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An update on resource
development at www.mathsnet.net. Thank you for subscribing. MathsNet is a free
and independent educational website, produced in its entirety by me, and
supported technically by www.AngliaCampus.com.
The password for access
to the puzzle answers is not given here but is included in the emailed
newsletter.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
So, after all the fuss, there are
to be no changes at all to AS/A2 mathematics until September 2004. On the
bright side, my school has finally agreed to allow Year 12 six periods of maths
week (5 hours) instead of the five that all other subjects are
getting.
The TEEM (Teachers
Evaluationg Educational Multimedia) website provides teachers with free access
to independent, classroom-based evaluations of educational multimedia, written
by TEEM-trained classroom teachers. It is supported by the DFES and UCLES (The
University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate) and sponsored by Avantis,
The British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), EMAP, Homerton College,
Promethean and Research Machines. TEEM has
recently completed its review of MathsNet and will be posting it on the website
any day now. The review considers issues of access, content, design and
navigation, Special needs and finally a detailed case study, which includes
description of a Year 8 class (12-13 years old) using the interactive geometry
material. Here are some extracts from the review:
"This site covers
many aspects of the Maths program of study from KS1 to KS4 and into A and AS
Level. There are also areas of interest, puzzles, articles etc that make the
whole site a very useful resource for teachers and pupils. The strongest
feature for me is the use of dynamic geometry to illustrate properties of
geometrical shapes. I found that the site had already developed resources with
software such as Geometer Sketchpad and Cinderella that would have taken me a
lot of time to develop for myself, and it was all there for me to use in an
interactive and visual way.
This website is huge, but has tremendous
possibilities to Maths teachers throughout the age range from KS1 to A Level.
... It supports teaching and given time, can be an invaluable tool to help
teachers deliver lessons interactively and in a way that enhances learning. A
great site that every Maths teacher should visit. "
CURRENT PROJECTS
A few more
exam questions have been added to the
ASA2 materials
The new course on Interactive graphs is now
almost complete. It includes coordinate plotting and patterns, plotting
straight lines, y=mx+c, solving linear equations graphically, quadratics,
cubics, reciprocals, trigonometrical curves, solving quadratic equations
graphically, and transforming curves. In an extra section on other curves,
which takes the topic beyond GCSE and on to advanced level, you can find
rational functions and the conics.
The
Shape section of
Interactive geometry
now includes an interactive glossary of terms and (very recently) a
downloadable Word document (154Kb) that summarises the material. Download this
directly from Shape.doc.
The
Top 10 Links page,
which has a UK Top 10 and International Top 10 maths site chart, has been made
interactive so that in effect you can vote.
The games section of the
Puzzles page has been
extended and now includes Bridges, Checkers, Connect 4, 15 puzzle, Go, Fiver,
TacTix, Guessing game, Mastermind, Reversi, Rubik's cube, Peg, Tower of Hanoi,
Boxes and Pannerotto. These are all Java-based games collected from other sites
and each one has some educational value - I hope!
Still no firm plans to
launch www.mathsnet.com, a commercial venture, yet. At present, that address
will simply refer you on to www.mathsnet.net . |
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