Maria's Math News, Vol. 47, November 2010

Never run out of math practice! With unlimited questions in nearly 2,000 math topics, IXL is a fantastic source for online math practice. With prizes to uncover and awards to win, it's also a lot of fun. Explore IXL today and get 20 free practice problems.

1. Math Mammoth Integers book is here!

2. A math teacher's error

IXL now covers Pre-K through 8th grade!

From counting, shapes, and days of the week to fractions, decimals, and pre-algebra, IXL has more grades, more skills, and more fun than ever. Check out IXL today!

3. Geometry games -- for everyone!

4. More Math Mammoth news -- of all kinds

• Australian Money is a new book in the Blue Series. The name tells what it is all about.


• Did you know that Math Mammoth Light Blue Series (the complete curriculum) includes money lessons in five different currencies? Those are U.S., Canadian, British, Australian, and European monies. The downloads for grades 1, 2, and 3 automatically include the lessons in all these currencies.


• Around Thanksgiving I will be running a sale of 20% off... stay tuned!


• Update on Light Blue grade 6-B. I've finished writing the lessons. What remains is some answer key work, writing tests and cumulative reviews, and adding a few things to the worksheet maker. It is on schedule, and should be finished by the end of 2010.

5. Tidbits

• The quickest path around the baseball bases
  Some of you (sports fans?) might find this interesting: mathematicians have calculated the quickest path around the baseball diamond, through the four bases. And it's not in the shape that you'd think.
   
• Study shows females' math skills equal to males
  This news comes from the university of Wisconsin-Madison. The study author, Janet Hyde, says, "My message to parents is that they should have confidence in their daughter's math performance. They need to realize that women can do math just as well as men. These changes will encourage women to pursue occupations that require lots of math." I agree; parents AND teachers should never in any way imply that girls can't do the math just because they are girls. That's just not true! I also thought the mention of 48% of math majors being females was interesting. So, at least in pure math, genders seem to be quite equal. But I personally doubt that will happen in engineering because boys seem to be much more interested in that type of work.
   
• Gallon man to the rescue
  Do you need a way to remember unit conversion effortlessly and forever? Or just a way to calculate how many cups there are in a gallon? Here's how to figure it out. Draw a gallon man! Very cute!
   
• Lady Hurricane
  Have you been following tropical storm/hurricane Tomas in the Caribbean? I hope that no one experiences destruction by it! This is just a fun song about a woman being like a hurricane.
   
• Piano stairs
  Even if you aren't a piano player, you'll surely enjoy this video. In fact it has nothing to do with playing a real piano. It's real stairs as a piano!
   

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