Develops high order thinking skills

Everyday Mathematics is a sophisticated courseware product for middle and high school students that provides them with hundreds of hours of work. The rich multimedia content and high level of interactivity motivates students to engage in the problem-solving process. Since Everyday Mathematics is based on real-life situations, it helps students understand the meaning and implications of the topics learned in school. Students are challenged by problems that place them in situations that are relevant to what they are studying. Everday Mathematics is fully compatible with worldwide curricula.

Ages: 12 and up

Highlights

• Interactive computerized environment
• Basic Arithmetic: operations and calculations with decimals, fractions and percentages
  Estimating answers: estimating values (weights, averages, amounts, volumes, money), rounding numbers
• Units and measurements: length, surface, volume, weight, temperature, speed, conversion to other units or systems of measurement
• Signed Numbers: signs, absolute values, opposite numbers, fractions with different signs, directions on a straight line
• Graphs, Charts and Tables: use of charts, tables and circle, bar and line graphs
• Dealing with data: orderly use of data available to solve a problem (data comes from different sources)
• Ratios and proportions: use of ratios, comparisons between ratios, interpretation of ratios, scales, direct and indirect proportion
• Powers and roots: concepts related to powers and roots and scientific notation
• Lines and angles: segments, diameter, radius, angles of a circle, supplementary and complementary angles, sum of angles in a triangle, parallel and perpendicular lines
• Two dimensional shapes: calculating perimeters, surfaces, triangles, circles, rectangles, parallelograms, trapezoids
• Three dimensional shapes: volume, area, cubes, cylinders, rectangular solids, spheres and cones

Methodology

In order to develop problem-solving strategies and high order thinking skills, students solve the problems by going through different steps:

Step 1. Analyze the problem presented in the form of text and graphic illustration.
Step 2. Interact with the program to find all the information and the relevant data, and use help if necessary.
Step 3. Use equations and formulas in order to find the solution to the problem.
Step 4. Understand and explain the results.
Step 5. Review the process.

After reading the problems students search for the data. They have to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information to be able to solve the problem. Students have access to an electronic text book that helps them understand the mathematical theories and concepts behind the problem. In order to decide the best strategy to solve the problem, students can ask for a small hint or for a full step-by-step guide to get to the solution. Once students have decided on the correct strategy to solve the problem they can select formulas, access conversion tables and use a scientific calculator in order to get to the correct solution. Since feedback is the key to building confidence, students can ask for feedback about the data and formulas selected for the solving process. Once students access their final results they can get feedback about the numbers and units involved in the solution.

Content

The content of Everyday Mathematics is structured into seven different courses. Each course deals with a basic area of the subject. These include Arithmetic, Algebra (pre- and basic), Probability and Statistics, Geometry and Trigonometry. Each course is subdivided into modules, each containing 10 different problems. Each problem has multiple variations through randomly generated data. This presents students with over a thousand mathematical and conceptual problems to solve! Everyday Mathematics includes the tools students need in order to solve each of the problems. The content of Everyday Mathematics is designed to meet the needs of students at different learning levels. As the problems move from simple to more complex situations, the level of difficulty increases from module to module.

A comprehensive Teacher Management System enables teachers to organize their class, adding and deleting students as necessary. It also enables them to build the best possible learning environment for their class. As they receive comprehensive reports regarding the student’s and class progress, they can accurately gauge the particular problem areas of individual students and create tailor-made lessons by assigning specific problems to groups or individuals.