Karen Ferrell

Author ~ Speaker

Books

Adventures in Mathopolis
A Series of Mathematical Adventures for Grades 3 through 5
Publisher: Barron’s Educational Series
www.barronseduc.com

Adventures in Mathopolis Lesson Plans

"Estimating and Measuring"
Estimating and measuring become an exercise in fun when you open this humorous, cartoon-illustrated book. The story's cast of characters includes Lostis Marbles, the mayor of Mathopolis, who loves numbers but usually gets them all mixed up. . . his assistant Trusty Dusty, who helps the mayor keep track of his math mix-ups. . . Mongrel Smith, the town's stray dog. . . and two math superheroes, who use different methods to solve problems. The Superheroes are Elexus Estimator, who is quick at estimating volume, height, weight, and the like. . . and Maverick Measurer, who values accuracy above all else when making math calculations. A mysterious character shows up in town, and the problems he brings with him can be solved by applying math principles. The math Superheroes show young readers how. Students will enjoy the funny episodes as they encounter one math word problem after another. Meanwhile, they effortlessly learn to think, calculate, and come up with the right answers.

Click above to see the book's trailer.

"The Great Polygon Caper"
Mayor Lostis Marbles is back again and looking for more help in solving his problems. But now the superhero and problem solver is the fifteen-year-old, skateboard-riding Kent Clark, also know as Edge Master. The villains are the Shiftless gang, led by Shiftless Sheree, a mysterious woman with long, red fingernails, and her brother Ambrose Addemup. In a series of funny, fictional episodes, Edge Master helps the hapless mayor solve problems involving angles, polygons, triangles, quadrilaterals, squares, prisms, and pyramids. He also demonstrates how to calculate the volume of solid objects. Kids will be entertained as they familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of geometry.

Click above to see the book's trailer.

Utilize amazing interactive internet tools to provide students with a visual experience for reinforcing math skills. Includes step-by-step instructions for using popular Web 2.0 and whiteboard compatible sites and website compatible follow up activities for students.

Interactive Manipulatives
* Fraction bars
* Number lines
* Decimals
* Percents
* Base ten blocks
* Picture, bar, line, and pie graphs
* Pattern blocks
* Area
* Perimeter
* Volume
* Surface Area
* Percents
* Geometry
* Online Calculators
* and more…

Painless Technology Integration
Publisher: Visions, Inc. - Technology in Education
www.toolsforteachers.com

Microsoft Excel is the perfect partner for any mathematics curriculum. Computer-phobic teachers will be thrilled with these prepared templates. By following the click-by-click instructions and detailed questioning guide, they can painlessly provide students with a memorable, engaging learning experience on twenty different mathematics topics. Excel generated prompts of “Correct” or “Try Again” make evaluation straightforward and immediate – no complicated rubrics to complete or papers to grade. Applicable to several versions of Microsoft Excel, lessons can be utilized to stimulate group discussions, put on-line as a supplemental tutorial, completed as a group visiting the computer lab, or set up as stations in a classroom. An excellent supplemental guide for classroom teachers and home school programs, this book will also be a valuable resource for computer literacy teachers looking for lessons that compliment the math curriculum.

"Partnering Secondary Math with Microsoft Excel" (Grades 6 -11)

* Area of rectangles, parallelograms, and triangles
* Sine, cosine, and tangent ratios
* Circle sectors and equations of circles

* Greatest common factors and least common multiples
* Signed integers (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division)
* Measures of central tendancy (mean, median, mode, and range)

* Multiplication Arrays
* Division
* Properties
* Place Value
* Decimals

Game Wize
Publisher: Visions, Inc. - Technology in Education
www.toolsforteachers.com

Use Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint to spice up lessons. Bring even the most hesitant learner out of their lazy daze. Invigorate your classroom with a learning-based, competitive enthusiasm that will have students begging to play (and learn) some more. Tailor each game to meet the needs of your unique classroom environment. Play as a whole class activity, or set up stations in the classroom for partner or small group competitions. Modify game components to make it relevant to current topics of study, and create a memorable learning experience for yourself and your students.

"Making K-2 Learning Fun with Microsoft Office"

"GameWize Plus: Making ALL Learning Fun with Microsoft Office"

Super Graphing with Micrsoft Excel and OpenOffice.org Calc
Publisher: Visions, Inc. - Technology in Education
www.toolsforteachers.com

Accelerate the graph creation process!
Use Microsoft Excel’s randbetween function to quickly generate dozens of graphs for class discussion, discovery activities, guided practice, and assessments.

Use as student activities!
Using these easy-to-follow instructions, students can apply and explore math and science concepts by creating their own super graphs.

Excelling with Microsoft Excel
and
Excelling with OpenOffice.org Calc
Publisher: Visions, Inc. - Technology in Education
www.toolsforteachers.com

Lessons contain a teacher’s page, planning page, and step-by-step student instructions. The teacher’s page includes objectives, a quick grade-level appropriate guide, vocabulary utilized in the activity, and the filename of a completed sample lesson. Student planning pages are available for lessons that require pre-computer time student preparation. The easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions are broken down by Microsoft version and limited in most cases to two pages for easy copying and distribution to students.

More than a math tool!
The dice roller board game, scavenger hunt, crossword puzzle, graphs, and more are applicable to multiple curriculum areas.

Spreadsheet can do that!
Use some of a spreadsheet's little-know capabilities to generate number lines, find greatest common factors and least common multiples, convert Arabic numbers to Roman numerals, and more.