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:
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Amuse
yourself with Cool Math! It contains an online theme park of game games and
puzzles: http://www.coolmath.com/
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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.
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Puzzle
it out! Your family can choose from a treasure trove of fun math puzzles at
different levels at http://www.mathpuzzle.com/
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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/
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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:
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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…
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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/
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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:
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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
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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
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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.
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.
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http://mathforum.org/
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