Mathematics for Elementary Teachers Internet Tools

Resources at this Site

Basic Tools

Demonstrations

Projects and Labs

Software

General Resource Sites

Basic Tools

• Probability and Statistics

            The Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics - Lots of nice demos and other tools

            List of Statistics Sites - compiled at University of Denver

            Roy St. Laurent's web page - visit Statistical Links & Web Applications

Demonstrations

Projects and Labs

Software

General Resource Sites

    National Library of Virtual Manipulatives 

This site has a large number of programs that correspond to activities in 150 and 155 (Tower Hanoi, chip abacus, coin weight problem, fill and pour problems, peg puzzle, sieve of Eratosthenes, tessellations, geometry transformations, and Venn diagrams) , as well as electronic versions of some of the manipulatives we use (Attribute blocks, base blocks, integer chips, fraction pieces, geoboards, number lines, pattern blocks, tangrams)

    ArchyTech Applications  

While the NLVM site typical provides the manipulatives in some structured environment, this site  has pattern blocks, base ten blocks, Cuisenaire rods and fraction bars available in a more open setting.  They can be displayed while students are using the actual manipulative for demonstration purposes.   Note there is one problem with the pattern block program.  The green equilateral triangle has the same height as the orange square whose sides are the same lengths as the sides of the green triangle.

    K-8 Mathematics Technology Projects  

Barbara Boschman Beaudrie’s website for prospective elementary teachers

This site has a variety of technology based projects on this site that have been successfully used in our courses.  They are organized to align with main areas in our text as well. Some of these activities will direct you back to the above sites, others are spreadsheet or graphing calculator activities.  The Students Understanding Fractions link will take you to some short videos of elementary children doing mathematics.  These are powerful motivators and examples that demonstrate why we expect the college students to understand alternate algorithms and to be able to think about concepts in a variety of ways.  We have used these as in-class discussion items (You might have students solve the problems first, then we’ll watch the video clips, and conclude with developing the other alternate models in our texts) or as out-of-class assignments (After looking at the topic in class, our students analyze the K-8 students’ thinking).                                              

Sites for Teachers  List of sites for teachers

Cut-the-knot.org  A very rich site with nicely organized links to applets and such.  Lots of resources.

            Math Forum

    WebMath - Lots of applets suited to K-8 instruction