Making Algebra Come Alive : Student Activities and Teacher Notes

by Alfred S. Posamentier

• ISBN13: 9780761975977
• ISBN10: 0761975977
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-07-21
• Publisher: Corwin Pr

Summary

'This is a very interesting book and one that can only help our battle to make algebra come alive and help our students see the useful and interesting problems that algebra can help us to deal with' - Peter Hall, Imberhorne School, East Grinstead Making Algebra Come Alive! provides versatile enrichment exercises for teaching a broad range of mathematical topics and applications. Each activity is presented as a reproducible student investigation. It is followed by guidelines and notes for the teacher. Each activity is keyed to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards, Revised. This link to the NCTM standards allows teachers to facilitate linking classroom activities to specific state and school district content standards. First and foremost, the activities are meant to be motivational. As much as possible, we want this book to achieve the goal of being attractive to people who thought they didn't like mathematics. To accomplish this, it is necessary for the activities to be quite different from what students encounter in their basal texts-different in both substance and form. This seems especially critical; no matter how excellent a basal text is being used, nearly every class experiences the "blahs." Unfortunately, this sort of boredom is often well entrenched long before the teacher and perhaps even the students are aware of it. Presenting activities on a regular basis gives the variety and change of pace needed to sustain interest in any subject.

Table of Contents

Introduction	v
About the Author	xi
Number Theory	1	(22)
Number Classifications	3	(4)
Getting on Base	7	(4)
Friendly Numbers	11	(4)
The Fibonacci Sequence	15	(4)
Pascal's Triangle	19	(4)
Equations	23	(27)
Algebraic Identities	25	(4)
Patterns in Mathematics I	29	(5)
Patterns in Mathematics II	34	(6)
It's How You Use It...	40	(5)
...And How Much You Practice	45	(5)
Probability and Statistics	50	(20)
Odds Are...	52	(4)
Many Happy Returns	56	(4)
The Average Choice	60	(5)
Whadaya Mean, ``Mean''?	65	(5)
Problem Solving	70	(24)
More Posers	72	(4)
Your Number, Please	76	(4)
Optimizing a Paper Route	80	(5)
Angles on a Clock	85	(4)
Digit Problems Revisited	89	(5)
Recreational Mathematics	94	(22)
Howlers	96	(4)
Tessellations	100	(7)
Cyclic Numbers	107	(5)
The Parabolic Envelope	112	(4)
Logic	116	(22)
Venn Diagrams I	118	(4)
Venn Diagrams II	122	(4)
I Always Lie	126	(4)
My Cat Rover	130	(4)
Algebraic Fallacies	134	(4)
Linear Programming	138	(17)
Graphing Liner Inequalities	140	(6)
Making the Most of It	146	(5)
Food For Thought	151	(4)
Resource A: List of Activities and the NCTM Standards Addressed by Each	155