Teaching Materials for Mathematical, QR and Statistical Skills

There are a wide array of resources on the Internet for strengthening fundamental quantitative, mathematical, statistical and computer skills. A sampling of several of them is included below broken down into five sections including:

Number Sense

Mathematical Skills

Software Tools (Primarily Spreadsheets) and Technology for Teaching Math and QR

Quantitative and Statistical Skills

Other Existing Inventories of Resources

It is also worth noting that for many of the topics listed below (e.g., software skills such as Excel), there are tutorials available on Youtube, many of which are very useful.

Abott and Costello Video


Number Sense

Math Cats

Fun math for kids (and adults, too!). This web site has a lot of interactive exercises (e.g., how many seconds have you been alive?) as well as ideas for teaching mathematics and quantitative literacy. For example, there is a link on math and children's literature. An essay contest page also features some interesting examples for writing about numbers.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Information on Number Sense

An informational web page for developing a child's number sense.

Mathematical Skills

Algebra Lab

The Algebra Lab is "an online learning environment that focuses on topics and skills from high school mathematics that students must be able to draw upon in their introductory science courses." Click on activities for a collection of topics for which hands-on activities have been written.

Australian Math Resources

This website offers a variety of helpful math resources ranging from calculators (giant, temperature conversion), to math flash cards and interactive textbooks.

Analyze Math

Free mathematics tutorials, problems and worksheets (with applets).

BBC Skillswise

Practice for mathematical (and English!) skills for adults. The website also includes a collection of math games.

Census Reporter

A user-friendly website for analyzing data from the American Community Survey and the U.S. Census.

Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications

COMAP is "an award-winning non-profit organization whose mission is to improve mathematics education for students of all ages."

Cool Math

Lessons and games for mathematics education.

Cool Math Games

Free online math games, cool puzzles, and more.

Everyday Math

Units for a variety of fundamental mathematics skills including decimals, estimation, ratios, proportions, rates, and many more.

Factoring Calculator

The emath website features a factoring calculator, which factors any expression and shows the step-by-step process.

Fermi Questions

A library of Fermi questions (with annotated solutions). There are many other web sites with Fermi questions.

Khan Academy

A library of over 3,200 educational videos on a variety of topics including mathematics, science, economics and finances, humanities, and test preparation.

Math Is Fun

This web site reviews a variety of fundamental mathematical and quantitative skills (e.g., numbers, algebra, geometry, data [including using and handling data, probability and statistics, and graphing]).

Math Games and Calculators for Kids

A collection of online math calculators and free games.

Math League

Check out the Mathematics Help Reference for resources on a variety of fundamental mathematical skills (e.g., decimals, factions, ratios and proportions, etc.).

Math Mistakes

"Real mistakes from real student work and math facts students should know."

Math Words

Math Words is "an interactive math dictionary with enough math words, math terms, math formulas, pictures, diagrams, tables, and examples to satisfy your inner math geek."

Mathway

An online calculator that solves math problems and also has example problems.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

NCTM's Core Math Tools "is a downloadable suite of interactive software tools for algebra and functions, geometry and trigonometry, and statistics and probability."

Online Math Learning

An online math web site that covers a variety of topics including arithmetic, algebra, geometry, math word problems, trigonometry, statistics, probability, precalculus, calculus, set theory, matrices, and vectors.

Oracle ThinkQuest

ThinkQuest includes more than 200 mathematics web sites created by students who have participated in a ThinkQuest competition. Users can search by topic (e.g., algebra, arithmetic, calculus, chaos theory, fractals, geometry, puzzles, statistics, trigonometry, etc.).

PhET

These are "fun, interactive research-based simulations of physical phenomena PhETâ„¢ project at the University of Colorado." In particular, check out the math exercises, many of which are particularly relevant to QR.

Professional Development to Improve Mathematics Instruction

A web site dedicated to improving students' learning of mathematics by providing professional development services, products and resources to educators.

Project Quantum Leap

A collection of resources put forward by the Department of Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science at LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY) for teaching basic mathematical skills using a contextualized approach.

Purple Math

Web site which offers free online tutoring and lessons.

Reality Math

This website features "individual units embedding upper-level arithmetic into a variety of subject areas. Every unit is real application of mathematics in which student develop quantitative reasoning skills and learn more about the reality of the context."

Skills Workshop

Numeracy skills covering a variety of levels and topics (e.g., whole numbers, decimals, rounding, probability, and much more).

Socratic

Socratic is a free learning website where students can watch videos and ask questions in math, and a community of experts works together to answer their questions with helpful answers. It is helpful for homework or to collaborate with others to practice math skills.

Shodor's Interactivate

The goals of Interactivate are "the creation, collection, evaluation and dissemination of interactive Java-based courseware for exploration in science and mathematics. Check their tools for resources on a variety of mathematical topics (e.g., numbers and operations, geometry, algebra, probability, statistics, modeling, discrete, trigonometry, calculus, etc.).

S.O.S. Math

S.O.S. Math is a "free resource for math review from Algebra to Differential Equations."

University of Illinois Office for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education

A large collection of resources (including interactive units and lessons) on mathematics topics including Numbers and Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Data Analysis and Probability, Problem Solving, Reasoning and Proof, Communication, Connections, and Representation.

Visual Math Learning

A web site that focuses on understanding mathematics through insight, concept, and perception.

Web Math

A web site that includes resources for math for everyone; general math; k-8 math; algebra; plots and geometry; calculus, etc.

What If Math

A problem-solving math curriculum using spreadsheets.

Software Tools (Primarily Spreadsheets) and Technology for Teaching Math and QR

CAUSEweb

An introduction to Minitab tutorial.

Google Fusion Tables

Fusion Tables is an experimental data visualization web application to gather, visualize, and share data tables.

Spreadsheet Software (including Excel and Google Spreadsheets)

There are numerous tutorials available online and a small sampling is indicated below:

Atrix Marketing Tutorial on Google Spreadsheets

A collection of tutorials on Excel

The "Excel is fun" channel on youtube is dedicated to Excel education.

How to Make Math Learning Fun with Microsoft Office

This website provides links to Microsoft Office pre-designed templates that can be used for quick preparation of engaging math aids.

Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum

A project (Len Vacher, PI) to develop and test educational spreadsheet modules that enhance quantitative literacy.

Tools to Aid Quantitative Teaching and Learning

Web site offers tutorials on a variety of software programs including Mathematica, spreadsheets, Stella, and Matlab.

Quantitative and Statistical Skills

Against All Odds: Inside Statistics

A video instructional series on statistics for college and high school classrooms and adult teachers.

Australasian Data and Story Library

OzDASL "is a library of data sets and associated stories. It is intended as a resource for teachers of statistics in Australia and New Zealand and elsewhere. Emphasis is given to data sets with an Australasian context, although interesting data sets from anywhere in the world are included."

Carnegie Mellon University Open Learning Initiative

This is a collection of online and open access courses that are freely available. Check out the course on "Statistical Reasoning" for units on a variety of key topics (i.e., exploratory data analysis, producing data, probability and inference).

Chance

A collection of resources for a quantitative literacy course designed "to make students more informed, critical readers of current news stories that use probability and statistics."

Histogram Applet

This applet, which draws on the Old Faithful data set, is designed to teach students how bin widths (or the number of bins) affect a histogram.

Journal of Statistics Education Archive of Interactive Computing

A collection of JAVA Applets including the Central Limit Theorem, Confidence Intervals, Histograms, Power, and Regression.

Math Demos with Positive Impact

Math Demos with a Positive Impact is a "project to connect mathematics professors with effective teaching tools. As instructors we use a variety of techniques to try to get important ideas across to students. This project focuses on demonstrations that use some form of instructional technology." See, for example, the plinko board demonstration.

Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub

The Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub notes that "Data science is more important than ever in today's digital world and has applications in all disciplines. The resources [at the hub] can help you whether you are building a new data science program at your school, running a lab and looking for datasets, or just interested in how you can incorporate data science topics in your classroom."

Lecture and Lab Things (David C. Howell)

This web page includes a "number of examples, demonstrations, and exercises that can be used to motivate a lecture, demonstrate an important point, or create a laboratory exercise for students." The materials cover a wide range of statistical topics (e.g., descriptives, normal distribution, probability, etc.).

Online Courses: Primer in Statistics, Advanced Statistics

A fee-based course, though free trials are available.

Practical Analysis of Nutritional Data (P.A.N.D.A)

P.A.N.D.A is an online textbook that analyzes nutritional data.

Quantitative Environmental Learning Project

The Quantitative Environmental Learning Project provides numerous data sets and covers a variety of math/statistical topics (e.g., linear scatterplots, exponential scatterplots, power scatterplots, etc.) as well as environmental topics (e.g., planet earth, ecology, populations, agriculture, etc.).

Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics

This lab offers simulations on a wide variety of topics, e.g., measures of central tendency, correlation, binomial distributions, sampling distributions, etc.

Robert Niles' Statistics Every Writer Should Know

A simple guide to understanding statistics for journalists and other writers.

Statistics Applets (by Kady Schneiter)

A large collection of statistics applets on a variety of topics (e.g., mean, median, deviations, correlation, etc.).

Statistical Literacy Tools (by Milo Schield)

A collection of resources for teaching a variety of fundamental statistical and QR skills (including chance demonstrations, surveys, standardizing, grammar drills, and part-whole drills).

SticiGui

Philip B. Stark's online statistics course with graphical data analysis and visualization tools throughout the text.

Susan Holmes' Probability by Surprise Web Site

A variety of applets for experimental paradoxes and visualizing probabilities.

TechGuide

TechGuide "provides actionable information to help readers make data-driven decisions on the best tech-related educational and career opportunities."

Tools for Teaching and Assessing Statistical Inference

This is an NSF-funded project "to develop and disseminate materials that help students learn core concepts underlying statistical inference." It includes "instructional modules that use simulation software to help students develop abstract concepts such as sampling distribution, confidence intervals, p-values, and power."

University of Leicester Introduction to Statistical Analyses

An online statistical guide from the biology department at the University of Leicester.

Virtual Laboratories in Probability and Statistics

A web site based at the University of Alabama Huntington that provides "free, high quality, interactive, web-based resources for students and teachers of probability and statistics." The project "consists of an integrated set of components that includes expository text, applets, data sets, biographical sketches, and an object library."

Web Interface for Statistics Education (WISE)

A collection of freely available resources for students and teachers of statistics. Web site includes tutorials, Applets, Excel downloads, teaching papers, quick guides, and publications.

Other Existing Inventories of Resources

Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE)

The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education is a national organization whose mission is to support and advance undergraduate statistics education in four target areas including resources, professional development, outreach, and research.

Lawrence University's collection of web resources for Quantitative Reasoning Across the Curriculum

An inventory of resources of teaching quantitative reasoning skills.

Mathematics Study Help

A collection of resources for mathematics instruction based at Brooklyn College.