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Creativity and the Common Core #3: It Doesn’t Tell You What Students Should...
For the last few weeks I’ve been writing about teaching for creativity and the Common Core State Standards. The Common Core State Standards Initiative outlines core math and language arts content to be...
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Creative Blogging: The Safe Way
Class blogs can be a fabulous way to motivate students to write and to provide families with insight into your class. Sites like Edublogs and Kidblog make it easy to get started. But if students are to...
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Powerful Numbers, Beautiful Numbers
It is easy to mistake adding and subtracting for math. Or (oh, the horror of it!) long division. So many of us have spent long hours as students, or maybe even as teachers, drilling the basics of...
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Delicious Numbers
It is nearly Thanksgiving time in Michigan, and so, of course, all thoughts turn to feasting. All across the United States people are contemplating turkey, stuffing, pie and—delicious numbers?...
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Math in the News
Math in the News is exactly what it sounds like—a website, with related weekly newsletter—that uses math to explore issues in the news. Produced by Media4Math, Math in the News activities range from...
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Two Great Questions: Math Style
Sometimes it can be easy to think, “Creativity is fine for art class or writing, but not math. Creativity in math is for Einstein, not middle school.” If you’ve ever been tempted to think such...
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Hey Jude Goes Logical: A Creative Take on Decision Rules
Yes, I’m a long-term Beatles fan. I was a young girl when they first appeared on the old Ed Sullivan Show. Who could resist, really? But now I have a new reason to love the classic song, “Hey Jude”:...
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I’ve Got A Meme for That: Math Style
There is a meme for about everything today. Regardless of your social network of choice, sometimes-amusing graphics are everywhere. Why not use them to teach math? The font of all things meme,...
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Finding the Questions in Math: Creative Questions with Dan Meyer
Dan Meyer says he spends his days trying to sell a product to a market that doesn’t want it but is forced by law to buy it—he teaches high school math. He believes math class needs a makeover, and is...
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What if? Physics Style
The cartoon blog xkcd.com calls itself “webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” The comics range from mathematical romance: to more explicitly math/physics related topics. The author...
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Zombie Science, Zombie Math
Here’s an example of interdisciplinary teaching that will be very good for students’ BRAINS! (Yes, that really was a zombie reference.) STEM Behind Hollywood brings together science, math, and film...
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How Many Blood Cells Fill a Mosquito?
How many pigeons would you have to stack in order to reach the top of the Statue of Liberty? How long would it take a car to drive to the moon—at 65 miles per hour? The answers to these and other...
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Have Instruments, Will Question
How many creative young people (and maybe not so young people) like to tinker with “stuff?” I have it on good authority that some of my scientifically oriented friends ended up in their fields because...
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Fractal Creativity
It is winter in Michigan, and as I’m writing the snow is accumulating on the ground and covering the tree branches outside my window. So naturally, my thoughts turn to–fractals. Or, more specifically,...
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All Things STEAM: Science in the Library
I was tempted to title this post, “It’s Not Your Mother’s Library,” because the wonderful learning environment described in Amy Koester’s “All Things STEAM” is a long way from the rigidly silent...
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It’s Bedtime–Time for Math
It’s bedtime. Just envision yourself snuggling with children you love and a good book. Can’t you picture them begging, “Please, please, just one more…..math problem!” I will admit, I’ve never thought...
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Creative Labeling
Creativity and problem solving can be found in the most unexpected places. Have you ever looked at the nutrition labels on cereal or ketchup and thought about their design? I hadn’t, until I listed to...
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How Do We Measure Winter?
It has been quite a winter in Michigan, and across the central and eastern United States. Newscasters are having fun describing the many ways in which this winter has been exceptional. This, of course,...
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Multicultural Math: Seeing the Math Around Us
One of the roots of creativity is the ability to look at the world in new ways. This may be one of the reasons that experiences in different cultures seem to be tied to greater creativity. A wonderful...
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What do you want to know about….just about anything you can count?
Ever wish for a personal assistant who could instantly answer your questions about just about anything? Enter Wolfram Alpha. Wolfram Alpha is a computational knowledge engine that uses a vast...
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