Maths+-+making+it+real


 * Maths in real life everyday activities**

A wonderful strategy that can be used for students who are struggling with maths is to relate maths to real life and to everyday activities. [|Consumer Affairs Victoria] has some fantastic resources online which fit the bill. There are lots of fun, interesting and interactive activities which are relevant to maths in everyday life and which teachers will be able to utilise in their classrooms.

Resources are categorised broadly as either primary school or high school resources. There are many great lesson ideas. For example, there are lesson plans relating to budgeting, paying household bills, buying a car, managing credit cards, understanding how loans work and understanding mobile phone contracts. Lots of materials are provided with the lesson plans for teachers to print out and use with their students, and teachers notes are also provided for most resources.

In particular, look out for [|Consumer stuff for kids resource book] and [|Maths resource book for teachers]. You can download sections at a time from the previous link.

To have a general look at the available resources, go to the main [|Consumer Affairs Victoria] website and then navigate to //Resources and education > Teacher resources//.

There are also some great videos which teachers can use to introduce units of work and which support activities provided on the website.

[|Consuming clips] - eight film clips to promote awareness about gambling, loans, cars, mobile phone contracts, the perils of renting, internet fraud, competitions, scams and other pitfalls in a complex consumer world. [|Claymation clips] - six engaging claymation clips that support activities provided on the website. The Wacky Tales characters explore consumer issues, valuing yourself, being resilient and making smart decisions.

Making maths real AND fun-
When thinking of ways to make maths relevant and interesting to students in your classroom. You don’t always have to think of money, apples, goats and such and teach ways that we would use this in everyday life. Sometimes it can be as simple as teaching them factoring by using stars. That’s right, stars. As this video shows it is simple to take anything and show how it relates to your class.

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It is easy to use the theory presented in this clever video in your classes, it can make math seem much more interesting and can turn a math class into an art class, English class, or any class you wish. By adding interesting dynamics to maths you don’t even need to leave the classroom to help students enjoy staying in their seats.

Other whys to change the dynamics of your mathematics classroom are:
Musical maths – easy ways to remember numbers such as Pi can be found in music. If you know how to read and write music, you can write your own math music as a class.

Maths History – many things in history have turned into statistics. Whilst learning about statistics in your class, why not use statistics from a famous battle, a piece of literature, and from any other number based history piece.

In an inclusive classroom you may have many students who disengage from the topic at hand. This may be because they are bored, or it may be because they have an intellectual disability. These fun and different ways of making maths interesting can help to keep your students engaged and learning… and hopefully awake.

Vihart (2010) //Doodling in Math Class: Stars//. Retrieved on the 29th July from http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart#p/u/5/XJtLSLCJKHE