Creative Activities in Mathematics Book Three provides nine different class activities suitable for students in lower and middle secondary school (Years 7 to 10), along with teaching notes and staged lesson plans.
About the authors
Derek Holton is a mathematician and an Honorary Professor at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.
Charles Lovitt has directed several Australian national and state mathematics projects and is now a consultant and workshop presenter
Student materials
Download a full set of activity sheets that provide a framework for student responses. These can be printed or copied for use in class. This set also includes a number of extension activities for advanced students.
Additional online resources
Part 1: Number and Algebra
Chapter 2: The Tower of Hanoi
- Francois Édouard Lucas - http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Lucas.html
- Tower of Hanoi simulation - http://www.towerofhanoi.org/
- Tower of Hanoi simulation - http://britton.disted.camosun....
- Tower of Hanoi simulation - http://www.mazeworks.com/hanoi...
- Scientific calculator - http://web2.0calc.com/
Chapter 3: Nim-like games
- The 21 game - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nim#The_21_game
- Nim history - http://www.archimedes-lab.org/game_nim/nim.html
- Nim - strategy game or scam? - http://h2g2.com/approved_entry/A20725760
- Win at Nim - http://www.archimedes-lab.org/How_to_Solve/Win_at_Nim.html
Part 2: Measurement and Geometry
Chapter 4: Hidden treasure
- The Story of Mathematics - http://www.storyofmathematics.com/
- Euclid - http://www.storyofmathematics.com/hellenistic_euclid.html
- GeoGebra - http://www.geogebra.org/cms/do...
- Compass and straight-edge constructions - http://schools-wikipedia.org/w...
- Circumcentre of a triangle - http://www.mathopenref.com/constcircumcenter.html
- Hexagons - http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Hexagon.html
Chapter 5: Tessellations
- Attack on the pentagon results in discovery of new mathematical tile - http://gu.com/p/4b9b3/sbl
- Penrose Tiles - http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PenroseTiles.html
- Polyominoes: A big word for a lot of fun - http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/L...
- Polyominoes and other animals - https://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/polyomino.html
- Pentominoes: An introduction - http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk...
- About pentominoes - http://isomerdesign.com/Pentomino/
- Tetraominoes - http://www.cut-the-knot.org/blue/TetrominoFaultFree.shtml
Chapter 6: How high is a building?
- Basic clinometer from classroom materials - http://www.instructables.com/id/Basic-Clinometer-From-Classroom-Materials/
- Make a clinometer - http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Clinometer
- How to make a clinometer (video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMLcU1Qknts
- Basic rangefinders - https://people.rit.edu/andpph/text-rangefinder-basic.html
- Make a simple rangefinder - http://www.ehow.com/how_7857303_make-simple-rangefinder-mirrors.html
Part 3: Statistics and Probability
Chapter 7: Greedy Pig
- Greedy Pig - http://nzmaths.co.nz/resource/greedy-pig-0
- Greedy Pig - http://nrich.maths.org/1258
- Game of Pig: Sixes - http://www.math.usu.edu/~schneit/CTIS/GreedyPig/
- Dice roller - http://www.roll-dice-online.co...
- Dice roller - http://www.brockjones.com/dieroller/dice.htm
- Virtual dice - http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custo...
Chapter 8: Pascal's triangle
- Pascal's triangle - http://www.mathsisfun.com/pascals-triangle.html
- The hockey stick theorem - http://luckytoilet.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/the-hockey-stick-theorem-an-animated-proof/
- Pascal's triangle and its patterns - http://ptri1.tripod.com/
- Pascal's triangle (video)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUqHdxxdbyM
- Linking newspaper rings, Pascal's colours and poetry of math - http://mathmunch.org/tag/pascals-triangle/
Chapter 9: Monty Hall's problem
- Monty Hall's problem - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem
- Monty Hall's problem simulation - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/science/08monty.html?_r=0#
- Monty Hall's problem simulation - http://www.stayorswitch.com/
- Monty Hall's problem simulation - http://blossoms.mit.edu/legacy/monty-hall/index.htm
- Monty Hall's problem (video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTosh1aZ5fs
- Monty Hall's problem (video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhlc7peGlGg
- Bertrand's box paradox - http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/june72013/index.html
- Bertrand's box paradox - http://blog.zymergi.com/2013/06/bertrands-box-paradox.html
- Two envelopes problem - https://www.math.hmc.edu/funfa...
- Two envelopes problem - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_envelopes_problem
- Two envelopes problem (video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Odh-7Cz1d8
- Sleeping Beauty problem - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem
- Sleeping Beauty problem - http://measureofdoubt.com/2011...
- Sleeping Beauty problem - http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/41208/the-sleeping-beauty-paradox
- Sleeping Beauty problem (video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cqbf86jTro
- Sleeping Beauty problem (video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL52lG6aNIY
- Three prisoners problem - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Prisoners_problem
- Monty Hall and three prisoners - http://www.mathrecreation.com/2009/03/monty-hall-and-three-prisoners.html
- Classic probability problems - http://probabilityblogger.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/classic-probability-problems-revisited.html
- The birthday paradox - http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/
- The birthday paradox - https://www.mathsisfun.com/data/probability-shared-birthday.html
- Boy or girl paradox - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_or_Girl_paradox
Additional sites
- Maths 300 - http://www.maths300.esa.edu.au...
- NRICH - http://nrich.maths.org/
- NZ Maths - http://nzmaths.co.nz/
- AMSI TIMES (The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools) Modules - http://schools.amsi.org.au/times-modules/