Danica McKellar, star of The Wonder Yearsand boyhood crush to millions, earned a degree in Math, summa cum laude, at UCLA, and has famously gone on to try to make math (or ’maths’, as we call it in the UK) more approachable for young girls, with books like Math Doesn’t Suck.
Danica is now pushing her new book Kiss My Math which, despite the double-entendre of the title, seems pretty serious about encouraging confidence in ‘pre-algebra’ specificially and math in general amongst girls, and teaching useful mathematical tricks along the way.
Here, Danica talks about the book on the US Today show, demonstrating commutative and distributive properties of numbers, both features of pre-algebra, and both covered extensively in Math-Whizz topics from grade 3 and up.
We’ve tried our best to make math fun, and the likes of Winnie Danica McKellar can only help make math cool!
Which top ten? Football, Table-Tennis, obesity? No, no, and thrice no - TIMSS!
TIMSS is the catchily-titled ‘Trends in International Maths and Science Study’. The study is a quadrennial analysis of maths and science skills in primary and secondary-age children (two groups - 10 and 14yrs).
This is, apparently, the staggering cost of poor maths skills in the UK. Maths and English (as even Dizzee Rascal would tell us) are essential for every-day life and, as we reported in June, will keep you healthy, wealthy, and wise in adulthood. (Actually, we’re not sure about the healthy bit.) This is Money reports on a LearnDirect campaign to improve adult literacy and numeracy with their Spotlight challenge, called ‘Ready When You Are‘.
Ready When You Are, with Johnny and Eamonn
TV’s perma-tanned and velvet-smooth Eamonn Holmes joins forces with the one and only perky Johnny Ball (he of Think of a Number, 1977-1984, and our very own Maths-Whizz promotional animation, 2005). Ready When You Are has Eamonn and Johnny posing English and Maths questions, respectively. The score at the end might help you work out if you qualify for one of LearnDirect’s adult numeracy and literacy courses.
You can take the test, complete with Mastermind-style mood music, online. Whether you come out as a Maths-Whizz, or a Number-Dunce, we’d like to think you can help secure your child’s future financial literacy and general numeracy with our fun maths lessons and comprehensive online tutor!
Via Year 6 Blog, Here’s a little seasonal ditty to help you remember the properties of Isosceles Triangles (sing to the tune of ‘Oh Christmas Tree’, or ‘O, Tannenbaum’):
ISOSCELES, ISOSCELES,
TWO ANGLE HAVE THE SAME DEGREES
ISOSCELES, ISOSCELES,
YOU LOOK JUST LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE
TWO SIDES THE SAME,
THREE VERTICES
TWO ANGLES HAVE
THE SAME DEGREES
ISOSCELES, ISOSCELES,
YOU LOOK JUST LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE!
I can hear it now! But if you’ve forgotten the tune, here’s a clutch of well-scrubbed choristers singing ‘O, Tannenbaum’ to remind you:
