Mathematical literacy in real life

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