Still Putting It All Together

Now this is some #edtech I could really get into.  I love this idea.  Now if only I had an older class and ipads in the classroom!

Posting this so maybe some fellow teachers can put it in their bag of tricks for next year.

(Also, green initiative for the classroom!)

Any Texas teachers have any opinions on this?

Neuroscientists have confirmed what any kid knows: Third grade changes everything. Compared to kids just out of second grade, recent third-grade graduates use their brains in an entirely different way when solving math problems, a study in an upcomingNeuroImage finds.   

“I think this is really fascinating,” says cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Ansari of the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. “Anybody who doesn’t believe that development is important needs to read this paper, because it really shows how dynamically the brain changes as we learn.”

Cognitive neuroscientist Vinod Menon of the Stanford University School of Medicine and his colleagues recruited 90 children, aged 7 to 9, who had just completed either second or third grade.

The youngsters calculated easy (3 + 1 = 4) or more complex (8 + 5 = 13) addition problems while Menon and his team scanned the children’s brains using functional MRI.

Third-graders’ brains behaved very differently than second-graders’, the team found. “It’s not a minor change,” Menon says. “At this point, what’s clear is that the brain and brain function is undergoing major changes.”

Overall, second-graders’ brains tackled the easy and hard problems about the same way. Third-graders’ brains responded very differently to the easy and the hard questions. This may reflect a cognitive strategy shift as third-graders grow more adept at handling the easy problems.

Third-graders showed heightened activity in a brain region important for working memory, which keeps relevant info handy. Earlier studies of older children found that this region, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, was less active with age while doing math, so the new results may reflect an age-specific approach to math that later gives way to something else, the authors suggest.

It is important to understand the development of the brain when considering how we teach kids in different grades.

I am reposting this because I see they have stuff up about the Royal Wedding, Libya, and Earth day (which I know just passed, but I didn’t see this before).

Just the facts ma’m.

This website for kids is run by Information Please.  There is a homework center, dictionary, encyclopedia, atlas, and almanac.  Other sections of the site include information about different parts of the world, the United States, science, important people from history, sports, science, authors and books, and math.

This would be a good site to have students look up informations, find definitions, or to introduce different units.

Of all of the classes offered in high school, Algebra II is the leading predictor of college and work success, according to research that has launched a growing national movement to require it of graduates.

In recent years, 20 states and the District have moved to raise graduation requirements to include Algebra II, and its complexities are being demanded of more and more students.

The effort has been led by Achieve, a group organized by governors and business leaders and funded by corporations and their foundations, to improve the skills of the workforce. Although U.S. economic strength has been attributed in part to high levels of education, the workforce is lagging in the percentage of younger workers with college degrees, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

I’m really wondering if the basis for their push is true.  Not in the sense of are the numbers right, but more of is this a case of causation or correlation?

Join us as we explore how math can help us in our daily lives. In this exhibit, you’ll look at the language of numbers through common situations, such as playing games or cooking. Put your decision-making skills to the test by deciding whether buying or leasing a new car is right for you, and predict how much money you can save for your retirement by using an interest calculator.

My older students always ask “Why do I need to know this?”   Particularly when we are practicing math.  I think this site provides some good talking points about how math plays a large role in the world outside of our classrooms.