A New Accessible PhET Simulation
PhET is a free resource that I’ve been recommending for many years. It now offers more than 100 math, physics, chemistry, and biology simulations that you can use in your classroom for free. About two years ago PhET started creating new simulation and editing existing ones to add accessibility features. Last week PhET released the […]
An Old Car Math Problem
A couple of weeks ago I worked at a car show near my home. One of the many vehicles on display was a 1903 Oldsmobile. A copy of the original advertisement for that vehicle was also on display. The image that you see above is cropped from a picture that I took of the advertisement […]
100+ Math in “Real Life” Lessons
I’m taking the week off to do a bunch of fun things with my kids. While I’m away the most popular posts of the year so far will reappear. Math in Real Life is a series of 167 TED-Ed lessons and TED Talks. The “real life” context in these lessons isn’t things like “how calculating […]
Math, Science, History, and Search Lessons Based on Baseball
Baseball is my favorite professional sport to watch. The Red Sox have been my favorite team for as long as I can remember which is why I still occasionally look through the baseball cards I collected as a kid. And going to last year’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony for David Ortiz was one of […]
Ten Google Earth and Maps Activities for Math Lessons
Last week I shared directions for measuring perimeter and area in Google Earth. Doing that is one of many ways to incorporate Google Earth into mathematics lessons. Making that video prompted me to make a list of ways to use Google Earth and Maps (which has similar measuring tools) in mathematics lessons. Here’s my list […]
How to Measure Perimeter and Area in Google Earth
As I mentioned in this week’s Practical Ed Tech Newsletter, Google Earth and digital mapping is an area of ed tech that I still get excited about after all these years. Google Earth is a tool that people often think of as being something that’s only useful for social studies lessons. However, there are many […]
Math, Science, and Search Baseball Lessons
Today is the home opener for my beloved Boston Red Sox. Hope springs eternal for a great season. So until at least the first pitch is thrown I’ll set aside the pessimistic New Englander in me and get excited because this is the year! On that note, here are some baseball-themed lesson ideas and resources. […]
A Round-up of Pi Day Resources
Pi Day is on Tuesday. Last week I shared a few resources for teaching and learning about pi. This post is a summary of those resources and a few more.
Pi Day Printable Art Activity from Drawings Of…
Yesterday morning I shared some physical education activities for Pi Day along with some video lessons for Pi Day. Today, I have another Pi Day resource to share with you. This one comes from Lillie Marshall’s Drawings Of… website that I reviewed a couple of months ago. On Drawings Of… Lillie Marshall is offering three […]
Physical Education Activities for Pi Day
Pi Day is just one week away (as is the start of my new course). In recent years I’ve shared some video lessons about Pi Day and some hands-on Pi Day lesson ideas. This year I’d like to highlight some physical education activities for Pi Day. OPEN Phys Ed offers five free physical education lesson […]
How to Measure in 2D and 3D in Google Earth
More than a decade ago Tom Barrett’s Maths Maps inspired me to start thinking about how Google Maps and Google Earth can be used in mathematics lessons. Since then I’ve developed some of my own math activities that incorporate measuring in Google Earth. If you’d like to create your own math lessons that incorporate measuring […]
Three Tips for Math Teachers & Students Using Google Docs
Last weekend a reader reached out to me for advice on helping her students write equations in Google Docs. The add-ons she had tried were either too confusing or too expensive to use with all of her pre-Algebra and Algebra I students. My suggestion was to try having students just use the special characters menu […]
167 Math In “Real Life” Lessons
Math in Real Life is a series of 167 TED-Ed lessons and TED Talks. The “real life” context in these lessons isn’t things like “how calculating percentages helps you be a frugal shopper.” The “real life” context found in the videos in the Math in Real Life series is broad in nature. For example, you will […]
Science, Math, and Philosophy Lessons for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is just a couple of days away. If you teach primary grades, your students may be excited about exchanging little cards and candies (my daughters have been talking about it for weeks). If you teach middle school or high school students, you’re probably bracing yourself for a few days filled with extra teenage […]
Interactive Math & Science Simulations for Online and Offline Use
PhET is one of my favorite resources for math and science teachers. In fact, it’s included as one of my Best of the Web picks for 2022. One of the many things that I like about PhET math and science simulations is that you can use them with or without an internet connection. That’s something […]
A Mean PhET Simulation
PhET is one of my go-to resources for math and science teachers. Just before the Thanksgiving break (for those of us in the United States) PhET released a new simulation designed to help students understand the concept of mean. Mean: Share and Balance is an interactive simulation in which students are shown a series of […]
Math and Geography
Over the weekend a Tweet from Thomas Petra reminded me of a great Google Earth resource that he developed years ago. That resource is Real World Math. And though he stopped updating it a couple of years ago, there are still many Google Earth files on it that you can download to use as the […]
How to Create PDFs in Google Classroom
Last weekend a reader reached out to me to ask if I could create a video about the relatively new option to create PDFs in Google Classroom. I was happy to oblige. In this new video I demonstrate how to use the Google Classroom mobile apps to create PDFs from scratch. As I demonstrate in […]
PrepFactory’s New Online Algebra Program Features 100 Interactive Lessons
Disclosure: PrepFactory is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com PrepFactory is a popular platform for online ACT and SAT prep. I covered it for the first time back in 2015 and again when it transitioned from video-based lessons to truly interactive SAT and ACT prep activities. This fall PrepFactory is using that interactive technology to help students […]
Roller Coaster Physics
Tomorrow I’m taking my oldest daughter to Storyland for a daddy-daughter hangout day before she starts Kindergarten in a few weeks. Her favorite ride is the Polar Coaster which is a roller coaster that is perfect for kids her age (and for 40-something dads who can’t really handle big roller coasters anymore). Thinking about the Polar […]
Not Your Average High School Finance Lesson
Thanks to one of Gary Stager’s recent LinkedIn posts I recently learned about an interesting high school investing and saving activity created by William Frey at Fryeburg Academy (just a few towns over from where I live). A Unit on Saving and Investing for High School Students appears to be created to coincide with the use […]
PhET Virtual Workshops for Teachers
PhET is one of my top resource recommendations for math and science teachers. PhET offers more than one hundred online, interactive simulations for teaching concepts in mathematics, physics, chemistry, earth science, and biology. Those simulations can be used on PhET’s website and they can be embedded into your website for your students to use. If […]
Pictures as Math Problem Prompts
A couple of days ago I read one of Terry Freedman’s latest Substack articles. The article is titled A Conversation I Had Which I Still Don’t Understand. It’s a short dialogue between Terry and the representative of a cab company who can’t explain why there’s a price difference for two journeys of the same length. […]
Pi Day is Coming!
Pi Day (March 14th or 3.14) is next week. If you’re looking for some Pi Day activities to do or some videos to share about pi, take a look at this list of resources that I’ve compiled over the years. Numberphile has a few good videos about pi and Pi Day. Pi with real pies is a […]
NASA From Hidden to Modern Figures
NASA’s From Hidden to Modern Figures is an excellent resource for teaching about the women who made significant contributions to the development of NASA’s space program. The site features written and video biographies of Katherine Johnson, Mary W. Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan who were instrumental in many of NASA’s missions including the first orbit of […]
PhET Releases Ten Updated Simulations With Interactive Descriptions
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have already seen this news but it’s worth sharing here as well. PhET now has ten simulations that include interactive descriptions. This makes the simulations accessible to students who rely on screen readers to access the web. Read PhET’s announcement here. We are excited to formally announce […]
How Graphs Can Be Misleading
Tools like Canva and even good ol’ PowerPoint make it incredibly easy to quickly create good looking graphs. But as Randy Krum points out in his book, Cool Infographics, a graphic that looks good isn’t necessarily a good graphic. In fact, many times a graphic is made to look good in order to distract from […]
Math, Science, and Philosophy Lessons for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is next Monday. My daughters’ preschool is having a little celebration during which little cards will be exchanged. They are very excited about it! I used Canva to make some cards for them to write their names and their classmates’ names on. If you’re looking to incorporate Valentine’s Day into some lessons this […]
Top Tools and Activities for Collaborative Learning in 2022
This blog post was sponsored by Lumio, but it features a bunch of other great tools as well. At this point in the school year and our second school year in a pandemic, we’ve all become familiar with the nuts and bolts of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or whatever other platform your school uses […]
Good Resources for Remote Math & Science Lessons
PhET is a great resource that I’ve shared a bunch of times over the years. Recently, I was looking through the site when I noticed that its activity search tool now includes a filter for remote activities. Through this search tool you can locate lesson plans designed for remote instruction and learning. You can combine […]
Make Math Flashcards on Canva
Canva is my go-to recommendation whenever someone asks me for help with anything requiring a bit of an eye for design. So on Wednesday when a reader asked me for a tool to create printable flashcards Canva was my recommendation. There are more than 300 flashcard templates in Canva’s design gallery. In that gallery you’ll […]
Understanding Negative Temperatures
It is a very cold day here in Maine. It’s not the coldest that I’ve experienced in Maine, but it’s still not a pleasant day outside. When I let my dogs out at 5am it was -9F and when I took my daughters to school it was -1F. It was on the way to school […]
Two Ways to Create Virtual Manipulatives for Elementary School Math Lessons
Earlier this week I received an email from a reader who was looking for some ideas for creating virtual manipulatives she and her elementary school students to use during remote instruction days. I had two ideas immediately come to mind that I shared with her and I’ll share with you. The first idea I shared […]
NBA Math Hoops – An App for Practicing Math Facts
NBA Math Hoops is a free iPad and Android app for practicing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills. The app can be used by students who don’t have email addresses. There is also an option to create an account to save games in progress. NBA Math Hoops pits players against NBA and WNBA players in […]
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow – Only Two Weeks Left to Enter
Disclosure: Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow contest is a STEM project contest that awards large educational technology prizes to public schools in the United States. As I outlined a few weeks ago, the contest places a premium on student-teacher collaboration as well as project effectiveness. It takes […]
Accessible Online Physics Simulations
PhET is a service that provides free interactive math and science simulations covering topics in physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics. It has been popular with science and math teachers for many years. Recently, I learned that PhET has been developing some simulations that offer online accessibility features including alternative inputs for navigation and […]
The Way of a Ship – Historical Math Problems
A couple of weeks ago I picked up an interesting book at my local library. It’s titled The Way of a Ship and it follows the journey of Benjamin Lundy as he sails around Cape Horn in 1885 in one of the last square-rigged commercial sailing boats. The Way of a Ship is full of […]
Five Benefits of Conducting Mind Mapping Activities
On Wednesday morning I published a long list of tools that students can use to create mind maps, concept maps, and flowcharts. What I didn’t include in that blog post was a description of the differences between the those three things. I also didn’t outline the benefits of mind mapping that students can experience. The […]
Five Ideas for Using Google Earth & Maps for More Than Social Studies Lessons
Later this week I’m conducting an online professional development workshop about Google Earth and Maps. One of my goals for the workshop is to help participants develop ideas for using Google Earth and Google Maps for more than just geography and history lessons. To that end I’ve put together a short list of ideas and […]
A Timeline of Mathematics and Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem
This week TED-Ed published a new video about Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem. This is the latest in a long list of mathematics video lessons produced by TED-Ed. The timing of the video was perfect for me as I had planned on writing about Mathigon’s Timeline of Mathematics this week. That timeline includes an entry about Gödel’s […]
Three Places to Find Fun and Interesting Math Problems
Giving students some clever math problems that tie-in a “real world” situation or topic can go a long way toward helping them see how math skills are skills they’ll use for a lifetime. The following three websites all provide good math challenges to use with your students. Would You Rather? is a website maintained by John […]
Math Learning Center Apps Now Include Sharing Options
Math Learning Center offers twelve free apps that are designed for teaching elementary school mathematics lessons. All of the apps are available in versions as free iPad apps and as web apps. Last week I visited the Math Learning Center for the first time in a while and noticed that the apps now have a sharing function. […]
Add PhET Simulations to Your PowerPoint Slides
PhET is a free resource that has been popular with science and math teachers for many years. PhET provides free interactive math and science simulations covering topics in physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics. In the PhET library you’ll find simulations appropriate for elementary, middle, high school, and university students. PhET even offers a search tool that […]
700 Space Math Problems
Space Math is a NASA website containing space-themed math lessons for students in elementary school through high school. This evening I revisited for the first time in a couple of years and noticed that it now offers more than 700 math problems related to space and space exploration. On Space Math you can search for problems […]
Five Sources of Summer Math Activities for Elementary School Students
If you’re like me and you still have another week or two until summer break, you might be looking for some resources to share with students and their parents to help prevent summer slide. In fact, a few readers emailed me this week looking for suggestions for math activities to share with parents of elementary school students. […]
How Tall Can a LEGO Tower Get? – Life’s Biggest Questions
While getting caught up on my reading in Feedly this morning I came across a new comic from The Oatmeal. The comic addresses the question, “how tall can a LEGO tower get?” (It’s a copyright-protected work so you’ll have to view it on The Oatmeal website). The comic is based on a 2012 BBC article […]
A Math and Map Challenge
This evening while recording Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions & Share Cool Stuff I was reminded of a neat math and map challenge activity from Mathigon. Here’s what I wrote about it last year. Mathigon’s map coloring challenge is to use as few colors as possible to color in all 50 U.S. states without the […]
Braingenie is Shutting Down – Transition to CK-12
Braingenie is a service that the CK-12 Foundation has offered for free for many years. It provided online practice activities addressing concepts in math and science for elementary school, middle school, and high school students. Unfortunately, CK-12 is ending the Braingenie service. However, there is some good news. Many of the practice activities and services […]
Some of my Favorites – Geocaching!
This week is school vacation week here in Maine. I usually take this week off to go ice fishing on Moosehead Lake. Unfortunately, that’s not happening this year. Instead I’ll be “staycationing” and working on some projects around home. While on my staycation I’ll be sharing some of my personal favorite tools. Geocaching is one […]
Whiteboard.chat – Create Online Whiteboards You Can Share and Monitor
Back in September I wrote a review of a new online whiteboard tool called Whiteboard.chat. I like it because it allows teachers to create whiteboards for their students. Teachers can then remotely monitor the whiteboards to see what their students are doing on those whiteboards. It’s great for doing things like asking students to solve […]
The Growth of Mount Everest – A Math and Geology Lesson
Mount Everest is nearly a meter taller than it was a day ago. No, it didn’t actually grow a meter overnight. China and Nepal have agreed on a new measurement for the height of Mount Everest. There are at least two lessons that can be developed out of this news. One of the reasons for […]
A Virtual Tour and Videos for Learning About Breaking the Sound Barrier
Chuck Yeager died yesterday at the age of 97. He was the first person to fly an airplane faster than the speed of sound. The BBC’s article about Chuck Yeager’s passing included some archival footage of his flight in the Bell X-1 that he flew. Watching that footage reminded me of the Smithsonian Air & […]
Write on PDFs in Google Classroom – Good Tool for Math
Earlier this week one of my colleagues asked me if there was a way that her students can do free-hand writing on documents that she shares in Google Classroom. She teaches mathematics and was looking for a better option to having students take pictures of handwritten work and uploading it to Google Classroom assignments. My […]
Twelve Free Apps for Math Instruction
Math Learning Center is a resource that I’ve shared in the past. The last time I wrote about it was a couple of years ago. Back then it offered ten free apps containing virtual manipulatives for math lessons. Since then MLC has expanded to offer twelve free apps. Ten of them are available for iOS, […]
Poe, Halloween, and Phys Ed
We’re a full week into October and I haven’t shared any Halloween-themed resources. That’s unlike me. My excuse is that 2020 has been a year unlike any other. And even though we won’t be trick-o-treating or passing out candy this year, my daughters and some of my students are still excited about Halloween. On that […]
Map Lessons from Mathigon
Last spring I wrote about Mathigon’s Map Coloring Challenge. That’s not the only map-based math lesson available from Mathigon. Mathigon’s lesson on spheres, cones, and cylinders incorporates map projections. In Surface Area of a Sphere Mathigon includes an interactive diagram that illustrates the problem that cartographers have when trying to create maps of the world. […]
Whiteboard Chat – Online Whiteboards You Can Share and Monitor
Whiteboard Chat is a free service that you can use to create collaborative whiteboards to use with your students. It is possible to use Whiteboard Chat without an email address which makes it quick and easy to get started. There are two ways to use Whiteboard Chat. The first is to create one whiteboard that […]
Add Science & Math Simulations to Google Sites
In the latest episode of Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions & Share Cool Stuff I shared an update about a favorite math and science resource. That resource is PhET. PhET offers more than 150 online, interactive science and math simulations. For a while now PhET has been in the process of switching their simulations […]
How OneNote Can Help Students Solve Math Problems
As I mentioned last week, I’m trying to make more videos about the excellent products that Microsoft offers to teachers and students for free. One of those products is OneNote. Within OneNote there is a great feature that can help students solve math problems. In the video that I’ve embedded below you can see how […]
Video: The Solar System to Scale
I guess I’ve been a bit of a space kick lately as over the weekend I shared an augmented reality app about spacecraft and yesterday I featured the NASA selfies app. This morning I found an interesting video about creating a true-to-scale model of the solar system. The video is titled To Scale: The Solar […]
The Geometry of Castles – A Math Lesson in Google Earth
In the web browser version of Google Earth there is a section called Voyager. Within the Voyager section you’ll find lots of pre-made tours, quizzes, and activities. One of those activities is called The Geometry of Castles. The Geometry of Castles is a Google Earth Voyage that you can use to teach short lessons on […]
Quickly Create Online Whiteboards for Your Students
In this week’s Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week I mentioned a new service called Whiteboard.fi. A few weeks ago I learned about it from Alice Keeler and Larry Ferlazzo. Last week I was able to give it a real try. Whiteboard.fi lets you create an online room in which each of your students […]
Five Elementary Lessons You Can Do With Pixton EDU
Disclosure: Pixton is currently an advertiser on this blog. For many years I’ve promoted the idea of using comics as a way to get students to develop fiction and nonfiction stories. In fact, I’ve hosted webinars in which I explained how I’ve used comics as the basis for getting students interested in telling history stories. […]
Kissing, Love, and Math – Three Valentine’s Day Lessons
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. It is also day of the Winter Carnival Dance at my school. In short, love and hormones will be flying all around the hallways of my school tomorrow. Perhaps the same will be happening in your middle school or high school. If you’re looking to work a little Valentine’s Day themed […]
Robocompass – A Robotic Geometry Box
Robocompass is described by its developer as robotic geometry box on 3D. Not being a math teacher and not having taken a math course since the Clinton administration, I wasn’t exactly sure what “robotic geometry box” meant at first. So I gave it try and quickly realized that it is an online tool for graphing […]
Math & Science Halloween Lessons
This afternoon one of my students asked me what my daughters are going to be for Halloween. That question reminded me that Halloween will be here soon. If you find yourself starting to look for some Halloween-themed math or science lessons for elementary school, take a look at the following items. PBS Learning Media also […]
How to Use the Math Manipulatives in SeeSaw
Just in time for the annual ISTE conference SeeSaw introduced a handful of new tools for students to use in the creation of their digital portfolios. One of those new tools is a whiteboard interface onto which students can drag and drop math manipulatives. Students can use freehand drawing tools along with the manipulatives to […]
5 New SeeSaw Features for Teachers and Students Creating Digital Portfolios
SeeSaw is a digital portfolio tool that I have used and recommended since shortly after its launch in 2014. After initially launching as an iPad app it quickly evolved to become tool that can be used on Android devices, on laptops, on desktops, and on Chromebooks. This week SeeSaw added more features designed with Chromebook […]
How to Measure Distances in Google Maps
A couple of weeks ago in the Practical Ed Tech newsletter I featured ten ways to use Google Earth in your classroom for more than just social studies lessons. Many of the ideas in that list can also be applied to the web browser version Google Maps. A good example of that is found in […]
5 Places to Find Summer Math Activities for Elementary School Students
Summer break will be here soon (for those of us in the northern hemisphere). As evidenced by the popularity of last week’s article about the ReadWorks summer reading packets, preventing summer slide is a topic that many are interested in at this time of year. A few readers emailed me over the weekend looking for […]
Braingenie – Math & Science Practice from CK-12
Braingenie is a free service offered by the CK-12 Foundation. Braingenie provides online math and science practice activities for elementary, middle, and high school students. Braingenie’s library of activities is divided into nine sections and many subsections. The nine sections are 1-8 Math, Brain Math, Algebra I, Algebra II, Precalculus, 6-8 Science, Biology, Chemistry, and […]
How to Set Answer Requirements on Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms is a good tool for creating online surveys and quizzes. Setting answer restrictions is one of the overlooked features of Microsoft Forms. Creating answer restrictions allows you to specify the type of input that you’ll accept in response to a question. As you can see in my new video, setting answer restrictions can […]
Google Earth and Maps Lessons for Five Subject Areas
Google Earth and Google Maps are two of my favorite educational technology tools that often are seen as only being useful for geography or history lessons. While they are good for lessons in those subjects, Google Earth and Google Maps can be used for lessons in other subject areas. Here are some ideas and resources […]
How to Measure Distance in Google Earth
Last year Google added a measuring tool to the web browser version of Google Earth (the desktop version always had one). While it worked, it didn’t have as many options as the measuring tool in the desktop version. Since then Google has added some more options for measuring distance in the browser version of Google […]
Three Pi Day Video Lessons
Today is Pi Day! March 14 or 3/14. Six years ago Numberphile published a couple of good videos about Pi. I shared them then and I think it’s time to share them again. Pi with real pies is a three minutes and fourteen seconds video that explains Pi and how it can be calculated. After showing the […]
Three Hands-on Pi Day Lessons
Tomorrow is Pi Day. If you’re looking from some Pi Day activities to do with your students, take a look at the following three activities available on Exploratorium’s Science Snacks site. I have provided brief summaries of each activity below. Click the links for the activities to read the full directions and materials list for […]
Teaching Math With Storyboards
When I’ve hosted webinars about using storyboards the vast majority of attendees expressed interest in using storyboards for in language arts or social studies lessons. That makes sense because storyboards are a natural fit in language arts and social studies classes. Storyboards can be used for math and science lessons too. In fact, Storyboard That […]
Take Your Class On a NFL Virtual Field Trip
The Super Bowl is happening this weekend. If your students have an interest in football, you might be interested in a virtual field trip that the NFL and Discovery Education are hosting tomorrow. NFL Play 60 Kids Day Live is happening tomorrow at 12pm Eastern Time. The free virtual event will take kids on a […]
Best of 2018 – PhET PowerPoint Add-in
This week is a vacation week for the vast majority of readers of this blog. As I do at this time every year, I’m going to republish some of the most popular posts of 2018. Here’s one from April. PhET is a free resource that has been popular with science and math teachers for many […]
Best of 2018 – Free Hands-on STEM Lesson Plans
This week is a vacation week for the vast majority of readers of this blog. As I do at this time every year, I’m going to republish some of the most popular post of 2018. Here’s one from February. “Hacking STEM” was one of the initiatives that Microsoft was heavily promoting at the BETT Show […]
Best of 2018 – Ten Free Apps for Elementary School Math Lessons
This week is a vacation week for the vast majority of readers of this blog. As I do at this time every year, I’m going to republish some of the most popular posts of 2018. Here’s one from January. Math Learning Center offers ten free apps that are designed for teaching elementary school mathematics lessons. […]
Math is Visual – Videos Demonstrations and Illustrations
Math is Visual is a website that features videos and images that are designed to help students understand mathematics concepts. There’s more to the site than just some videos and pictures. With every video you will find written directions for using the visual aids in a lesson. You can find videos on Math is Visual […]
Free Math Lesson Plans from NASA
Space Math is a NASA website containing space-themed math lessons for students in elementary school through high school. You can search for lessons according to grade level or mathematics topic. The bulk of the materials seem to be PDFs of directions for carrying out the lesson plans. The exception to that pattern being the middle school (grades […]
A Fun App for Learning About Money
Money Math Duel is an iPad app and Android app designed to help students learn to count currency. The app is unique in that it allows two students to use it at the same time. Students place the iPad between them and each has his or her own end of the screen to use. Students […]
Measuring Mountains – A Math Lesson
A few years ago I read Mount Everest, The Reconnaissance 1921 which I downloaded for free from Google Books. In the introduction there is a three page explanation of the methods used to measure the height of Mount Everest. An explanation of the differences in measurements is also provided in the introduction. Part of that explanation includes differences […]
A Science, Math, and History Lesson in One Short Video
Reactions is a YouTube channel produced by the American Chemical Society and PBS Digital Studios. The videos in the channel focus on explaining how chemistry concepts as they relate to things we see every day or to interesting “what if” scenarios. Recently, Reactions published a video to explain how much tea it would take to […]
More Halloween Science and Math Lessons
Last week I shared a handful of Halloween-themed math and science activities. PBS Learning Media also has a collection of Halloween-themed science and mathematics lessons. PBS Learning Media’s Halloween collection includes lessons that can be used in elementary school, middle school, and high school classrooms. One of the elementary school Halloween-themed lessons is all about […]
5 Science & Math Resources That Have a Halloween Theme
Now that we’re into October I’ll start to see a lot more searches for “Halloween” on this blog. Here’s a a handful of Halloween-themed math and science resources. SciShow Kids has a playlist of videos covering topics that are frequently connected to symbols of Halloween. Those topics are bats, spiders, skeletons, and the changing colors of […]
Einstein’s Archives Online
More than 80,000 of Albert Einstein’s documents and drawings are now available to view for free at Einstein Archives Online. The archives include not only his scientific work but also his images and documents from his travels and thoughts on the world in general. Applications for Education The Einstein Archives Online has the potential to be […]
Math in Real Life – Why Airlines Overbook Flights
I’m currently flying home the ESC-20 Library Resource Roundup in San Antonio, Texas. Before I boarded the flight the gate agent was looking for volunteers to take an alternate flight due to overbooking. This seems like a good time to share the TED-Ed lesson Why Do Airlines Sell Too Many Tickets? In Why Do Airlines […]
Share Math Playground Activities to Google Classroom
Math Playground offers hundreds of free math games and interactive modules for elementary school students. I’m not sure if this is old news or not, but this morning I was looking at some of the games and noticed that you can share the games directly to Google Classroom. To share a Math Playground activity to […]
Virtual Manipulatives for Mathematics Lessons
Toy Theater is a website that offers a huge library of online games that students can play to hone their skills in language arts and mathematics. Toy Theater also offers a large library of virtual manipulatives that you can use in your mathematics lessons. Some of what you will find in Toy Theater’s library of […]
Ten Free Apps for Elementary School Math Lessons
The new school year will be here soon and I haven’t taken a break all summer. I’m taking a short break from the Internet to go fishing at one of my favorite places in the world, Kennebago Lake. I’ll be back with new posts on Saturday. While I’m gone I’ll be republishing some of the […]
Add Science & Math Simulations to Your PowerPoint Slides
The new school year will be here soon and I haven’t taken a break all summer. I’m taking a short break from the Internet to go fishing at one of my favorite places in the world, Kennebago Lake. I’ll be back with new posts on Saturday. While I’m gone I’ll be republishing some of the […]
NRICH – Another Good Place to Find Math Activities
In response to yesterday’s post about MathsLinks a handful of folks reminded me via email and Facebook of another good place for teachers to find mathematics resources. That place is NRICH which I initially reviewed almost eight years ago and then again five years ago. Upon revisiting NRICH today I found that it is still […]
MathsLinks – A Good Place to Find Resources for Math Lessons
MathsLinks.net is a great site created by a mathematics teacher for mathematics teachers. On the site you will find collections of games, interactive demonstrations, and lesson ideas for use in elementary, middle, and high school mathematics lessons. The best way to get started on MathsLinks is to head to the Links section of MathsLinks and […]
ABCya’s Number Chart Is a Fun Math Activity for Kids
ABCya’s Number Chart is a simple but fun online activity for elementary school students. The chart offers “beginner” and “challenge” activities. In both activity levels students have to drag numbers into their proper places on a number line. In the “beginner” level students are shown a number line of ten numbers at a time. In the […]
5 Ways to Blend Technology Into Outdoor Lessons
By the time that many of you read this, I’ll be fly fishing on one of my favorite rivers in Maine. Where I’m going there isn’t any cell phone reception. Even though there won’t be reception, I will still have my phone with me to take pictures. Sometimes I take pictures of fish that I […]
Measuring Worth – A Lesson on Inflation
Do you remember when a cup of coffee didn’t cost $3? Or when ten dollars bought you enough gasoline to drive for a week? How about buying a pack of baseball cards for 25 cents and getting a piece of gum in the pack too? I remember those days. My money seemed to go a […]
82 Math in Real Life Lessons
Years ago TED-Ed started a playlist of video lessons called Math in Real Life. That playlist that started out with just a couple dozen lessons has now grown to include 82 lessons. The “real life” context in these lessons isn’t things like “how calculating percentages helps you be a frugal shopper.” The “real life” context […]
How to Measure Distances in Google Earth
The addition of a measurement tool in the Chrome (browser) and Android versions of Google Earth was one of the many things that Google announced yesterday. I’m not sure what took them so long to add this because it was always a feature in the desktop version of Google Earth. In the following video I […]
The Web Version of Google Earth Finally Gets a Measuring Tool
Distance measurement has been a feature of the desktop version of Google Earth for as long as I have been using it. So I was surprised when it wasn’t included in the browser-based version of Google Earth that was launched last year. This morning Google announced that a measuring tool has finally been added into […]
A Soccer Physics Lesson
If you watch the World Cup or any other professional soccer game you’re bound to see some incredible kicks that make the ball curve through the air. Football Physics: The “Impossible” Free Kick is a TED-Ed lesson that illustrates and explains how soccer players make the ball curve when they kick it on a free […]
Three Good PowerPoint Add-ins for Math Teachers
PowerPoint has many features that students and teachers often overlook. That’s bound to happen with any program that has been around as long as PowerPoint has and includes as many features as PowerPoint does. One of those overlooked features is found in the Add-ins available for PowerPoint. Browse through the gallery of Add-ins and you’ll […]
Three Good Resources for Learning About the Science of Baseball
Watching a Red Sox game or listening to one on the radio is one of my favorite things to do on a warm summer night like we’re having tonight in Maine. During the pregame show this evening the broadcasters were talking about the launch angle of some of the homeruns hit by Red Sox players […]
Dozens of Online Games Kids Can Play to Learn About Engineering
Try Engineering is a site that hosts lesson plans and games designed to get students interested in engineering. The lesson plans are arranged according age and engineering topic. The lesson plans can be downloaded as PDFs. The games section of Try Engineering features dozens of online games. Some of the games were developed specifically for Try Engineering while others are […]
GeoGebra for PowerPoint – Access and Insert GeoGebra Within PowerPoint
GeoGebra is a favorite ed tech resource of math teachers all over the globe. PowerPoint is the default presentation tool on millions of computers in schools. You can use the two together through the GeoGebra PowerPoint Add-in. The GeoGebra PowerPoint Add-in lets you access GeoGebra materials directly from your PowerPoint slides. You can also use […]
The Economics of Seinfeld – Lessons Based on Seinfeld Clips
The Economics of Seinfeld is a neat concept for teaching economics lessons developed by economics professors from Eastern Illinois University and Baker University. The Economics of Seinfeld is a catalog of clips (sometimes entire episodes) from the hit sitcom Seinfeld that demonstrate various economics concepts. There are seven pages of clips that you can browse through. Alternatively, and more practically, […]
PhET PowerPoint Add-in – Add Science & Math Simulations to Slides
PhET is a free resource that has been popular with science and math teachers for many years. PhET provides free interactive math and science simulations covering topics in physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics. In the PhET library you’ll find simulations appropriate for elementary, middle, high school, and university students. PhET even offers a […]
Scratchwork.io – A Video Whiteboard for Math Students
Scratchwork is a new online whiteboard and video conferencing tool designed with math students in mind. The platform works like many similar services as it provides you with a whiteboard on which you can draw, type, and import images to annotate. Scratchwork is a little different than other services because it includes a Latex editor […]
Ten Ideas for Classroom Podcasts
On Sunday I published a video that shows how quickly and easily you can create a podcast on Anchor.fm. If you watched the video and you’re ready to get started, your next step is probably to generate ideas for your classroom podcast. Here are ten ideas that I brainstormed to help you and your students […]
Solve Me Puzzles – Play or Create Math Puzzles
Solve Me Puzzles is a free site provided by the nonprofit Education Development Center. The site offers free math puzzles for students to play and templates for teachers to use to create math puzzles. Solve Me Puzzles features three basic puzzle types. The Who Am I? puzzles feature a little robot character that students identify […]
Truss Me – Design and Test Weight-bearing Structures
Truss Me is an app that students can use to design and test simple weight-bearing structures. Truss Me can be used in “challenge” mode or in “free play” mode. The challenge mode contains fifteen activities in which students are awarded points for strength and efficiency of their structures. For example, if a structure holds the […]
79 Math In “Real Life” Lessons
Math in Real Life is a series of 79 TED-Ed lessons and TED Talks. The “real life” context in these lessons isn’t things like “how calculating percentages helps you be a frugal shopper.” The “real life” context found in the videos in the Math in Real Life series is broad in nature. For example, you will […]
16 Videos About the Science of Winter Olympics Sports
The Winter Olympics begin this week. I’m looking forward to the skiing events and the bobsled events. The start of the Winter Olympics presents an opportunity to incorporate some science lessons into your students’ interest in a current event that they may be following at home. The National Science Foundation offers a YouTube playlist of […]
Five Good Educational Resources to Use Before the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is this coming Sunday. Just like last year, I predict that the Patriots will win. The odds are good that you have some students who are also interested in the game. Try one of the following resources to turn your students’ enthusiasm for the Super Bowl into a fun lesson. The Superb […]
Peter Pig Helps Kids Learn About Money
Peter Pig’s Money Counter is a fun little game designed to help kids learn to recognize U.S. coins, to recognize the values of U.S. coins, and to add the values of U.S. coins. The game is available to play online. Peter Pig’s Money Counter is also available as a free iPad app and as a […]
Patches – Create Your Own Virtual Reality Environments
In the past I’ve featured Google’s Cardboard Camera and Street View apps as tools for creating simple virtual reality imagery. Those tools are great if you want to capture immersive images of physical environments and share those images with others. But if you want to create completely drawn and animated virtual reality scenes, then you’ll […]
Math, Social Studies, and Diagrams – The Week in Review
Good morning from Maine where a cold bug has hit our house. I tried to fight it, but this morning I have to admit that I’ve caught it too. This might put me a little behind on my plan to have Practical Ed Tech completely remodeled by kick-off off the Patriots’ game on Sunday afternoon. […]
10 Free Apps for Elementary School Math Lessons
Math Learning Center offers ten free apps that are designed for teaching elementary school mathematics lessons. All of the apps are available in versions as free iPad apps, as Chrome apps, and for use in the web browser of any computer. With the exception of the flashcards app, all of the Math Learning Center’s free […]
10 Good Resources for Math Teachers and Students
One of the things that I wish that I had done when started this blog was to build pages like Larry Ferlazzo’s “Best Resources for X” lists. Instead, I have relied on people using the search box on this blog to find the resources that they need. That’s why from time to time I will […]
g(Math) Has Been Deleted – Try These Three Alternatives
For years g(Math) was one of my most frequently recommended Add-ons for Google Forms, Docs, and Sheets. Last week it was shut down by its own, TextHelp. As a replacement for g(Math) TextHelp recommends their newer product called EquatIO. Unfortunately, while all of EquatIO’s features are free for teachers, students need to have a subscription […]
Three Apps That Solve Math Problems Through a Picture
A few years ago when Photomath hit the App store there was all manner of debate about whether or not it was a good app for students. I fall into the side that argues that students are going to find apps like Photomath whether we tell them about it or not. Therefore, we need to […]
Three Good Sources of Fun and Interesting Math Challenges
“When are we ever going to use this?” Raise your hand if you have ever heard that question from a student in the middle of a math lesson or any other lesson. Giving students some clever math problems that tie-in a “real world” situation can go a long way toward helping them see how math […]
ADA Project – An Open Multimedia Mathematics Textbook
Update: May 20, 2022 – This resource is now longer available. ADA Project is a great resource being developed by a mathematics teacher named Sam Powell. The ADA Project is an open multimedia mathematics textbook that covers everything from basic arithmetic through calculus. When you visit the ADA Project’s homescreen you can choose a category […]
Fun & Educational Activities In the Snow
We have just had our second snowstorm of the year here in Maine. It is around this time every year that I share some educational activities that you and your students can do in the snow. Some of these activities have connections with math and physics concepts. NOVA, as a part of their program on […]
The Physics of Skiing
It’s a snow day here in western Maine. For a skier like me, that means it’s time to enjoy the snow with some time on the slopes. If you live in an area that has skiing, you might have some students that feel the same way that I do about snow. New snow equals a […]
Smithsonian Learning Lab Announces Most Popular Resources of 2017
The Smithsonian Learning Lab is a great tool for organizing collections of resources available through the Smithsonian. Through the Learning Lab you can search for and then gather together documents, images, videos, interactive animations, and lesson plans. This playlist of videos will show you everything that you need to know in order to use the […]
EquatIO is Now Free for Teachers
EquatIO is a popular tool that math and science teachers like to use for using handwriting, equation and formula prediction, and graphing in Google Forms, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings. The service is provided by TextHelp who also makes the popular Read & Write add-on for Google Docs. This afternoon TextHelp announced that EquatIO is now […]
5 Ways to Use Google Earth & Maps Outside of Social Studies Lessons
When most teachers hear “Google Earth” or “Google Maps” they immediately think of history and geography lessons. While Google Earth and Google Maps are great for history and geography lessons, Earth and Maps are also powerful tools in other areas. Here are some ways that you can use Google Earth and Maps outside of social […]
5 Ways to Use Comic Creation in Elementary School Classrooms
This is a guest post from Stephanie Krisulevicz. For the last few years I’ve been using cartoons in my classroom to assess my students knowledge. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Yeah, yeah, my principal would think I’ve lost my mind letting them play like that.” Don’t discredit the idea just yet! I’ve found that it’s quite […]
Specialized Add-ons For Google Docs
Google Docs are already a wonderful tool to use in our classrooms. They allow us to work together and share our ideas with the world. But sometimes there are things that seem impossible to do in Google Docs. Before you give up and think that Docs just can’t be used in your content area, check […]
Built to Last – GeoGebra
GeoGebra is the fifth entry into my Built to Last series. This is a series of blog posts celebrating the free resources that have been available to teachers and students over the ten years that I have been publishing Free Technology for Teachers. When I started writing Free Technology for Teachers GeoGebra was available to […]
5 Free Resources for Math Teachers Using Chromebooks
One of the many questions that I received in my email this week came from a reader who wanted to know what some of my favorite resources for teaching math are. She added the stipulation that they needed to work on Chromebooks because her district just replaced old Windows computers in a lab with a […]
XtraMath Now With Google Sign-on and Support for Another Language
XtraMath is a free service designed to help you help your students master the building blocks of solving mathematics problems. I’ve reviewed the service before and every time I do someone replies with a positive note about the service. One of the things that makes XtraMath popular is its support for multiple languages. Recently, XtraMath […]
WebRoom – Free Online Conferencing With Virtual Whiteboard
WebRoom is a free service for hosting online meetings. WebRoom doesn’t require you to download any software and you don’t need to register in order to use it. To launch a meeting on WebRoom you simply enter your name and email address. Your meeting room launches as soon as you finish entering your email address. […]
XtraMath Helps Teachers Help Students Learn Math in Multiple Languages
XtraMath is a free service designed to help teachers and parents help their students learn basic mathematics. The service provides an online environment in which students complete practice activities that are recorded and shared with teachers and parents. Teachers can create classroom accounts in which each child has his or her own log-in credentials. Parents can […]
Fraction Mash – A Neat App for Elementary School Math Lessons
Fraction Mash is a free iPad app that provides a fun way for students to learn about fractions. The app lets students insert two pictures then divide those pictures into grids, columns, pie slices, triangles, or rows. Once their pictures have been divided students select the portions of one picture that they want to combine […]
Where to Find and How to Use the New Kahoot Math Games
Earlier this week Kahoot launched a new featured called Kahoot Studio. Studio is a curated collection of math games made by Kahoot and aligned to Common Core standards. In the future Kahoot will be adding games for other subjects. I received a couple of emails from readers looking for more information about Kahoot Studio. In […]
Front Row Offers New Science Units for the New School Year
Earlier this summer I featured Front Row’s updated social studies units that complemented their existing language arts units. Over the summer Front Row expanded their offerings to include ten science units. Like all Front Row offerings within the new science units you will find multiple versions of the same article to distribute to your students. […]
Kids Discover Online Offers Great Concept Maps
Kids Discover Online offers excellent reference articles for elementary school and middle school students. All of the articles are offered in multiple versions to match a range of Lexile scores. But that is not all that Kids Discover Online offers. My favorite feature of Kids Discover Online is the concept maps that students can explore. […]
How to Create Animated GIFs
Last week I wrote about a free animation tool called Flip Anim. In that post I mentioned using animated GIFs of math problems or to animate simple scenes from a story. A reader sent me a follow-up question asking about how to keep track of each part of the animation. So to answer that question, […]
Flip Anim – Quickly Create Animated GIFs
Flip Anim provides possibly the easiest way draw and create an animated GIF. Within minutes of learning about Flip Anim on Larry Ferlazzo’s blog I had created a couple of animated GIFs illustrating basic addition problems. One of those is included below. To create an animation on Flip Anim simply go to the site and […]
CK-12 BrainFlex Can Help Kids Keep Their Math & Science Skills Sharp This Summer
For the third summer in a row the CK-12 Foundation is hosting the CK-12 Brainflex Summer Challenge. The challenge is a free program that students can use to keep their math and science skills sharp through the summer while also learning some new knowledge and gaining new skills. Students register for the program and then track […]
21 Real World Math Lessons for High School Students
Getting to teach economics lessons is one of my favorite things about being a social studies teacher. In economics lessons high school students start to see how many of the math concepts, logic concepts, and political theory they’ve learned can apply to them in the “real world” after high school. Econ Ed Link is a […]
Math Pickle – Fun and Challenging Math Puzzles
Math Pickle is a free site that offers dozens of fun and challenging math puzzles for students of all ages. The puzzles are designed to foster collaborative problem solving over the course of 45 to 60 minutes. Almost all of the puzzles are presented as a series of small, connected problems that students need to […]
More Than 100 Math Games for Elementary and Middle School Students
XP Math is a good place to find online math games for students in elementary school and middle school. The games section of XP Math offers games for basic arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and probability. There is a classroom option that lets you create an account on XP Math and you can keep track of your students’ game scores. Applications for […]
10 Math Tutorial YouTube Channels Not Named Khan Academy
One of the most popular posts of all time on this blog featured math tutorial YouTube channels for high school and college students. That post was originally created as a response to an email from a reader who was seeking suggestions for math videos that were not on Khan Academy. This evening I took some […]
Desmos Now Offers an Online Geometry Tool
Desmos, the company known for its online graphing calculator, recently released a new online geometry tool. Desmos Geometry is designed to help students understand geometry concepts through the use of drawing and diagram manipulation tools. Your students can use Desmos Geometry or you can use to create demonstrations. Desmos has created a page of resources […]
Number Rack & Geoboard – Good Apps for Elementary School Math
Geoboard is a free app on which students stretch virtual rubber bands over pegboards to create lines and shapes to learn about perimeter, area, and angles. The app is available as as an iPad app and as a Chrome app. It can also be used directly in any updated web browser. The browser-based version can be […]
More Than 400 Science Animations
Learners TV, like many similar sites on the Internet, offers an index of math and science video lessons. What makes Learners TV a little different is that it also has an index of more than 400 science concept animations. The science animations on Learners TV are organized into three categories; biology, physics, and chemistry. Please not that […]
Spring Forward! – Lessons on Daylight Saving Time
Most of us in North America moved our clocks forward by one hour last night or this morning. In doing so we will feel like or may actually have lost an hour of sleep. This is what happens every year when you live in a place that uses Daylight Saving Time. Your students may come […]
Nudge – Interactive Algebra Lessons on iPads and Android Tablets
Nudge is a free iPad and Android app that provides students with interactive, on-demand algebra tutorials. The free app provides students with practice problems that they attempt to solve on their iPads or Android devices. When they get stuck on a problem students can ask for hint or for a demonstration of how to solve […]
Valentine’s Day Math, Science, and Philosophy Lessons
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Whether you buy into the “holiday” or not, your students probably do. Here are three short video lessons related to Valentine’s Day. The following video from It’s Okay To Be Smart (produced by PBS Digital Studios) explains why humans kiss, the history of symbols associated with kissing, and some cultural views […]
Three Super Bowl Themed Educational Activities
The Super Bowl is this coming Sunday (I predict that the Patriots will win). The odds are good that you have some students who are also interested in the game. Try one of the following resources to turn your students’ enthusiasm for the Super Bowl into a fun lesson. NBC’s Science of Football is a series […]
5 Good Elementary School Activities from the Smithsonian
The Smithsonian offers wonderful online resources for students of all ages. The Smithsonian’s Learning Lab lets teachers create collections of resources. But you don’t have to use the Learning Lab to use many of the activities available through the various Smithsonian channels. Here are five good online activities available through the Smithsonian. These are activities […]
Everything CK-12 – Open Resources and More
The CK-12 Foundation provides teachers and students with some excellent resources including Flexbooks, study guides, interactive math and science simulations, and even an online whiteboard platform. This Wednesday CK-12 is hosting a free webinar about all of the open resources that they offer. In the webinar you will learn how to locate, save, and share […]
Would You Rather? – Quick Math Challenges
Would You Rather? is a website maintained by John Stevens for the purpose of sharing quick and fun math challenges for students. Would You Rather? presents a picture with a mathematics problem that asks “would you rather?” Most of the questions have a financial aspect to them. One of my favorite examples is this challenge that asks […]
Great Ideas for Using Scratch in Elementary Math – Best of 2016
As I usually do during this week, I’m taking some time off to relax, ski, and work on some long-term projects for the next year. This week I will be re-publishing the most popular posts of 2016. Last month I received an email from Jeffery Gordon in which he shared with me an online binary […]
Math Vocabulary Cards in English and Spanish
One of the challenges that some students face in learning math is just understanding the vocabulary used in mathematics. Math Vocabulary Cards can help students overcome that challenge. Math Vocabulary Cards is a free iPad app designed for elementary school students. The app offers exactly what its name implies, a series of flashcards of mathematics […]
A Fun App for Learning to Add Fractions
This post originally appeared on one of my other blogs, iPadApps4School.com. Fraction Mash is a free iPad app that provides a fun way for students to learn about fractions. The app lets students insert two pictures then divide those pictures into grids, columns, pie slices, triangles, or rows. Once their pictures have been divided students […]
Three Free Online Whiteboards Students Can Use Together in Realtime
Online whiteboards that let students communicate in realtime either by voice or text can be powerful tools to create a mathematics tutorial, create a diagram, or to brainstorm ideas for a project. The following three whiteboard tools can all be used by students for free. NoteBookCast is a free whiteboard tool that will work in […]
Pop Penguin and the Place Value Race
Pop Penguin and the Place Value Race is a new game on Math Playground. The free game is played in a classic board game style in which students advance along the board by completing math challenges of varying degrees of difficulty. As you can see in my demonstration video below, students can pick the difficulty […]
Expii Solve – Fun and Challenging Mathematics Exercises
Thanks to my friend Rushton Hurley, this evening I learned about a great new-to-me resource for mathematics teachers. Expii Solve is a series of more than fifty sets of mathematics word problems. Within each set there are five problems aligned to a theme. For example, there was recently a set of Thanksgiving themed problems. The problems […]
How to Create a Google Earth Tour
Google Earth can be used for all kinds of lessons in math (see Real World Math), science (try these resources), and language arts (try Google Lit Trips) in addition to the obvious social studies applications. One of the best ways to use Google Earth in social studies and in language arts is to have your […]
5 out of 5 of These Resources Can Help You Teach Fractions Lessons
In an earlier post I highlighted the Thinking Blocks tools included in Math Playground. Thinking Blocks offers a good way to introduce your students to fractions. Here are some other good resources for teaching fractions. Who Wants Pizza? is a fun online activity for learning about fractions. Who Wants Pizza was developed by Cynthia Lanius at Rice University. The activity […]
Math Playground – Hundreds of Math Games & Instructional Videos
Math Playground is a great website containing hundreds of mathematics games appropriate for K-8 students. I first reviewed the site back in 2008. Whenever I have returned to it since then, more games and other helpful features have been added to it. Math Playground offers a huge variety of math games for students. You can […]
Magic Gopher – A Math Game
Magic Gopher is a fun little game in which students select a two digit number, add the digits together, subtract the new number from the original, then look up a symbol associated with the final number. The Magic Gopher the correctly “guesses” the final number symbol. Of course it’s not actually magic, but young students will […]
PrepFactory Introduces Great, New Practice Activities for Middle School Students
PrepFactory is a popular service that for years has offered great, self-paced SAT and ACT preparation activities. For the new school year PrepFactory has expanded to offer self-paced math and language arts lessons for middle school students. The self-paced lessons and activities in the new middle school section in PrepFactory reflect the recent changes to […]
Symbolab – An Online Graphing Calculator and More
Symbolab is a service that launched four years ago. When I tried it then I described as a cross between Google and Wolfram Alpha. I described it that way because Symbolab would conduct a search for answers to math problems and also display the steps needed to complete the problem. Additionally, Symbolab provides links to blog […]
5 Dice – An App to Help Students Learn the Order of Operations
5 Dice is a nice iPad app that provides students with a place to practice and develop their understanding of the order of operations. The 5 Dice app presents students with a number that they have to write an equation for using all of the dice presented to them. When students think that they have created […]
Try Math Landing for K-6 Mathematics Resources
Math Landing is a database of mathematics lessons and interactive resources for use in elementary school. You can search for lessons and interactive resources by grade level and or by mathematics topic. You can search Math Landing and access the resources without registering. If you do register you can participate in the Math Landing message board […]
Two Graphing Tools for Google Docs
The question that I often hear from mathematics teachers about Google Documents is, “are there any features for me?” The answer is, “yes, but they don’t always jump out at you.” Google Docs does have a built-in equation editor that you can access from the insert drop-down menu. To create graphs in Google Docs you’ll want […]
The Physics of Olympic Sports
The 2016 Olympics got underway over the weekend. I was thrilled to see the U.S. men win a second consecutive silver medal in archery on Saturday afternoon. Speaking of archery, CK-12 has a great set of physics simulations about archery and eleven other Olympic sports. The simulations are available to view in your web browser […]
Three Good Ways to Use Word Clouds With Students
Last week’s Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week featured two good tools for creating custom word clouds. Throughout the week people have Tweeted suggestions about how to use word clouds with students. Here are three word cloud activities suggested by folks on Twitter. 1. SMS World Geography suggested the following: @rmbyrne love this! “What […]
ScratchMath – Great Ideas for Using Scratch in Elementary Math
Last month I received an email from Jeffery Gordon in which he shared with me an online binary calculator that he created for his students. When I asked him for more information about the calculator and what he was teaching in general, he shared another cool resource with me. That resource is ScratchMath. ScratchMath, written […]
Why the Metric System Matters – And How It Confounds Americans
Why the Metric System Matters is the title of the latest TED-Ed lesson. The lesson explains how measurement systems evolved through history including the historical event that hastened the adoption of the metric system throughout most of the world. The lesson also explains why the United States doesn’t use the metric system. As is noted […]
CK-12 Concept Maps Show Kids Connections Between Math and Science
The CK-12 Foundation recently released a new feature that should help students see the connections between topics in science and mathematics. CK-12 concepts maps are interactive webs of related math and science terms. Clicking on the “details” tab below a term in the web will lead students to definitions and explanations, to interactive concept simulations, […]
Educational Resources About the Tour de France
My local cycling club. (We won’t be challenging for the Yellow Jersey). The Tour de France begins on Saturday. Check out this animated video to learn all about the tactics of the race, the logistics of the race, the physiology of riding in the race, and many other interesting facts about the world’s most famous […]
An Illustrated Mathematics Glossary – Best of 2015-16 School Year
All of this week I am on the road working with teachers in Texas, Kansas, and Arizona. Rather than scrambling to write blog posts at the end of each day, I’m taking this time to feature some of the most popular posts and new tools of the 2015-2016 school year. Math is Fun is a […]
Learn How to Create CK-12 FlexBooks In a Free Summer Course
Yesterday, I shared the news that CK-12 is once again running a summer math and science program for students. This evening I learned that CK-12 is offering a summer program for teachers too. CK-12’s Jumpstart Your Curriculum is a six part course for teachers who want to learn how to create great CK-12 FlexBooks. FlexBooks […]
CK-12 Brainflex is Back for 2016 – Keep Math Skills Sharp This Summer
Last year the CK-12 Foundation introduced the CK-12 Brainflex Summer Challenge. The challenge is a free program that students can use to keep their math and science skills sharp through the summer while also learning some new knowledge and gaining new skills. Students register for the program then track their skills review through the CK-12 Brainflex […]
Front Row – Adaptive Math & ELA Practice for K-8 Students
Disclosure: Front Row is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com. Front Row is a service that offers teachers a nice way to deliver practice math and ELA activities to their students. The central feature of Front Row is that students are given practice activities based upon their individual needs. To get started with Front Row teachers […]
STEM in 30 – A Smithsonian Webcast for Middle School Students
STEM in 30 is a neat webcast produced by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The series featured 30 minute live webcasts about a variety of topics related to air and space travel and science. During the live webcasts students can submit questions to the show’s hosts. Students can also submit questions in advance […]
GeoGebra Exam Mode Lets You Choose Which Tools Your Students Can Use During Tests
GeoGebra, a free mathematics modeling tool, seems to be continuously improving and in the process becoming more and more popular with teachers. Thanks to Guillermo at Math and Multimedia, last weekend I learned about GeoGebra’s exam mode. GeoGebra’s exam mode allows you to specify which GeoGebra tools can and cannot be used during an exam. […]
Why Are Airplane Engines So Big? – How Jet Engines Work #STEM
Minute Physics recently published a great new video about jet engines. In Why Are Airplane Engines So Big? viewers can learn why jet engines have gotten larger over time, why they biggest engines don’t always go on the biggest or fastest airplanes, and the basic principles of jet propulsion. The video briefly explains the mathematics […]
Riddle Me This – 7 TED-Ed Lessons Based on Riddles
Earlier this week I shared a playlist of TED-Ed lessons about how the human body works. In responses to that playlist Lisa Winer sent me the suggestion to check out a TED-Ed lesson that she contributed to creating. That lesson is the Locker Riddle. In that lesson students have to use mathematics and logical reasoning […]
XtraMath Helps Teachers Help Students Learn Math in ASL
XtraMath is a free service designed to help teachers and parents help their students learn basic mathematics skills. The service provides an online environment in which students complete practice activities that are recorded and shared with their teachers and parents. The lessons provided by XtraMath come in video format. Recently, XtraMath added support for ASL. […]
Origo One – One Minute Math Lessons
Origo One is a new YouTube channel offering one minute math lessons for teachers and students. The first few videos in the series seem to be aimed at elementary school teachers. In the first video that I watched Origo One explains why teaching the “use ten” strategy is better than having students count on their […]
More Resources for Teaching and Learning About Flight #STEM
On Sunday I wrote a post about an interactive timeline of the developments made by the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss. Here are some more resources for teaching and learning about developments in aerospace. America by Air online exhibit is a series of thirteen online activities that take students through the history of commercial aviation in […]
Two Last Minute Lessons on Leap Year
Today is February 29th. My friend Rod’s son is turning sixteen or four depending upon how you look at it. Why? Because there won’t be another February 29 for four years. If you have students wondering why February 29th occurs only once every four years, share the following short videos. The first video addresses the […]
How Big Is The Sun? – And Five Other Lessons on the Size of the Universe
We had a beautiful winter sunset here in Woodstock, Maine tonight. It was a nice ending to a relaxing weekend. Watching the sunset while I was thinking about the week ahead prompted this post about the size of the sun and the scale of the universe. How Big Is The Sun? is a short video […]
5 Dice – A Fun Math Activity on iPads
5 Dice is a nice iPad app designed to provide students with a place to practice and develop their understanding of the order of operations. The 5 Dice app presents students with a number that they have to write an equation for using all of the dice presented to them. When students think that they have […]
Two Educational Activities to Capitalize on Super Bowl Enthusiasm
I’m currently watching the Super Bowl and thinking about students who will be talking about it when they see their friends at school tomorrow. Try one of the following resources to turn your students’ enthusiasm for the Super Bowl into a fun lesson. NBC’s Science of Football is a series of ten videos from NBC Learn […]
Leap Year Explained
2016 is a leap year which means that February will have 29 days this year. You may have students wondering why there is an extra day added to the calendar this year. You may also find yourself explaining, as I did one year, that leap year doesn’t mean they go to school for an extra […]
A Math Review App in English and Spanish
Math Vocabulary Cards is a free iPad app designed for elementary school students. The app offers exactly what its name implies, a series of flashcards of mathematics vocabulary terms. Each card contains a term, a diagram, and a definition. By default the term is hidden and students have to guess the term based on the […]
Numberock – Math Music Videos for Kids
Last month I shared ten good YouTube channels for math students. This week I learned about about another good math video channel. Numberock is a YouTube channel that features quick music videos that teach and or reinforce elementary school math lessons. The videos were developed by an elementary teacher for elementary students. Take a look […]