Saturday, August 15, 2009

Expanding Your Algebra Knowledge



Welcome to the wonderful expanding world of Algebra.

Yep, we're talking Distributive Law, Binomials, Polynomials, Perfect Squares, and all that sort of fun stuff.

If you would like to see the above "wall" full size, then click the link below:

Click to open the Wall full size in a new window.

This wall has been set up for the maths students at my school to have 24x7 online help for the current Algebra Unit we are doing. If you would like to know how to set up one of these colossal and colorful walls, then click the following link:

Click here to view a PDF on how to use Wall Wisher.

Here is a PowerPoint presentation that has been converted into a Flash slideshow using Open Office Org. Click on the current slide to advance forward.



I plan on printing some of the slides in color, and then doubling their size from A4 up to A3 with a color photocopier.

From previous efforts I have found that PowerPoint leaves a lot of empty white space around the edges of the slides.

So what has to be done is to color print them onto A4 paper, then cut off the wasted white space around the edges of each sheet. We then color photocopy enlarge them by a factor of 175%, onto A3 paper.

I then laminate these A3 printouts, and use them as wall posters in my Maths classroom.

I call them "stick ups" because they are summary notes that can be stuck up onto the wall in any room I am teaching in. Plus I get to crack the repeated dumb joke to the class of "Hey guess what, it's a stick up!"

If you would like to download a copy of the unanimated PowerPoint, (In MS-2003 format) then click the link below:

View "Distributive Law" Presentation as an MS 2003 PPT

Here is another PowerPoint of "stick ups" I made for Binomial Expansions.
Click on the current slide to advance forward.



If you would like to download a copy of the unanimated PowerPoint, (In MS-2003 format) then click the link below:

View "Binomials" Presentation as an MS 2003 PPT

Finally, here is a really good video made by "Yaymath.org" about expanding Binomials using the distributive law as the "FOIL" rule.

The presenter does a really great job. I have shown the video in my Algebra classes and it has been well received. A number of my students are now regular users of "Yay Math".




The Yaymath website is 100% free and is an awesome effort by a guy called Robert Ahdoot who is a high school Math teacher in the USA.

I highly recommend you visit his site at: http://yaymath.org because it has lots of really great material on it for Algebra.

And to finish up, here is the most bizarre maths video I have seen on YouTube to date. It is so different, it is kind of good. :) See what you think.



Well that's about all I need to distribute to you for this post.

Enjoy,
Big (Passy Wasabi)

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