Math Resources

Web Links

	Links to math problems
	Links to research on learning math
	Other interesting math links

Links to math problems

Problems with a Point at http://www2.edc.org/MathProblems/ is a searchable database of several hundred problem sets designed to help secondary students build their mathematical content by making connections with already learned ideas. The problem sets also develop the mathematical habits of mind necessary to problem solving and research.

Math Forum @ Drexel University at http://mathforum.org/ has extensive resources for mathematics teachers related to both curriculum and pedagogy. The Math Forum's mission is to provide resources, materials, activities, person-to-person interactions, and educational products and services that enrich and support teaching and learning in an increasingly technological world.

20,000 Problems Under the Sea at http://problems.math.umr.edu/index.htm contains exactly 20,000 problems from 38 journals and 21 contests, all published before 1990. These problems are highly inventive, extremely difficult math problems. The site is housed at the University of Missouri - Rolla in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Note that solutions are not included unless they've been entered as online comments. However, references to published solutions usually are included, so if you can get to a good library, you can probably get to a solution.

The Thinking Behind the Math @ Franklin Institute Online at http://sln.fi.edu/math/index.html has an extensive collection of open-ended problems, seasonal problems and mathematical puzzles.

Figure This at http://www.figurethis.org/index.html is designed to provide an exciting and family-friendly way to become more involved in learning math. Mathematical challenges for families provide interesting math challenges that middle-school students can do at home with their families.

back to top

Links to research on learning math

The National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science (NCISLA) at http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/ncisla/teachers/index.html collaborates with schools and teachers to create and study instructional approaches that support and improve student understanding of mathematics and science. The instructional resources listed on this site are informed by their research on how students learn with understanding.

The Research in Math Education section of Math Forum at http://mathforum.org/mathed/mathed.research.html provides pages of links to resources for Pedagogical Research and Psychological Research.

Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI) at http://2000survey.horizon-research.com has just released a new series of reports based on the 2000 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education. The series includes three reports; Elementary Mathematics Teaching, Middle School Mathematics Teaching, and High School Mathematics Teaching. Areas addressed in each report include: teacher backgrounds and beliefs, needs for and participation in professional development, course offerings, instructional objectives and activities, and instructional resources.

back to top

Other interesting math links

Math Lessons for Math Teachers by Henri Picciotto at http://www.picciotto.org/math-ed/teachers/index.html links to or references lessons which he has used to help middle school and high school teachers develop more depth of understanding of pre-college math. Most of the lessons are based on ideas that are accessible to students, though not at the same depth.

Cut the Knot at http://www.cut-the-knot.com has information and activities on countless mathematics topics from arithmetic to algebra. A purpose of this site is to serve as a resource for things, simple but curious, related to Mathematics. There is an element of discovery involved at every turn.

Making Mathematics at http://www2.edc.org/makingmath/ matched students and teachers in grades seven through twelve with professional mathematicians who mentored their work on open-ended mathematics research projects from 1999 - 2002. Although the project has ended, you can look through the mathematics projects, teacher handbook and mentor handbook for information on pursuing mathematics research projects with middle and high school students.

The NCTM Illuminations site at http://illuminations.nctm.org/index2.html is designed to provide Internet resources that will "illuminate" the NCTM Standards (1989-2000) and bring alive the ideas and recommendations set forth in the NCTM Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (Standards 2000). In particular, you can find math-lets which are math applets you can use to explore math and create interactive lessons.

MegaMath at http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~casey931/seminar/ was founded out of a concern that much of what kids are asked to do in school is repetitive, tedious, meaningless, and boring. This seems to be especially true when it comes to math. So the basic idea behind MegaMath has been to find ways to make challenging, interesting topics in math and computer science (algorithms, infinity, logic...) accessible to kids.

Plus at http://plus.maths.org/about.html is an internet magazine which aims to introduce readers to the beauty and the practical applications of mathematics. Plus provides feature articles, which describe applications of math to real-world problems, games, and puzzles; reviews of popular math books and events; a news section, showing how recent news stories were often based on some underlying piece of math that never made it to the newspapers; a puzzle for you to sharpen your wits against; a lucky dip of mathematical curiosities; and opinions on various math-related topics and news stories. And all past issues remain available online.

The Digital Dozen at http://www.enc.org/weblinks/dd/ offers a dozen exemplary math and science web sites for educators, hand-picked each month. You can use the archive or search a subset of the collection to browse hundreds of carefully chosen sites.

MathPARTNERS at http://www2.edc.org/mathpartners/ is a project that is developing a mentoring curriculum to accompany the America Counts Mathematics initiative. MathPARTNERS supports tutors of students from kindergarten through ninth grade in two primary ways; by helping them to determine and respond to mathematics learning difficulties students are having; and by helping them to enrich students’ mathematics understanding. Furthermore, Math Partners provides a set of training materials to support those who recruit and train tutors for students in the kindergarten through grade 9 range.

The Mathematical Atlas at http://www.math-atlas.org/ is a collection of short articles designed to provide an introduction to the areas of modern mathematics and pointers to further information, as well as answers to some common (or not!) questions.

back to top