The BuzzMath Blog

(Middle School > Numbers and Operations > Operations with Rationals > Multiplication and Division> Integers)

Integer multiplication and division are not hard to teach. We can tell our students the rules and for the most part, they can apply those rules. But wait! Do they know why these “magical” rules exist? Is a negative times a negative positive only because some math magician said so?

Just like the title implies, students will get the chance to investigate in Investigating Patterns of Integer Multiplication and Division. By observing, studying, and predicting patterns, they will uncover the secrets of integer multiplication.


And that’s not all. Students get the opportunity to see how inverse operations and fact families connect integer multiplication to integer division rules.

(Numbers and Operations > Operations with Rationals > Addition and Subtraction > Integers)


Once students have mastered the use of a number line to add integers, it’s time to begin working towards meaningful algorithms. I really like how Adding Integers With and Without a Number Line progresses naturally from students’ experience with a number line to generalizing what is happening when they add integers.


The progression from concrete to visualizing happens amongst a nice mix of true/false, input, ordering, and association style questions.

(Numbers and Operations > Operations with Rationals > Addition and Subtraction > Integers)
The interactive number line tool in Adding a Negative and a Positive Integer Using a Number Line is ideal for students’ first experience with adding integers of different signs. As students drag an arrow from an initial location to the final sum, they learn to associate adding a positive value with movement to the right and adding a negative value with movement to the left.

Teachers can use the first few pages of the document as an instructional tool, discussing with students how to use the number line to find the sum.

After a few examples, ask students to predict whether the sum will be positive or negative. Encourage students to share their reasoning with the class. Then test predictions by having a classmate perform the steps on the computer or interactive board as classmates help direct him/her.

A nice follow-up assessment can include students journaling about the process of using a number line to add different signed integers. Challenge students to construct two of their own number sentences, one with a positive sum and one with a negative sum. And just for fun, how about a sum of zero?

We updated BuzzMath.com to Version 1.32 on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010.

What’s New

Three new documents are in town! Bonnie worked hard on these:

• Adding a Negative and a Positive Integer Using a Number Line
• Adding Integers With and Without a Number Line
• Investigating Patterns of Integer Multiplication and Division
  
  

What’s Better

Steve improved the Cartesian Plane with new graphics.


Paulo has put the final nail in MySubscription: families can now modify their parent and child accounts. They can also modify billing and contact information.


Carl’s doing a live chat experiment: we added a quick chat that you can use to contact him if you have BuzzMath questions. He can’t help anybody with homework, but he will be glad to discuss BuzzMath, its content, and any technical questions.


Like clockwork, Mathieu crafted beautiful new problem graphics.

We updated BuzzMath.com to Version 1.31 on Monday, August 2nd, 2010.

What’s New

Parents can now see their past receipts and easily cancel their accounts.

What’s Better

We added a lot of new illustrations. Yahoo!

Victor Rivero from edtech digest did an interview with me on BuzzMath:

See INTERVIEW: Carl Malartre on edtechdigest.wordpress.com.

Cheers,
Carl

We updated BuzzMath.com to version 1.30 on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010.

What’s New

Families can now Pause and Resume their accounts directly in MySubscription.


As requested by some students (mainly girls!), we added a kitten avatar that is available to all student accounts. Kiwi, our cat, appreciates it..

What’s Better

All users can see their timed sessions on a timeline by visiting their Portfolio. Teachers can also view individually timed sessions in the Individual Student Report.


We added new illustrations to some documents.

We updated BuzzMath.com to Version 1.29 on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010.

What’s New

Guillaume and Steve added new features for families. Parents can follow each child’s progress in the Individual Child Report. They can see sessions and results for each document. It is also possible to send motivating messages to their children.

Free Parent accounts can see what a family’s progress page looks like before subscribing. This feature lets you experience our reporting tools with another family’s anonymous data.

What’s Better

JP redesigned the time session graph on the teacher account’s home page to show day, name, and time of day. We think it’s a more meaningful overview of your students.


Mathieu worked on adding better images to documents. My preferred one is the sick cow. When you create an account, your default Avatar is now based on your gender.


Paulo and François made the Family Sales portion cleaner and nicer. We added a big “Sign up your family” button to the home page.

What’s fixed

No more scroll bar bugs on Google Chrome. Resizing the window by the bottom would not work properly before.

We updated BuzzMath.com to Version 1.28 on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010.

What’s New

Our favorite designer JP was surfing in Portugal. Since there was no designer around, there is no new stuff ;-)

What’s Better

• Steve tweaked the ending to documents. The Show Me an Example feature is also sleeker; it will auto-scroll. It’s hard to explain, try it on this document (create a free account to sign in).
  
  
  
• Mathieu worked on adding more images to documents.
  
  
  
• The keyboard navigation has been improved—thanks to Guillaume. Also, free accounts now have a button for quick subscriptions.
  

What’s fixed

• As usual, we fixed small bugs and typos. :-)
  
• Paulo made the Family Sales portion cleaner and nicer.
  

We updated BuzzMath.com to Version 1.27 on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010.

What’s New

Families can now subscribe to BuzzMath! I’m not a father, but I’m excited about this :-)

For $20/month, you can get all your kids on BuzzMath, and you can get them going in under 10 minutes. You can easily pause, resume and cancel your subscription by phone. However, in the next release, you will be able to do it directly on the web.

Pause is nice: if you just need BuzzMath for 2 months in the summer, you can pause your subscription in August and resume next June! Total cost: $40, and the kids are ready for the next school year!

What’s Better

This time it’s not about more beautiful documents; it’s about faster access to documents! What we boringly call the Table of Contents, otherwise called the Content View, is now really fast. Try it yourself!

What’s fixed

Various small bugs.

We updated BuzzMath.com to Version 1.26 on Tuesday, May 18, 2010.

What’s New

• Students can see their progress from their home page. They can see each math strand, the number of stars they have, and the number of possible stars they can accumulate. They can also click on a strand.
  
  

What’s Better

• For the third release in a row, more documents have improved illustrations!
  
  
• When inside a document, students now have access to their “next teacher’s assignment.” It’s now quicker to complete all of your assignment!
  
  

What’s fixed

• Various small bugs.

Over the last two weeks, thirty schools that were introduced to BuzzMath at the NCTM Annual Conference in San Diego have joined us and are fiercely accumulating stars on BuzzMath!

Why are they accumulating stars? To be able to go back in time, help famous mathematicians like Sophie Germain retrieve their lost knowledge and get BuzzCity back to a normal state.

A new mission named Knowledge is the Key is now available in Numbers and Operations. Accumulate 20 stars and teleport yourself to the year 1745 in The City of Light, Paris. There you will meet one of the most famous mathematicians, Sophie Germain, and you can help her find the lost key!

Here’s an excerp:
Come my friend! I’ve just found some notes in this whole mess. It is about a woman, Sophie Germain. I was wondering what she had to do with this story. Well, here it is! Sophie Germain was interested in mathematics at an early age. She taught herself. Can you imagine, she was only thirteen, and the French Revolution was going on.

I’m sending you there right now. This mission is capital. You must bring me back the lost key. This is the key that makes mathematics progress.

We updated BuzzMath.com to Version 1.25 on Wednesday, May 5, 2010.

What’s New

• We added a new Circle Graph document! You can find it in the Data Analysis section.
  

• You now need to accumulate full stars to access the missions! The missions were unlocked before, but now you need to work harder to show Alfred you’re ready to be teleported in time (evil laugh!).
  

What’s Better

• More documents have improved illustrations!
  

• We wanted to improve the way free teacher accounts experience class reporting. These accounts now see real student values instead of a static picture. The data is live and taken from real anonymous BuzzMath classes. This will give you a better representation of BuzzMath’s capability for teachers!
  

• The “Send Feedback” window has been improved greatly! It has more room and now offers a way to classify feedback as an Idea, Missing Content, Other or a Problem.
  

What’s fixed

• The navigation has been improved. If you see anything wrong with the back button, use the Send Feedback button!
  

We are back in Montreal from our trip to the NCTM 2010 Annual Meeting. Thanks to all who came to visit us in San Diego even if the weather was cold and rainy! See Bonnie, Carl, Jean-Philippe, Steve and Tom in this photo post.

We met a lot of teachers and principals who liked BuzzMath and who told us it would be a great addition to their math program. One of the main comments was that the product is visually appealing and the immediate feedback students receive is a plus. NCTM goers especially liked the creative integration of the BuzzCity story and math history into the problem-solving tasks of the BuzzMath Missions.

For the folks who registered for a Free Trial with their classes, we are sending emails today with your account information including details on how to subscribe your classes for free until the end of the school year.