Materials for Teachers

This brand-new section of our website is devoted to lesson plans developed by master teachers for use in the middle school classroom. Like Math Teachers' Circle sessions, these lesson plans focus on problem solving. However, unlike the material in a Math Teachers' Circle meeting, these lessons are classroom ready and even include information about what NCTM standards they touch on to help make it easier to fit them into your curriculum.

If you use any of these lessons in your classroom, please let us know what you think! Also, if you are interested in contributing a lesson plan of your own, please contact us.

• A Trio of Friendly Problems (Mary Fay-Zenk)
  A collection of three related problems that engage students in problem solving while addressing NCTM Algebra Standards for Grades 6-8.
• Entire lesson plan with standards list and worksheets
• Lesson plan only
• Standards list
• Worksheets: All Possible Diagonals, Triangular Numbers
• Additional Resource: Figurate Number Arrays

Materials for Circle Leaders

Handouts and worksheets used specifically for Math Teachers' Circles are marked by . Please keep visiting this page, as it is periodically updated and refined. We welcome your contributions to this list!

General Problem Solving Fractions, Decimals, Ratios, Percents, Proportions (Tatiana Shubin) Introduction to Problem Solving (Joshua Zucker) NEW! Problem-Solving Warmups (Elgin Johnston; TeX files available upon request) Problems to Tease and Teach (Tatiana Shubin) Mathematical Games Mathematical Card Tricks (Tom Davis) NEW! Mathematical Games (Tatiana Shubin) One-Player Games (Joshua Zucker) Combinatorics Catalan Numbers (Tom Davis) NEW! Coins in Twoland (Joshua Zucker) Combinations and Permutations (Tom Davis) Combinatorial Problems (Tom Davis) NEW! Counting (Harold Reiter; TeX files and solutions available upon request) Counting Things (Tom Davis) Derangements (Brian Conrey & Tom Davis) Euler Characteristic & Worksheet (Sam Vandervelde) Exploring Pascal's Triangle (Tom Davis) Game of Criss-Cross & Worksheet (Sam Vandervelde) Graph Theory Problems (Tom Davis) NEW! Handshakes and Graph Theory (Elgin Johnston; TeX files available upon request) Magic, Latin, and Sudoku Squares (Matthias Beck) Polya's Counting Theory (Tom Davis) The Mathematics of Sudoku (Tom Davis) Tilings (Sam Vandervelde) Parking Functions (Matthias Beck) NEW! Probability (Elgin Johnston; TeX files available upon request) NEW! Shuffling, Cycles, and Matrices (Elgin Johnston; TeX files available upon request) NEW! Where Can I Park? (Elgin Johnston; TeX files available upon request) Geometry NEW! Big Box Problems (Harold Reiter; TeX files and solutions available upon request) Classical Geometric Construction (Tom Davis) Curves in Computer Graphics (Tom Davis) Euler's Theorem (Tom Davis) Four Points on a Circle (Tom Davis) Geodesic Domes (Tom Davis) Geometry and Geography (Tom Davis) Homogeneous Coordinates for Computer Graphics (Tom Davis) Introduction to Matrices (Tom Davis) UPDATED!(Mostly) Simple (Mostly Area) Problems with Solutions (Tatiana Shubin) Pick's Theorem (Matthias Beck) Pick's Theorem (Tom Davis) Polyhedral Symmetry (Sam Vandervelde) Practical Calculation of Polygonal Areas (Tom Davis) Projective Geometry (Tom Davis) The Mathematics of Zome (Tom Davis) Number Theory Codes, Ciphers, and Secret Messages (Matthias Beck) Coins, M&M's, and Generating Functions (Matthias Beck) Cryptography (Tom Davis) NEW! Digital Delirium (Harold Reiter; TeX files and solutions available upon request) NEW! More Digital Delirium (Harold Reiter; TeX files and solutions available upon request) Divisibility Tests (Matthias Beck) Introduction to Diophantine Equations (Tom Davis) NEW! Introduction to Finite Systems: Z6 and Z7 (Harold Reiter; TeX files and solutions available upon request) NEW! The Jug Band (Elgin Johnston; TeX files available upon request) NEW! Lockers: An Open-and-Shut Case (Elgin Johnston; TeX files available upon request) NEW! Place Value Problems (Harold Reiter; TeX files and solutions available upon request) Primes, Divisibility, and Modular Arithmetic (Joshua Zucker) RSA Encryption (Tom Davis) Prime Number Card (Paul Zeitz) NEW! Repeating Decimals (Elgin Johnston; TeX files available upon request) NEW! Using the Euclidean Algorithm (Harold Reiter; TeX files and solutions available upon request) Miscellanea Big Numbers (Tom Davis) NEW! Coloring (Tom Davis) Conway's Rational Tangles (Tom Davis) Fractions and Decimals (Tom Davis) Infinity (Tom Davis) Permutation Groups and Rubik's Cube (Tom Davis) Practical Probability (Tom Davis) NEW! Visualization in Algebra (Tom Davis)

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Math Circle Links

• National Association of Math Circles A great resource on Math Circles for Students.
• SIGMAA on Circles Special Interest Group of the MAA on Math Circles for Students and Teachers.

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General Math Resources

• Art of Problem Solving
• Mathworld
• Math Fair Puzzles
• Cut the Knot
• Fun Facts