Subject: Math
Grades: 4-6
Length: 20 episodes @ 15 minutes (plus 2 additional videos for
teachers/parents)
Distributors: PBS
School record rights: Life of Lease
Website: http://gpn.unl.edu
The series as a whole brings math into the grades 4-6 classroom in ways
that are fun for both the students and the teacher. As hosts of a call-in
math show, Maria Lopez and her parrot field calls from kids and adults
who have math dilemmas.
101 Probability and Statistics: Take a Chance!-Exploring Probability. An unfair carnival game and quiz show about the odds of getting heads or tails when flipping a coin illustrate basic concepts of probability. In a series of classroom activities, your students explore ways to make the games fair and use probability calculations to determine which option is most fair.
102 Probability and Statistics: The Data Game-Using Graphs: several sketches show how charts and graphs help represent data for easy analysis. In activities your students compare various kinds of graphs and consider what kinds of graphs best communicate different types of data.
103 Probability and Statistics: The Perils of Polling-Conducting Surveys: Learn why the accuracy of a poll depends on having a valid survey group. Students take their own polls and consider the impacts of a sample size and bias.
104 Probability and Statistics: Whom Do You Ask? Understanding Surveys: Avoid faulty analysis by knowing how a survey group relates to the larger population. Your students will practice converting percentages to circle graphs and drawing conclusions from statistics.
105 Probability and Statistics: Don't Jump to conclusions-Interpreting Statistics: Analyze carefully to see what statistics really mean. They can be misleading. Activities include interpreting and extending data on human growth, and charting and graphing sports records.
106 Number Sense: Evening Things Out-Understanding Averages: Averages don't tell you everything. Learn how to find an average and explore a variety of approaches to what averages really mean. Engage in extended, multi-step reasoning as they use partial game statistics and averaging concepts to figure out what the scores of each game could be.
107 Number Sense: Factor 'em-Exploring Factors and Multiples: How many packages of buns do you need for those franks you're grilling? It's easy to figure out when you relate numbers through multiplication. A game helps your students become more familiar with the idea of multiples and common multiples of numbers in a context in which strategy is important.
108 Number Sense: Soaring Sequences-Thinking about Large Numbers: Start at a dollar a day and double a waitress' salary each day. She is a billionaire in a month! Large numbers are all around us. Still, there is no largest number. Use various types of graphs as tools for predicting the growth of a sequence.
109 Number Sense: Let me count the ways-counting with combinatories: discover powerful and intriguing ways to count collections of things systematically. Use combinatories, your students identify all of the pizza possibilities at the half-and hour pizza parlor.
110 Number Sense: Both sides of zero-playing with positive and negative numbers: a clumsy athlete, several animations and a computer game powerfully illustrate arithmetic with positive and negative numbers. Work with pyramid puzzles to become more familiar with the addition of positive and negative integers in a context that requires careful reasoning.
111 Measurement: measured step-measuring length: can you help a bumbling innkeeper measure the length of a carpet for a flight of steps? Explore patter-predicting as a mathematically sound shortcut to measurement.
112 Scoping out the area-measuring area: how do you measure the area of an odd-shaped lawn? Activities let your students practice finding the area of an odd shape by breaking it up into simpler figures.
113 All shapes and Sizes-measuring perimeter and area: Your students deepen their understanding of geometry as they explore how changes in the lengths and widths of rectangles affect their areas and shapes.
114 Sizing things up-scale and ratio: maps and models are small objects that can represent large object, when you understand how to use a scale. Mapping your classroom will help your student build connections between reality and symbolic representation.
115 Close enough-estimating: all measurement is approximate. You need different levels of accuracy depending on the situation, so choose the right tool. Your students explore estimating in "arms on" activities.
116 Geometry: flip and fold-seeing symmetry: symmetry is a fundamental attribute of shapes. Even a shape suffering the dreaded "asymmetriosis" can be made symmetrical. Students explore and test their own ideas about symmetry by designing shapes and rearranging them on a grid.
117 Two Sides Are Longer Than One - Making Triangles-Explore practical uses of the basic concept that any two sides of a triangle together must be longer than the third. Your students will enhance their problem-solving ability in calculating the best delivery routes.
118 Getting into Shapes-playing with polygons: various characters discover that polygons are part of other shapes everywhere. Activities challenge your students to visualize how two-dim shape can be created from a three-dim one.
119 Shape by the number-building rectangles: try building a square box for 101 candies or a rectangular window with 17 panes, you will discover there is a relationship between arithmetic and geometry. Explore the idea of expressing numbers as the sums of square numbers.
120 What shape is your number-finding number patters in squares and triangles: having a good sense of the shapes of numbers and how they fit together helps in counting and arranging. Using patterns, explore how to shake the most hands in the least amount of time.
121 Math Talk for Teachers-An Introduction122 Math Talk for families-Measuring and Geometry