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Making Math Connections
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Making Math Connections
Using Real-World Applications With Middle School Students

Second Edition

July 2006 | 216 pages | Corwin

"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.


 
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

"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
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

Sample Materials & Chapters

Preface

Chapter 1 Excerpt


For instructors

Select a Purchasing Option


Paperback
ISBN: 9781412937665
$42.95

Hardcover
ISBN: 9781412937658
$94.95