My favourite Maths Android Apps.

I recently got an android smartphone - I didn't get what I really wanted - an HTC7, or Desire, but went for the cheaper San Francisco from Orange - apparently the same as the ZTE Blade (or so I'm told).

It's camera isn't stunning, and it has a slightly irritating tendency to drop its wireless at the drop of a hat, but it does the job. I can make and recieve calls, and texts, and it can run everything i've downloaded from the Android App market.

Once I got the games I wanted sorted (Angry Birds is maths / physics based - honest) I've started to think about how I can use it as a classroom tool - for me, and how students can use their phones (at home more than at school) to help check their work. As you can tell from the fact that I balked at paying for a better phone, I don't really want to shell out more than I need to, so most of these will be free apps.

Here are a few of my thoughts.

1. Quickmark. A nice straightforward QR reader. Will also create them (All the codes on this page were created with it) and store the history of searches. Nice simple interface, and easy to use. I do realise there is an irony in the adding of a QR code link to a QR reader... I'm still slightly unconvinced about QR Codes, above and beyond gimmick value. I'm going to continue to use them and develop their use in school. Our Head of Transition and I are working on a QR trail for open evening this year, to enrich the whole process. That'll be a seperate blog.
2. Algeo. I've only recently discovered this particular gem. I was trying to demonstrate non linear simultaneous equations, and why they have more than one pair of solutions. Usually I use Autograph or Omnigraph on my laptop and Smart board, but I was not near it. Algeo is a graph plotter - up to three graphs at once, with zoom. It's only y=f(x), so circles etc an issue, but trig graphs work (and it defaults to radians). You can zoom, pan, and even trace. It won't work out intersections, so you'll need to zoom close enough to have a look properly, but it illustrates things nicely, and will help students with double checking their curve sketching.
3. Integration and Differentiation. This really is a student app. It's a self assessment app that puts a few questions on the screen, and students differentiate or integrate them. Click on the question, and it gives the answer. From a quick play it seems to cover a fair bit of the A level maths specs as they currently are.
4. RealCalc. A scientific Calcultaor. Better than the built in calculator, but still not what I really want. It is oldfashioned in that you do "70 sin" instead of "sin 70", and there is no fraction button. I guess what I am after is something more like the casio that most students seem to have these days. If anyone finds one, drop me a line!
5. Solver. Solve's quadratics equations. Does what it says on the tin. Even copes admirably with complex solutions.
6.Triangle Solver. Solves traingles. Put in the three bits of info you know (combinations of sides and angles) and it tells you the other three (and even produces a nice little sketch). Only needs a combination of Sine and Cosine rule, but again, useful for checking answers (for me and them!)
No discussion of maths apps would be complete without a discussion of Wolfram|Alpha. When the iphone app was first produced at an astronomical price tag (£50 rings a bell, but I'm not 100% on that) I couldn't imagine needing it - the mobile web version is still free and simple (ish) to use. Then I bought it in a sale (79p) for my ipod touch. It is brilliant, as you get a much richer keyboard, for symbols integrals etc. The price is currently about £1.20 on android, and so far I've resisted. I suspect its only a matter of time though.

What Apps have I missed. What should I (or my students) not be without to make our mathematical lives simpler?

QR Codes - phase 4.

We had our Year 11 into Year 12 evening last night. An opportunity for year 11 to really find out about the choices they can make going into our sixth form.

It was an opportunity for me too. I've given up on pictures on display boards - I'll leave that to Art, and the other visual subjects. I've taken to using my big wide screen monitor on a shelf, and a flyer. We're always a popular subject - the maths sells itself.

Here's my slide show(I must get more into Prezi - this could look so good in there )...



The QR code just links to our VLE, where there is another copy of the presentation.
As you can see there is a little code in the corner of each page. We also produced a flyer with similar information on it for students to take away with them - this too had the same QR code, and (potentially controversially) the address of my school Twitter Account.


As you can see so far the QR code has had 7 hits - not a landslide response, but on the other hand, it may be 7 people accessing information that would not otherwise have done so.

Whole Staff Algebra

As you may be aware from my twitter feed last week, I rather foolishly vounteered to do some maths with the whole staff today. There was a reason for this. In the past we've done starters as part of sessions that involved cutting and sticking poetry, and dnigbats - more word games. As a department we felt that we should be able to come up with some maths that was accessible to the whole staff.

I got my plan as a result of the most recent subject leader day - a session on algebraic thinking. My cut down version of the NCETM slideshow is above.

What Went Well. Although I only had 5 minutes, the staff engaged quickly. I didn't do much different to I would with a class - just faster! There was some interesting debate, and I could see people asking questions of their neighbours. When I gave my answer (deliberately wrong) of 40, people were confident enough to call me wrong (although interestingly less confident than students are of calling me wrong!). My final challenge slide went down well, and I had an email within a few minutes of finishing speaking (from an AHT's iPhone!).

Even Better If. I'd have liked a little longer. Mainly I'd have liked longer to discuss wrong and right answers, and ways of counting. Obviously with a class I would have!

Outcomes. From discussions with other staff (not just maths) including SLT and other Middle Leaders I think more people may volunteer to run quick sessions on TD days. Our head of Languages has said she may do some Russian or Latin (Gove would be so proud).

Was it worth it. Yes - without a doubt. It raised the idea of Algebraic thinking (as opposed to simply doing algebra) with all staff - maths and all. It was also a different way to do a bit of learning on a TD day.