Do you ever find yourself searching the web, trying to locate that ideal math resource? You know, the one that gets students utilizing creative and critical thinking, requires students to use both logic and reasoning, sparks mathematical conversations, offers multiple solutions when solving, and is accessible to all learners? Oh, and wait – it also should be free to utilize. Sounds like a unicorn, right?! Well, look no further! Read on to find 6 resources that do all of these things (Yes, they do exist!).
- Would You Rather…? Math: If you’re looking for ways to engage students in math conversations and how to have students use math to justify their ideas, this is a great resource to use! A great place to start is to check out the User’s Guide, which gives teachers a pathway to begin using this resource.
- Youcubed Math Tasks: This resource is full of inquiry-driven math inspiration. While this link takes you to the math tasks (low-floor high-ceiling activities that are accessible yet challenging for ALL learners), there are so many other ideas and activities to explore.
- TED ED Math Riddle Videos: When I stumbled upon these a few years ago, I couldn’t stop talking about them. To this day, I still share them with as many teachers as I can. The engagement level, the creative problem-solving, and the higher-level thinking skills utilized all help to build a love for math learning. Bonus: check out this list we created of 13 of our favorites, separated by grade level to make the search for the right task a bit easier!
- 3 Act Math: I love the simplicity of these tasks and the problem-solving skills that each requires. I also love how students will go about solving these tasks in a variety of ways, while still being able to arrive at a common solution.
- Esti-Mysteries: If you are looking for a thought leader in the math education world, Steve Wybourney is your person. He happens to be the creator of these estimation tasks and also a ton of other helpful classroom resources. I recommend also checking out his math Splats, subsidizing tasks to help build students’ ability to recognize a set of objects without counting.
- ChatGPT: When we hear this, some of us may squirm out of worry or squeal with delight. And for some, this may be the first time hearing of this newly released platform. Personally, I feel AI can play a beneficial role in education. But as with all things, it is not perfect. I encourage you to check it out and see if it has a place within your learning community.
I hope you find these resources to be helpful and easy to use. If you’d like to see the webinar that highlights each of these, click here. And guess what, the webinar is free as well! Try these resources out with your students and let us know how it goes. Even better? We’d love to see how you put them into action in your classroom!