maths

[Sheila Struthers]

There seems to be a lot of maths websites but they mostly seem to be exam related.

What I'm looking for is something which is more geared to the why rather than the how - any ideas?

He is roughly (very ) covering standard grade/GCSE level to familiarise himself with a few basic principles.

[Sheila Struthers]

Replying to myself

This site seems to have better explanations than most.

The homepage made me think it was just for wee ones but it isn't

[s836apg]

Wouldn't a book be better?
I think there are good books out there that explain maths concepts.
(I could post you the ancient one I had when in was 13!)



R

[JamesJane]

The last decade has seen a move away from the Why to a more prescriptive How to pass an exam. That is how to improve "standards". What you get out of it- personally and professionally is less, in my oppinion.

Maths teachers used to attempt to give the explanations so that the pupils could, hopefully, develop their understanding so that they could solve not just the particular problem studied but any related problem. If you want that now then you would probably need to get private tuition as teachers are too busy getting their pupils to pass exams.

[Riaz]

What sort of maths do you have in mind?

A high proportion of the more elementary numeracy and algebra resources are written for the school and exam audiences in mind. If you can get your hands on an O Level or GCSE maths textbook from the 80s then you will probably find it explains things deeper than modern textbooks do.

The other option is to go outside of the school curriculum and look at resources for recreational maths or various pure and applied topics such as geometry or engineering and financial maths.

[Diane]

Or let the children play computer games. My youngest is a Mathphobe but I heard her discussing ratios after she'd finished one of the games she enjoys.

Diane
http://www.threedegreesoffreedom.blogspot.com

[SilverAbacus]

Diane's on the right track; find ways to incorporate the idea(s) you want to emphasise into other activities. When explaining algebraic manipulation of an equation, use a scale - even a home-made one - and talk about keeping it balanced. Start a discussion about the rate of change which can lead into differentiation. Bake a cake and talk about volume...

(PS I'm new here )

[Sheila Struthers]

Thanks everyone interesting thread.

Expanding a bit on the context here because it might be of use to others.

DS (now 15) liked numbers until school tried to tell him how to do it. He used to enjoy adding up cheques with his dad after antique fairs and was pretty good at it. He was quite (actually very) angry that he lost this ability when they started telling him how to do it at school.

He decided to leave school when he was 9.

I "did" some maths stuff with him after he left school - things that I thought might interest him - patterns, number bases (because I was told computers use hexidecimal), maps and scale - ratio, platonic solids and some easy formulae like pythagoras and circles and pi etc... we made some lovely maps and a game to go with them He also read the Murderous Maths books because he found them entertaining.

He still has some strange obsession with Pi - not sure that this is good

After that - nowt in the way of formal maths except what he has done in the way of his other interests (geocaching and computer programming obviously but many others less so).

If he needs to calculate something for a real-life purpose and doesn't know how he googles it.

Before Xmas he was doing C++ programming from a game design perspective.

Then he didn't do anything very formal for a while.

Then he reckoned he wanted to get to grips with some basic mathematical principles which is when I started to research the available resources...

This site won

He is a bit fussy (pedantic ??) about how things are explained and this one seems to have "passed".

Must stress to new readers, I am not teaching. I could do maths at school in a "how to get the answer and do good in exams" sort of way but didn't understand anything at all Can't remember any of it which is probably an advantage when coming to it second time around


Going off the point a bit but the same school system that would have had me good at maths because I was good at learning how to jump through hoops didn't recognise any exceptional talent in my brother who is seriously "good at maths" or math as they call it over there....

He has offered to help (years ago) and we may well take him up on it yet

Anyway, point is that the only reason son is taking this (vaguely) structured approach is because he has chosen to after years of not doing maths as any teacher would know it.

I know I'm biased but so far (in between the swearing) he seems to be getting to grips with years of school maths (including primary stuff) PDQ.

[SilverAbacus]

I've been setting up my own maths web site, as I'm going to be offering tutoring, and I'm trying to put interesting facts and tricks and tips on it, that sort of thing. I found this yesterday, which I think is a really nice overview of the conic sections, how they're used in real life, why they're important. It doesn't talk about their algebraic properties at all, but I found it an interesting read. Might be something to bookmark.

Can anyone else offer a favourite site/link?

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/jbconics.htm

[s836apg]

Sorry this should be on the Maths sticky, grateful if someone could move it!

Lots of basic games here:

http://www.ictgames.com/moreless.htm

I had forgotten about this. Good basic stuff. Free.

R