Part 4: Math and Project Based Learning… 22 Amazing Resources

Welcome this fourth of a four part series intended to provide Math teachers with some outstanding PBL resources. First, to ensure you do not miss one of these valuable posts or other resources covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, Web 2.0, STEM, 21st century learning, and technology integration, please sign up for 21centuryedtech by email or RSS. As always, I invite you to follow me on twitter (@mjgormans). Please give this post a retweet and pass it on. Have a great week – Michael Gorman (21centuryedtech)

Booking Info – Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference? I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have done 100′s of workshops and presentations. Check out my Booking Page… Dates are going fast, with time up to and including December filled, but I am taking 2014 dates.

I thought this was the last post in this series… little did I know I would find more. Get ready for Post Number Five. I hope these math resources provide you a further idea, a scaffolding lesson, footprint, or even an entire plan for a PBL unit. I am pleased to share with you these twenty-two site… plus more in the next post that I am certain can help facilitate Math PBL. Of course, I have many things I would like to discuss in regards to Math and PBL… but I will save that for a future post. I hope you enjoy these twenty-two resources (plus more) that are a part of this four (now five) part series. Is there something that should be added? Let me know! By the way after this next post… I have a brand new PBL Math resource that I am really excited to share. Please return, share, and provide a retweet.

Part 4: Math and Project Based Learning… 22 Amazing Resources

Michael Gorman (https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)

MIT Blossoms – All of the lessons in the MIT Blossoms library have been contributed by BLOSSOMS partners from around the world. There is a watch the Teacher’s Guide Video Segment included with each lesson to learn more about it. The final segment of each BLOSSOMS video lesson is a one-on-one conversation between the teacher and the “virtual teacher.” Best of all, these lessons can be part of a PBL unit. The provided link brings you to the Math (English Language) Section.

Figure This – This wonderful site is the work of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in cooperation with the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Widmeyer Communications, and the Learning First Alliance. Its mission is to challenge middle school mathematics and emphasizes the importance of high-quality math education for all students. While it was created to allow for family interaction, it is also figures into the Math PBL classroom. The site allows students to have the opportunity to face some every day real life math challenges. These challenges feature:

Descriptions of the important math involved
Notes on where the math is used in the real world
Hints on how to get started
Complete solutions to the challenge
A “Try This” section for formative learning
Some additional related problems with answers
An assortment of questions to think about with each challenge
Really fun facts related to the math
A database of resources for further exploration.

Suffolk Math – This is an amazing site from the United Kingdom. This site was established in 2004 with the aim of providing up to date resources and documents to support the high quality teaching of Mathematics. The link will lead you to an area of the site rich with PBL ideas and scaffolding activities. This really is a wonderful resource from across the water!

Mathalicious – While this is a paid site you will find several free projects on the homepage. Perhaps you will find that the paid lessons are really well worth it! This site does demonstrate that math is about more than just numbers and equations. Students find that math is a tool to explore the world around us. Mathalicious provides teachers with lessons that help them teach math in a way that engages their students–in a way that helps students understand how the world works. Lessons are aligned to Common Core Standards and explore real life questions.

Get The Math – An amazing site that combines video and web interactivity to help middle and high school students develop algebraic thinking skills for solving real-world problems. Lessons can be made that draw on conventions of popular reality TV shows. The video segments begin with profiles of young professionals, who then pose challenges connected to their jobs to two teams of teens. Students are encouraged to try the challenges themselves using interactive tools provided on the Get the Math website. This can be the start of some PBL of PrBl. After their best attempt, students return to the video to see the teams’ solutions. To expand learning, students can further explore the same, as well as extended algebraic concepts through additional interactive challenges on the website.

Thanks for joining me on this wonderful journey of 21st century resources and please feel free to attend what will be an awesome webinar . Join me in future weeks as together we continue to explore several more posts devoted to the Flipped Classrooms, Project Based Learning, Assessing 21st century skills, technology integration, web resources, and digital literacy. I enjoy learning from all of you. Also remember to subscribe to this blog by RSS or email and follow me on twitter at mjgormans. I also appreciate your sharing of this post and any retweets. Keep up the amazing work, have a great week, and enjoy the resources! – Mike Gorman