The Pi song 'lyrics'

Just in case you want to memorize the first few digits of pi to impress your friends and math teacher.

incommensurability

This activity shows that rational numbers cannot represent all lengths

Solving Equations

There are many ways of solving an equation. Click the image below to take you to the site which shows two methods of solving equation.

A third method which is more intuitive and does not make use of the properties of equality is described in this link.

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Algebra Video

Solving triangles

If you dozed off when your teacher explained how to solve triangles using sin. cos, tan, this video is a good substitute.

New Mathematics

In the video below, Tom Lehrer 'explains' and 'criticizes' the New Math curriculum in a funny way.

What is the New Math Curriculum?

New Mathematics or New Math was a brief, dramatic change in the way mathematics was taught in American grade schools, and to a lesser extent in European countries, during the 1960s. The name is commonly given to a set of teaching practices introduced in the U.S. shortly after the Sputnik crisis in order to boost science education and mathematical skill in the population so that the intellectual threat of Soviet engineers, reputedly highly skilled mathematicians, could be met.

New Math emphasized mathematical structure through abstract concepts like set theory and number bases other than 10. Beginning in the early 1960s the new educational doctrine was installed, not only in the USA, but all over the developed world.

Criticisms of the New Math Curriculum

Parents and teachers who opposed the New Math in the U.S. complained that the new curriculum was too far outside of students' ordinary experience and was not worth taking time away from more traditional topics, such as arithmetic. The material also put new demands on teachers, many of whom were required to teach material they did not fully understand. Parents were concerned that they did not understand what their children were learning and could not help them with their studies. In the end it was concluded that the experiment was not working, and New Math fell out of favor before the end of the decade, though it continued to be taught for years thereafter in some school districts.

In the Algebra preface of his book "Precalculus Mathematics in a Nutshell," Professor George F. Simmons wrote that the New Math produced students who had "heard of the commutative law, but did not know the multiplication table."

--- excerpts taken from Wikipedia

History of Numbers

It's not actually the history of mathematics but the history of numbers. Nevertheless, I find this video a very good synthesis of the history of numbers. It's very informative and Grades 5 and 6 students can easily relate to it.

It's the math curriculum?

This man thinks that students dismal performance in mathematics has to do solely with the math curriculum.  I say, nothing beats a good math teacher who knows his mathematics and how to represent and present its ideas to students.