Class contact list spreadsheet from Gigi

Gigi has kindly volunteered to put together a contact spreadsheet for everyone teaching math on the long practicum (our class and some of the science ed students who will also teach math). Please help build this contact list by filling in the spreadsheet available at this link: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFZDYzdNcWM3dmJIenBZbzRGcEMzX0E6MA

Template for unit plan assignment

Here it is! MAED314A unit plan template

Wednesday is our term end math party!

Please bring snacks and (non-alcoholic) drinks to share! Math movies, math toys, math songs and musical instruments to accompany them -- all are most welcome.

How to get to the Dec. 12 SNAP math fair at the Aquarium

The Saturday December 12 SNAP math fair will be held at the Vancouver Aquarium http://www.vanaqua.org/ from 9AM -noon. Please email Chris Stroud cstroud@wpga.ca by Dec. 4 to request tickets.

Here is the google map to the site: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=845+Avison+Way,+Vancouver,+BC,+Canada&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.887315,114.257812&ie=UTF8&z=16&g=845+Avison+Way,+Vancouver,+BC,+Canada&iwloc=addr

How to get to the Dec. 3 Space Centre math fair

The SNAP math fair on Thursday December 3 from 11AM to 1 PM is at the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre (formerly known as the Planetarium).http://www.hrmacmillanspacecentre.com/

The Space Centre is at 1100 Chestnut Street at Kits Point. Here is a link to the google map, which also has transit information available:http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1100+chestnut+street+vancouver+bc&sll=49.276174,-123.146169&sspn=0.008596,0.018561&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1100+Chestnut+St,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver+Regional+District,+British+Columbia&z=16

TI-83 graphing calculator guide by Cary Chien (BCAMT)

I want to share this useful document with you -- a teachers' guide to the TI-83 graphing calculator, written by Cary Chien, who worked for years as a math teacher at David Thompson Secondary in Vancouver, and other BCAMT collaborators. It's got lots of interesting info and lesson ideas.
TI-83 guide

You can download a virtual TI-83 "emulator" at this site:
TI-83 emulator download

Circle geometry worksheets using Geometer's Sketchpad

Hi everyone. Here are four guided activity worksheets I wrote as part of a unit on circle geometry (which used to be in the Principles of Math 11 curriculum and has now migrated to a lower grade...)
Lesson 1 Chords
Lesson 2 angles
Lesson 3 tangents

Lesson 4 Cyclic Quadrilaterals
Feel free to use these in your own classes or to share them with colleagues.


I found it best to have kids work in pairs or threes at each computer, so it was actually beneficial to have only 8 to 15 computers available! (That was a good thing when I taught in a minischool that did not have a proper computer lab...) Kids learned a lot more by collaborating on these activities than by working through them individually.

I alternated these 'experiential' lessons on Sketchbook with more traditional lessons involving traditional deductive proofs of the same theorems. My interest was in exploring the idea of proof with my students. I would ask them: which was more convincing to you? Which was more certain, or more logical? Which was more memorable?