Math OER

Welcome

Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own understanding.

- Kant

Welcome to a fun website stuffed full of resources to help you enjoy math.

The very top menu organizes the resources I use when teaching math classes or leading high school math club explorations. Besides this welcome, it has links to a Zoom room, online whiteboard, online textbook, lecture archives, and an online calculator.

Just below are seven icons that bring you to pages containing vast amounts of wisdom. You can ponder what it means to be a mather, earn achievements, look at a syllabus, read about a dumpload of study skills, browse the classroom library, entertain yourself in playgrounds, or familiarize yourself with LCC resources.

The final seven icons are for seven math topics. The first three topics involve foundational math skills:

We start with the art of shapeshifting: everything we can do that changes a single number.

Then we look at mad science: everything we can do that involves combining numbers together.

Finally we consider justice: doing the same thing to both sides of an equation.

These foundational skills grant fluency with fractions, decimals, percentages, and measurement. But it is much easier to learn (or review) these skills in those three categories with silly names.

Next come four categories of applications:

We describe and inspect data by combining averages, charts, and probability to look at typicality.

Then we look at health decisions made measuring calories, metabolism, and recipes.

Then we consider personal finance decisions with a focus on mortgages and saving for retirement.

We conclude with business decisions and issues of pricing.

Have fun exploring the website! Try clicking on things. Use Ctrl-F to search for text.

OER Details

I like to think of mathematicians as forming a nation of our own without distinctions of geographical origin, race, creed, sex, age or even time...all dedicated to the most beautiful of the arts and sciences.

- Julia Robinson

The acronym OER stands for Open Educational Resources. Different OER materials have different rules for how they may be shared, copied, or modified.

I am slightly protective of my explanations of math concepts. These explanations are written for a specific audience. It is easy for a paraphrase to unknowingly explain math concepts badly. In some places my written explanations unexplicitly take into consideration my accompanying lecture style. For those reasons, I ask that other educators please contact me before modifying my math concept explanations. However, you may share or copy my math concept explanations verbatim as much as you wish if you provide attribution with a mention of this website.

This website uses some public domain images. For example, the this page has images of a heart-shaped library shelf and a Lego minifig.

Everything else (all my diagrams, math problems, study tips, etc.) uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. This means you cannot use my work to earn money, but otherwise you may share, copy, or modify that stuff without asking permission if you provide attribution with a mention of this website.

I am always excited to hear by e-mail how my work is helping other educators!