Review of PUMAS website

I was very interested while looking through the PUMAS website.  There are a lot of very interesting examples that can make math interesting and challenging.   There were a wide variety of things, there were puzzles and problems from everyday life.  When ever students can apply something it makes their learning more meaningful. This site does just that.

There were three activites in particular that caught my eye:  Algebra Magic – create your own number puzzles, Dollars or Cents and Geometry to the Rescue a Story in Pictures.

I am going to talk about Geometry to the Rescua a Story in Pictures. I know this is an Algebra course, but next school year I will teach 2 academic sections of Geometry and one practical section (vo-tech).  Time and time again students will ask “when am I ever going to use this”?  Many of the students in my vo-tech class are in some type of building trades and at some time will be doing remodeling.  This is a fantastic real life example of how they will use the geometry I am teaching them.   In geometry a lot of time is spent talking about parallel lines cut by a transveral.  You discuss the different angles that are formed and the relationships they have with each other.  What a great way of demonstrating congruent angles at work in a real life situation.  I will certainly pull this activity up on my smart board when in that section.  This will be good because it shows practical application and will not take up a tremendous amount of time to do so.  If time permitted students could figure out the angles on the floor in the classroom.

The number puzzles are very good.  I have several of my own number puzzles similar to the ones on the site and each year students have fun trying to figure out my “trick”.  Does anyone else use number puzzles from time to time in their class?