Study the numbers in each square and determine which number is the odd one out.
Use your math skills to crack this one. I will give the answers next week.
Good luck with this one.
For more interesting math puzzles, you can click here.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Odd one out Math Puzzle
This a very nice and challenging math puzzle. Study the numbers in each square and determine which number is the odd one out. Let's find out how clever you are. You can use the comments to answer this one.
Study the numbers in each square and determine which number is the odd one out.
Use your math skills to crack this one. I will give the answers next week.
Good luck with this one.
For more interesting math puzzles, you can click here.
Study the numbers in each square and determine which number is the odd one out.
Use your math skills to crack this one. I will give the answers next week.
Good luck with this one.
For more interesting math puzzles, you can click here.
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Cool math word puzzle
If Peter and Debra would share 6 candies, they would get 3 candies each! How many candies will they get, if they would share 8 candies?
This is a very nice grade 1 and 2 math word problem. Students have to group a number of candies and divide them by 2 people. Seems simple, but for the little ones quite a challenge. You could of course expand this problem and throw in 10 candies, 12 candies, etc...
With 1 math word problem teachers can tackle the entire table of 2. We found this excellent math puzzle online. Students have to calculate how to divide groups of candies and once done will have to find the outcomes in a word search.
This is what we call fun math material. You can find loads of similar math worksheets on www.mathinenglish.com.
This website is made by ESL teachers and completely free.
This is a very nice grade 1 and 2 math word problem. Students have to group a number of candies and divide them by 2 people. Seems simple, but for the little ones quite a challenge. You could of course expand this problem and throw in 10 candies, 12 candies, etc...
With 1 math word problem teachers can tackle the entire table of 2. We found this excellent math puzzle online. Students have to calculate how to divide groups of candies and once done will have to find the outcomes in a word search.
This is what we call fun math material. You can find loads of similar math worksheets on www.mathinenglish.com.
This website is made by ESL teachers and completely free.
Sunday, 26 June 2011
A puzzle a day
A puzzle a day keeps failing at bay!
In his brilliant book “The Art and Science of Teaching”, Robert Marzano explains the principles and importance of student engagement on the learning process. It is of course not exactly rocket science to understand that engaged students learn better, but it is actually more difficult for teachers to engage students than we think.
The way content is delivered to students is a far bigger challenge for teachers than the content itself. Not everything we learn at school is interesting. Far from it actually, a lot of information we pass on to our students is just plain boring! Multiplication tables, grammar rules, geography facts, the last 25 presidents of Transylvania, are not exactly exciting and engaging types of knowledge. So the million dollar question is how to make (boring) content interesting enough to engage our students?
Marzano states that people are universally interested in games and puzzles, be it crossword puzzles, word searches or video games. Games and puzzles stimulate curiosity and mental appetite. This stimulation or mental appetite is known as the psychological principle of clozentropy.
That puzzles stimulate cognitive development is a well known fact in the educational world and beyond. Solving puzzles means actively putting pieces together through a process of trial and error. The application and evaluation of possibilities enhances logic and problem solving skills. But above all puzzles are fun, students love to do puzzles or play games. When learning material is presented in the form of puzzles and games, students will be more engaged, show more interest and intrinsic motivation.
So the real challenge for teachers, in any subject is to present learning materials in game format. Why not adding a crossword puzzle, or word search to the standard materials such as worksheets and workbooks? Why not using a puzzle as a form of assessment? It’s actually quite easy to make learning materials that are fun and in puzzles format. There are tones of websites that can be used to do this.
You can make a word search in less than a minute. Other websites take this even a step further and have already made puzzles and games involving subject content.
A large number of math puzzles and games, for example, can be found on the website www.mathinenglish.com. The makers of this website have tried to turn relatively ‘boring’ math exercises into puzzles such as word searches, crosswords and brain teasers. The students have the impression to play a game, to solve a puzzle but are actually doing their normal math work. The students love these exercises and seem to be fully engaged.
Educational experts all agree that our brains work in such a manner that we love to fill in the gaps. Marzano calls this “ missing information as a stimulus for engagement”. Teachers on the other hand face a more and more challenging learning environment, where it seems harder and harder to challenge and engage students. The time we are living in is a time of fast information and short attention spans! Engagement as an essential component of the learning process seems harder to get than ever.
Educators will have to understand the changing perceptions and attitudes of their students and will have to rethink, innovate, their teaching methodologies and learning materials. Don’t just use the standard materials and books given by the schools. Create and innovate and get your students engaged! One thing is universal and will never change: we like to play games! So use this to your advantage! A puzzle a day keeps failing at bay! When learning is presented as a puzzle and students love to do them, this will lead to
In his brilliant book “The Art and Science of Teaching”, Robert Marzano explains the principles and importance of student engagement on the learning process. It is of course not exactly rocket science to understand that engaged students learn better, but it is actually more difficult for teachers to engage students than we think.
The way content is delivered to students is a far bigger challenge for teachers than the content itself. Not everything we learn at school is interesting. Far from it actually, a lot of information we pass on to our students is just plain boring! Multiplication tables, grammar rules, geography facts, the last 25 presidents of Transylvania, are not exactly exciting and engaging types of knowledge. So the million dollar question is how to make (boring) content interesting enough to engage our students?
Marzano states that people are universally interested in games and puzzles, be it crossword puzzles, word searches or video games. Games and puzzles stimulate curiosity and mental appetite. This stimulation or mental appetite is known as the psychological principle of clozentropy.
That puzzles stimulate cognitive development is a well known fact in the educational world and beyond. Solving puzzles means actively putting pieces together through a process of trial and error. The application and evaluation of possibilities enhances logic and problem solving skills. But above all puzzles are fun, students love to do puzzles or play games. When learning material is presented in the form of puzzles and games, students will be more engaged, show more interest and intrinsic motivation.
So the real challenge for teachers, in any subject is to present learning materials in game format. Why not adding a crossword puzzle, or word search to the standard materials such as worksheets and workbooks? Why not using a puzzle as a form of assessment? It’s actually quite easy to make learning materials that are fun and in puzzles format. There are tones of websites that can be used to do this.
You can make a word search in less than a minute. Other websites take this even a step further and have already made puzzles and games involving subject content.
A large number of math puzzles and games, for example, can be found on the website www.mathinenglish.com. The makers of this website have tried to turn relatively ‘boring’ math exercises into puzzles such as word searches, crosswords and brain teasers. The students have the impression to play a game, to solve a puzzle but are actually doing their normal math work. The students love these exercises and seem to be fully engaged.
Educational experts all agree that our brains work in such a manner that we love to fill in the gaps. Marzano calls this “ missing information as a stimulus for engagement”. Teachers on the other hand face a more and more challenging learning environment, where it seems harder and harder to challenge and engage students. The time we are living in is a time of fast information and short attention spans! Engagement as an essential component of the learning process seems harder to get than ever.
Educators will have to understand the changing perceptions and attitudes of their students and will have to rethink, innovate, their teaching methodologies and learning materials. Don’t just use the standard materials and books given by the schools. Create and innovate and get your students engaged! One thing is universal and will never change: we like to play games! So use this to your advantage! A puzzle a day keeps failing at bay! When learning is presented as a puzzle and students love to do them, this will lead to
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Teaching Word Problems to ESL students
For teachers in ESL or EP Programs, it must be recognizable that many students struggle with word problems. it seems that the language barriers are just too much sometimes.
What can we do? Well teachers, you can:
-rewrite your material in very basic wordings.
-use cooperative learning strategies (student can communicate in their own language)
-let students reproduce the material in their own wordings
-understand the difficulties, but never give up
-use other strategies than written words (act out,m make video material, songs, posters, etc..)
-create vocabulary handouts
I am very curious what other option, we math teachers have!
Please let me know by posting a comment.
Or check this link for free material
What can we do? Well teachers, you can:
-rewrite your material in very basic wordings.
-use cooperative learning strategies (student can communicate in their own language)
-let students reproduce the material in their own wordings
-understand the difficulties, but never give up
-use other strategies than written words (act out,m make video material, songs, posters, etc..)
-create vocabulary handouts
I am very curious what other option, we math teachers have!
Please let me know by posting a comment.
Or check this link for free material
ESL math is a double challenge!
Around the world we see more and more students studying content subjects in English.
In Asia for example, more and more EP (English Program) schools are opening and Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese students are studying the like of Science, Math, Social Studies and even PE in English!
Great, not? Well that's not so easy to answer! For students whose native languages have hardly any similarities with English, a lot might go lost in translation. Students who have not mastered English proficiency are required to solve educational problems. And this is risky.
Studying Science and Math is more than number crunching and memorization of chemical formulas, its all about problem solving skills. How can students solve problems, they don't fully understand? Even in a classroom where every student aces number skills (non-existent!), the students would struggle with the application of these skills. Its all about academic reading skills.
This creates enormous dilemmas for both students and teachers.
How to teach, how to develop application skills in subjects like Math and Science? This must be the one million dollar question and there's no defined answer to it. Schools must allow students to improve academic reading skills first! Therefor, be very careful as a student, teacher or parent to just enter any English Program. Are measures taken to improve reading (understanding) skills, or not. If not, the student will probably learn a lot of English but lose out a lot problem solving skills that are already difficult in their own language.
Erik
In Asia for example, more and more EP (English Program) schools are opening and Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese students are studying the like of Science, Math, Social Studies and even PE in English!
Great, not? Well that's not so easy to answer! For students whose native languages have hardly any similarities with English, a lot might go lost in translation. Students who have not mastered English proficiency are required to solve educational problems. And this is risky.
Studying Science and Math is more than number crunching and memorization of chemical formulas, its all about problem solving skills. How can students solve problems, they don't fully understand? Even in a classroom where every student aces number skills (non-existent!), the students would struggle with the application of these skills. Its all about academic reading skills.
This creates enormous dilemmas for both students and teachers.
How to teach, how to develop application skills in subjects like Math and Science? This must be the one million dollar question and there's no defined answer to it. Schools must allow students to improve academic reading skills first! Therefor, be very careful as a student, teacher or parent to just enter any English Program. Are measures taken to improve reading (understanding) skills, or not. If not, the student will probably learn a lot of English but lose out a lot problem solving skills that are already difficult in their own language.
Erik
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