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Sample Size Calculator

This Sample Size Calculator is helpful for estimating how many people you need to interview in order to get results that reflect the target population as precisely as needed. You can also find the level of precision you have in an existing sample.

To use the sample size calculator, there are two terms for which you need  a basic understanding:  confidence interval and confidence level.  Links are provided at this site to help with these terms.

The Number Race 

The Number Race is an open source program intended to help students who have dyscalculia develop their number sense. It has many levels of difficulty, and runs in Java, which means it should run on a wide variety of computers.

Handout with 25 ‘math magic tricks’

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Mathematics Visualization Toolkit

The Mathematics Visualization Toolkit is exactly that, a program which lets you visualize mathematics. You can use it to build complex visualizations, or you can use the visualizations which are already included (which are awesome by themselves). You can either use the web start version of the toolkit, or download an offline installer.

Scratch

Scratch is an excellent program for learning programming but also mathematics like variables, sequences, Cartesian coordinates, and other useful mathematical concepts. Developed at MIT, it is a free download and includes a strong user community to seek help, and see what else can be done with the program.

Wolfram Alpha 

Wolfram Alpha is a computational engine built on top of the Mathematica architecture. It is amazingly powerful, and turns some homework assignments into a breeze. (i.e. some assignments might require changing)

Google Sketchup 

Google Sketchup (another free, but proprietary program) that allows students to create highly complex (or very simple, if they prefer) models. example:  have students construct their “ideal” school, and then from this model, calculate the cost to build their school.

Endlos 

Endlos is an open source fractal generator which runs very fast. It runs in Java, so it should run on any computer capable of supporting Java. The ability to experiment with, and explore fractals is a very interesting thing for students to do, but can be very tedious to do by hand…

Yacas

Yacas  (Yet Another Computer Algebra System) is a command line program which allows for the symbolic manipulation and calculation of mathematical expressions. It calculated 6000! in a fraction of a second, so it is very fast ( an aside, ever wondered what 6000! factorial is? )