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Making Math Connections

Using Real-World Applications with Middle School Students

Second Edition
By: Hope Martin

Motivate students to connect math to the real world!

This remarkable resource helps motivate students to actively participate in real-world problem solving. Using high-interest math investigations and a teacher-friendly format, Martin demonstrates how to integrate engaging topics, such as forensics and natural disasters, into the math curriculum. Aligned to NCTM standards, these cooperative learning experiences not only make connections between math skills, but also between the classroom and the real world. Each unit includes:

Cross-curricular connections
Mathematical skills and concepts
Math investigation procedures
Assessment strategies
Journal questions
Reproducible worksheets
Related readings and Internet Web sites

Full description

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Product Details

Grade Level: 5-8
ISBN: 9781412937665
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2006
Page Count: 216
Publication date: August 04, 2006

Price: $42.95

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Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.

Description

"Making Math Connections integrates mathematics into a variety of subject areas and real-life settings, providing motivation for students to want to learn the material being presented. The book also uses a variety of activities to promote learning for students with different interests and learning styles."
-Steven P. Isaak, Mathematics Teacher
Advanced Technologies Academy, Las Vegas, NV

Spark student learning by making an authentic connection between math and real-life experiences!

Students often fail to make the connection between "school math" and their everyday lives, becoming passive recipients of isolated, memorized rules and formulas. This remarkable new resource will help students become active problem-solvers who see mathematics as a meaningful tool that can be used outside the classroom.

Hope Martin applies more than 40 years of teaching experience to developing a myriad of high-interest, meaningful math investigations. Using a teacher-friendly format, she shows educators how to integrate into the math curriculum engaging, everyday topics, such as forensics, natural disasters, tessellations, the stock market, and literature.

This project-based resource encourages cooperative, interactive learning experiences that not only help students make connections between various math skills but also make important connections to the real world. Aligned to NCTM standards, these mathematical applications are broken down into complete units focusing on different topics. Each chapter includes:

Background information on the topic
Step-by-step procedures for math investigations
Assessment strategies
Journal questions
Reproducible worksheets
Additional related readings and Internet Web sites

By increasing their awareness of meaningful everyday applications, students will learn to use math as an essential tool in their daily lives.

Key features

Features

Provides complete units that focus on high-interest topics
Includes background information and reproducible pages for each topic
Offers mathematically rich problems that connect to multiple mathematics standards and skills
Incorporates cooperative learning and project-based learning
Includes suggestions for assessment

Benefits

Helps teachers connect mathematics to students' everyday lives
Shows teachers how to engage students in using mathematics as a problem-solving tool
Includes activities that build students' understanding of important math skills and concepts

Author(s)

Hope Martin

Hope Martin is an innovative mathematics teacher with over 40 years of experience. Having worked with children in elementary, middle school, and high school, and with teachers in local universities, she is currently a private consultant facilitating workshops across the United States and Canada. Hope, who was born and raised in the Bronx, New York, began her teaching career in Skokie, Illinois and obtained her Masters Degree in Mathematics Education from Northeastern Illinois University. Hope’s personal experiences and knowledge of educational learning theories have convinced her that students learn mathematics more effectively when they are active participants and see its relevance to their own lives.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Alignment With NCTM Standards

1. Our Earth: Natural Disasters

Introduction

Earthquakes

Volcanoes

Hurricanes

Tornadoes

Additional Reading

Internet Web Sites

2. Physics, Formulas, and Math

Introduction

Sports Balls and Density

Swings of the Pendulum

Roller Coasters: How Fast Are We Falling?

Additional Reading

Internet Web Sites

3. Our Body Systems, Forensics, and Math

Introduction

Our Remarkable Heart

The Sum of the Parts: How Long Is Your Digestive System?

Find Your Body's Ratios

Forensics and the Human Skeleton

Fingerprints: A Unique Classification

Additional Reading

4. Quilts, Tessellations, and Three-Dimensional Geometry

Introduction

The Geometry of Quilts

The Hawaiian Quilt Square

Semi-Regular Tessellations: Designs and Angles

Platonic Solids: Designs in Three Dimensions

Additional Reading

Internet Web Sites

5. The Stock Market Project

Introduction

How to Read a Stock Listing and Deciding on a Stock

First Week to Buy Stock

Week-to-Week Stock Market

Sell Week

Buying More Stock

Our Final Sell Week

Additional Reading

Internet Web Sites

6. Math and Literature

Introduction

Looking for Math in Poetry: Capture-Recapture: How Many Beans?

Looking for Math in Poetry: Flavors of Ice Cream

Looking for Math in Poetry: Overdue Book Fines

Traveling to Lilliput: How Little Were the Lilliputians?

A Million Is a Very Big Number: Spending $1,000,000

A Million Is a Very Big Number: How Big a Box Do We Need for 1,000,000 Pennies?

A Million Is a Very Big Number: A Million Stars

Additional Reading

Internet Web Sites

Resource A: Alternatives to Traditional Assessment

Resource B: Design Your Own Lessons

Bibliography

Reviews

"Integrates mathematics into a variety of subject areas and real life settings, providing motivation for students to want to learn the material being presented. The book also uses a variety of activities to promote learning for students with different interests and learning styles."

Steven P. Isaak, Mathematics Teacher
Advanced Technologies Academy, Las Vegas, NV

Other Titles in: Mathematics

Select Format:

Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.