Infographics for Mathematics

An infographic is a graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge designed to present complex information clearly.

There are many excellent examples available on the web such as the one below on just how hard Santa has to work, which not only convey information clearly but also in a very attractive manner. Something our students would perhaps enjoy creating.

For further resources see this collection which includes a series from the New York Times on teaching using infographics and resources on their creation (and note Scoop.it! an excellent and easy way to share information.

Click on the graphic below to see just how hard Santa works! (Published: December 2010 by Advertising Agency: Benedict & Helfer, Hungary.)

1000 Problems

The 1000 Problems site is an excellent collection of resources organised into collections on Number, Algebra, Shape and Space and Statistics. Within each category problems are organised by age and key words and a clear description are given for each problem. For each problem a file can be downloaded which includes the solution.

I have been working on Surds with one of my classes recently, looking at the Extension problems on Number I can see there is a problem on ‘Friendly Surds’ which would make a good starter to review the work we have been doing and extend to generalise – what conditions do we need for surds to be ‘friendly’?

For other Starter ideas see the companion blog Mathematics – a variety of resources to start and end lessons.

Mathematics Excel Files

For a site with an extensive collection of Excel files for both GCSE and A level – see Mike Hadden’s MathsFiles site.
There are other  resources also, including some for Autograph.

A useful feature to help explore the Excel files is the option to see a screenshot.

These spreadsheets could be usefully used for demonstrations in the classroom and students could then study the examples further themselves.

Answer Garden

Thanks to Paul Andrews I came across Answer Garden recently which provides a  simple and interesting way to get feedback. Responses (which must be 20 characters or less) are added to a word cloud.  Create your question, very easily (no registration is required) by entering your question and clicking Create, you can then note the url or embed code.

As people post responses the word cloud will develop. (Click on the word cloud link to give your favourite Web 2.0 tool!).  Hovering over a response gives the number of people who have made that response. It is possible to change settings such as colour but it is not necessary to do so.