8-9 Algebraic Thinking - Web sites

• Algebra Flashcards Select whether you want to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, or multiplication and addition problems with these algebra flashcards. The game keeps track of your score and explains the correct answer when you miss a calculation.

• Exploring Pascal's Triangle: Lessons These lessons from the Math Forum web site are divided into elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels. Each level includes a Discovery Lesson to help students find patterns in Pascal's Triangle.

• Illuminations : principles and standards for school mathematics (ENC-016955) Created by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), this site provides online information and activities to support and demonstrate how the new mathematical standards, PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS FOR SCHOOL MATHEMATICS (PSSM), can be applied in the classroom. A section called i-Math features ready to use online interactive mathematical investigations for students; these include teacher notes, discussion questions, and connections to pages of the PSSM. Other sections of the ILLUMINATIONS web site offer video vignettes of classroom activities to promote discussion; Internet resources offering mathematical background information and support for the implementation of the PSSM; lesson plans for each grade band; and a searchable interactive version of the updated NCTM standards.

• Math Forum This site is a center for teachers, students, researchers, parents, educators, and all who have an interest in mathematics education. The Math Forum collects Internet and teacher-initiated mathematics resources and organizes them by subject so that these resources can be readily accessed. A favorite Math Forum feature, Problems of the Week, provide a creative mathematical challenge for students that can be used in the classroom or at home. New problems are offered each week for elementary, middle school, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry and calculus students.

• Math Lessons That Are Fun, Fun, Fun!! This site includes 15 mathematics lessons ranging from math puzzles to algebra and geometry. Sample lessons include Calendar Fun in which students use a simple algebraic formula to determine which four days add up to a given sum. In The Hot Tub, students are asked to interpret data from a graph to tell a story.

• MathStories.com : math for Internet generation (ENC-016887)

  This site offers more than 3,000 math word problems on reproducible ready-to-use worksheets. The goal of this free site is to help students in grades 1 to 8 improve their problem-solving skills with math problems that reflect the analytic thinking skills needed in today's workplace. Math word problems based on the Three Little Pigs, 100th School Day, and St. Patrick's Day are examples of the theme-based worksheets available at this site. The problem pages are sorted by topic and level of difficulty and offer enough room for students to show their work. Answers are included.