Here are a few selections for students from the
Recreations category of the Resource
Types area of the Forum Internet Mathematics
Library, where you'll find more complete, annotated lists.
Internet Mathematics Library:
- Adventure Online - Learning Outfitters
- Interdisciplinary curricula that use the Web to connect students to expeditions from around the world, creating motivating, real-time materials for K-12 classrooms. Thematic content includes traditional and online lessons, games, quizzes, research stations, expedition data, journal updates, maps, pictures, and more. Requires single classroom or site licensing; trial memberships available.
- The Car Talk Puzzler
- This page of Car Talk's site presents a weekly puzzle, with links to archives of past puzzles starting in 1996, names of winners, and text or audio versions you can listen to.
- Constructor - Soda
- Constructor animates and edits two-dimensional models made out of masses and springs. The springs can be controlled by a wave to make pulsing muscles, and you can construct models that bounce, roll, walk, etc. Try some of the ready-made models or build your own.
- Glossary of Mathematical Mistakes - Paul Cox
- Paul Cox's list of common mathematical mistakes committed by advertisers, the media, reporters, politicians, activists, and others. Cox analyzes everything from circular reasoning, graph errors, and spurious use of the law of averages to "factorectomy," gestalt geometry, and the "Kevin Bacon" game (six degrees of separation). Cox also accepts and discusses examples submitted by readers, which include the Monty Hall problem and Zohnerism (named for the student who petitioned to ban dihydrogen monoxide).
- Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles - Alexander Bogomolny
- Games and puzzles, quotes, and much more on a variety of topics from arithmetic and algebra to geometry and probability, with solutions and the mathematical theory behind each puzzle. Also the CTK Exchange (a small discussion group for questions and answers about math problems); the Eye Opener Series (Java applets that illustrate and help solve or prove math problems); a math bookstore; a glossary; and a monthly interactive column using Java applets for MAA Online.
- The JASON Project
- A year-round scientific expedition designed to excite and engage students in science and technology, and to motivate and provide professional development for teachers. The project mounts a two-week scientific expedition each year. The team conducts research on location, and while doing so, makes live, interactive broadcasts to participants. The project's internet component allows teachers and students to exchange their experiences, data, and ideas with each other and with the research team; they may also hold live web chats with the team, and view photos and journals the team has posted.
- Mathematrix - Lee Stemkoski
- A site devoted to exploring mathematical recreations, some of the more entertaining and generally lesser-known areas of mathematics, from a Mathematics and Computer Science major at Boston University. Topics include: Polyominoes, Soma Cube, Rubik's Cube, Tangrams, Flexagons, Mobius Strip, Nontransitive Dice, Conway's Game of Life, Juggling, Bubbles, Humor and Comics, Poetry, Fractals, Mathematical Art, Quotations, Platonic Solids, Happy Equations, Higher Dimensions, Fundamental Theorems, and Important Constants. Includes a random math quote of the day.
- Math in the Movies - Arnold G. Reinhold
- A guide to those motion pictures which include scenes of real mathematics. Each movie is linked to further information and rated, and the mathematical scene(s) involved are described.
- Optical Illusions - SandlotScience
- Interactive explorations of optical effects, illusions, distortions, animations, artwork, stories, PDF projects, games, and more. Impossible objects include columns, an endless staircase and animated stairs, Java triangle models, an interlaced tri-bar, an impossible hexnut, and others. Distortion illusions include Java breathing objects, a cafe wall, Fraze's Spiral, Poggendorf's Illusion, a twisted cord, and more. Also contrast and color illusions, ambiguous typography, games and puzzles, ambiguous figures, after-effects, camouflage, moiré patterns, and "giants of illusions" (Jerry Andrus, M. C. Escher, Sandro del Prete).
- Topology and Geometry Software: Fun and Games - Jeff Weeks
- Torus and Klein Bottle games, Kali (draw symmetrical patterns based on any of the 17 tiling groups), and KaleidoTile.
- To see all recreational high school sites, simply press the SEARCH button.
Looking for something specific? Type in a keyword and press the SEARCH button.
Museums and Field
Here are a few field trips that might interest you if you like math.
There are much longer lists of sites with descriptions in the
Field Trips categories
in the Resource Types area of the Forum Internet Mathematics Library.
- The Exploratorium
- Home page of San Francisco's museum of science, art and human perception.
Online exhibits, cool sites, archives, sport and science, and the digital library (the Exploratorium A-to-Z).
- Franklin Institute Science Museum
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- The online entry point for the Philadelphia science museum, featuring in-depth multimedia virtual exhibits and explorations, resources for teachers, and guides to the real-life museum and its programs.
- Symmetry and Pattern: The Art of Oriental Carpets
- In this online exhibit, the study of symmetry is used to analyze patterns in Oriental carpets. A joint venture of The Textile Museum and the Math Forum.
- Smithsonian Institution
- An independent trust instrumentality of the United States holding some 140 million artifacts and specimens in its trust for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge," and a center for research dedicated to public education, national service, and scholarship in the arts, sciences, and history.
- UC Museum of Paleontology - University of California at Berkeley
- On-line exhibits, education and outreach programs, catalogs and collections, and links to other science and museum sites. Paleontology incorporates many different kinds of data from different fields. Search for type specimen data from the museum's Catalogs and Collections, examine the collection holdings, or look at similar resources at other institutions.