-careers-in-sound/
• http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul04/articles/alternativecareers.htm
• http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/newsLetter/Career-in-Audio.jsp

Count on Summer!

Yes, you can count on math to make your summer add up to more fun. No matter the angle, you and your family can figure out how to help those summer days measure up to your expectations – and help you get an edge on fall.

Connect:

+         Amuse yourself with Cool Math! It contains an online theme park of game games and puzzles: http://www.coolmath.com/

+         Which mathematician shares the same birthday as you? Find out at http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/ m which features mathematicians for every day. The site provides biographies, quotes and even posters. You can also find which mathematicians lived in your area of the world.

+         Puzzle it out! Your family can choose from a treasure trove of fun math puzzles at different levels at http://www.mathpuzzle.com/

+         It’s a good idea to exercise your brain as you exercise your body to keep mentally fit. Move your mind with arithmetic arcade and math baseball at  http://www.funbrain.com/brain/MathBrain/MathBrain.html. You can also try your hand at math basketball at http://www.scienceacademy.com/BI/index.html. There’s even a whole math playground to explore at http://www.mathplayground.com/

+         How do you make lemonade without lemons? Online with this virtual lemonade stand at http://www.classbrain.com/cb_games/cb_gms_bag/lemonade.html. See how much money you can make –without squeezing a dime or a lemon. And there’s no clean up either.

+         What do a sunflower, a nautilus shell, and the Greek Pantheon have in common? Fibonacci numbers. They are all around you; explore Fibonacci numbers in nature, art, and the creative arts at http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibInArt.html

Create:

+         Did you know that Walt Disney created a film about mathematics starring Donald Duck? You can join Donald in his adventures at http://www.schooltube.com/video/4330a09d98c125dcaa00/Donald-Duck-in-MathMagicLand. You’ll see some fun visual puns about mathematics (such as square roots) and creative mathematical “expressions” through music and other activities. You might try your hand at creating a geometric image or math-based musical instrument.

+         Some of those great animation effects of movies seem so realistic. You can think math, fractals in particular, for such realistic detail. Explore fractals at http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/frac/, and try your hand at creating your own fractal images.

+         Have designs on math? You can create grids, polygons and more at http://mathforum.org/~sarah/shapiro/index.html. Or if you just want to create fun images using geometric shapes, you can use the online grid palette at http://ejad.best.vwh.net/java/patterns/patterns_j.shtml. That experience can help you use simple computer drawing and paint tools.

+         Tessellations are any repeating pattern of interlocking shapes. This ThinkQuest, created by students, traces the history of tessellations, focusing on Escher’s contributions, largely through its extensive historical image gallery. The creators explain different types of patterns, and provide templates to enable users to create their own tessellations. http://library.thinkquest.org/16661/

+         Want more money? Want to lose weight? Want to go faster? It’s all in how you calculate it! Instead of having one dollar, you can have 1,562.88 liras for the same cost (You might explore which currency has the least and the most value). Or maybe you don’t want to look greedy; instead of asking for a pint of ice cream you can ask for a mere 0.002 of a hogshead. Would you rather run a mile or 160 934.4 centimeters? How many seconds have your lived? Create your own conversion games and fantasies by using http://www.onlineconversion.com/

 

 

Care:

+         In order to find out the status of world social issues such as hunger and poverty, you need to know the statistics. What are some of the statistics about children’s well-being in today’s world? Find out at http://childstats.gov/.  Maybe you can think of a way to improve those statistics…

+         What’s the fairest way to vote? It’s a more complex issue than you might first think. Figure out what might be the fairest way to elect a president by exploring http://www.ctl.ua.edu/math103/

+         Speaking of great mathematicians, the world needs more females in the field. Here are some famous women mathematicians: http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/women.htm. Find out ways to support girls who like math at http://blog.amigram.com/parenting/how-parents-can-support-their-girls-in-math-and-science/

Careers:

+         Did you enjoy Cool Math? Do you find math to be cool? That site also has information about math-related careers: http://www.coolmath.com/careers.htm

+         Ok, so the sound of math doesn’t excite you. How about money? Space? Interior design? Sports? Forensics? Animation? Ecology? Law? Writing? Photography? There’s a math career associated with each of these; check it out at http://www.toroidalsnark.net/mathcareers.html   and http://www.math.com/students/advice/careers.html

+         STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) careers are hot these days – and universities are willing to give students scholarships to major in these areas. Explore STEM, and especially math, careers at these websites.

+         http://education.ti.com/studentzone/StudentZoneUS/careers/index.html

For parents:

Are you a bit intimidated by math? By exploring these math activities, hopefully both you and your family can feel more self-confident about math. It’s all around us,  and you can count on it – so enjoy it. Nevertheless, everyone can use a little math help. Here are some math tutoring site. Remember that the more that you and your children engaged in math-related activities that they like, the better they are likely to be in math.

+         http://mathforum.org/

+         http://www.ies.co.jp/math/java/

+         http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/webmath/

+         http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/vandewalle_awl/

+         http://www.homeworkspot.com/middle/math/ 

+        http://www.teachthechildrenwell.com/math.html