November 8, 2009

Mathsliteracy Resources (weekly)

Posted by Maggie under Newsletters, Weekly resource bookmarks
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of ML 123 group favorite links are here.

 

November 4, 2009

Free website to practice maths in real life!

Posted by johansmit under Learner stuff, Mathematical literacy in real life, puzzles and problem solving | Tags: , |
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I found the following free website which one can use if you have the luxury of a data projector, internet connection and/or an interactive white board. If you do not have those privelages, you can still visit the site and see what it offers. (http://www.mathapprentice.com/)

Math Apprentice is a new free website, meant to show students how math is used in real world. In the game, you are like an apprentice at various companies, applying your math skills to challenges similar to those encountered in the real world and real companies.

To begin, you click the button on the home page of the site that says “Explore the Math”. Then choose your character, and you’ll be on the main street (see screenshot above) . Then use arrow keys to move right or left, and click to select a company to visit.

The companies you can visit are:

Sweet Treat Cafe – baking pies
Wheelworks – constructing bicycles and exploring gear ratios
Game Pro! – keep track of the distance between superhero and the villain in a computer game, using Pythagorean Theorem
Spacelogic – study speed of a spacecraft & slope, and then angle & distance commands to get the space rover where it needs go.
Trigon Studios – Explore the usage of sine and cosine functions to create rhytmic or repeating motion of animated objects.
Doodles – explore polar curves created with sine and cosine. These can be like stars, flowers, or spirals.
Builders, Inc. – calculate areas and perimeters of shapes
Adventure Rides – study the angle of elevation and height of a roller coaster

 

November 1, 2009

Mathsliteracy Resources (weekly)

Posted by Maggie under Newsletters, Weekly resource bookmarks
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of ML 123 group favorite links are here.

 

October 29, 2009

Preparing for the maths literacy exams

Posted by Maggie under Learner resources, assessment | Tags: , |
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As I have had a lot of parents phoning or e-mailing me to ask me for papers, I have been working hard to collect and collate publicly available papers for our learners (and teachers)  from acrross the local internet realm. I have tried to extract and order it into folders and will be dropping in more resources as I find them or as they are being shared. So head on over to your Learner Page and get practicing…. (but remember- maths literacy is about UNDERSTANDING how we can use maths in our everyday lives)

All papers shared by teachers within our teachers maths literacy community of practice will only be accessable to the teachers within the community. I ask that all the teachers go and critique the papers and give feedback. I will also link the public papers to discussion forum threads for us to get talking…..

 

October 18, 2009

Mathsliteracy Resources (weekly)

Posted by Maggie under Newsletters
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of ML 123 group favorite links are here.

 

October 11, 2009

Understanding difficulty in the Grade 12 Maths Literacy Examinations

Posted by Maggie under Workshops conferences and seminars, assessment | Tags: , , , , , |
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I attended the Marang symposium at Wits last Friday which considered ways in which we can judge last years examinations by taking a closer look at the papers and assessment structure. The talks centred around the questions:

  • What do different ways of classifying questions reveal about the relationship between the intended and examined curriculum?
  • What does this reveal about the relationship between the policy documents and practice?
  • What role can taxonomies play in analyzing the standard of the examinations, the spread of mathematical and science activities and what do they reveal about nature of the examinations and the conceptualization of the subjects?

Within our maths literacy community , one of the most often expressed concerns is about thinking levels (cognitive levels of taxonomy). And as such this meeting and the speakers illuminated just how difficult and subjective it is to pin it down. There were a general call for more examples of the different level questions and more problem solving higher order questions instead of more difficult levels of caluclation questions.

Prof Hamsa Venkat kicked off by discussing a critique of  the Mathematical Literacy assessment taxonomy. Lynn Bowie looked at it from a mathematics point of view and also examined different taxonomies. Arnout (always entertaining) then did a summary and his take on the issues and perspectives by providing a critique, not only on the two papers, but also on assessment practices regarding maths and maths literacy in general. You can (must)  listen to the actual podcasts of the sessions, by clicking here

Hamsa’s presentation (View while listening to her podcast- sorry I ahve not had a chance or had the energy to link it):

Lynn’s presentation: (View while listening to her podcast):

Our photo album:

more about "Marang symposium", posted with vodpod

 

October 11, 2009

Mathsliteracy Resources (weekly)

Posted by Maggie under Newsletters, Weekly resource bookmarks
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of ML 123 group favorite links are here.

 

October 4, 2009

Mathsliteracy Resources (weekly)

Posted by Maggie under Newsletters
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of ML 123 group favorite links are here.

 

September 29, 2009

Marang Symposium: Understanding difficulty in the Grade 12 Maths, Maths Literacy Examinations

Posted by Maggie under Workshops conferences and seminars | Tags: , , , , |
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You are cordially invited to join us to mark Marang’s fourth year of innovation and leadership in Mathematics and Science Education in South Africa.

Friday, 9th October 2009, 15:00 – 17:00, followed by drinks and refreshments

Venue: Staff Room, Wits Education Campus (formerly JCE)

RSVP: Samantha Govender
samantha.govender@wits.ac.za
(011) 717 3414

At the end of 2008 South African school leavers wrote the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations for the first time. These examinations are based on the new National Curriculum Statement (NCS) and are high stakes examinations as they are used to determine, amongst other things, entry into tertiary institutions. In all its statements, the new curriculum was visionary, aiming to fulfil the aims of the South African Constitution by establishing a democratic and just nation. The first cohort of learners completed this new curriculum in 2008 and so it is appropriate at this point in history to reflect on this curriculum and its assessment.

This Marang symposium will consider how we judge the examinations through a closer look at the examination papers and assessment structure. Marang members will lead discussions in separate mathematics and science sessions on these as they relate to mathematics, mathematics literacy, life sciences and physical sciences on the following questions. Two respondents, one for maths and one for science will then provide reflections in a plenary session.

The following questions will be addressed in the symposium:

1.What do different ways of classifying questions reveal about the relationship between the intended and examined curriculum?

2.What does this reveal about the relationship between the policy documents and practice?

3.What role can taxonomies play in analyzing the standard of the examinations, the spread of mathematical and science activities and what do they reveal about nature of the examinations and the conceptualization of the subjects?

Respondents:

Aarnout Brombacher (Brombacher & Associates)
Aarnout Brombacher is a leading mathematics education consultant who has been centrally involved in national developments in Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy. He is a prominent commentator on both maths and maths literacy issues and a frequent visitor to Marang.

 

September 27, 2009

Mathsliteracy Resources (weekly)

Posted by Maggie under Newsletters
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of ML 123 group favorite links are here.

 

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