Copyright © 1999 The Seattle Times Company

Tech News : Sunday, August 29, 1999
Web site review - Mathstories.com
by Ivan Weiss
Seattle Times copy editor

***

Mathstories.com
Ashok Bansal
http://www.mathstories.com

 

It's back-to-school time. Parents and teachers will be looking for
new ways to stimulate their children's thirst for learning, and this
Web site delivers the goods with no frills, bells or whistles.

Mathstories.com has word problems for math - thousands of
them - with new ones posted every day.

 Sooner or later, there's sure to be some context your child can relate to.
 Each page is a different "lesson sheet," graded by difficulty and by
type. The problems range from simple addition for first-graders
("There are 4 ladybugs in Molly's garden. Then 3 more ladybugs
come. How many are there now?") to prime numbers and
factorials for fifth- and sixth-graders, and everything in between.

 There is "magic with numbers," neat puzzlers done with different
numbers; there are word problems based on "The Three Little
Pigs;" math problems about whales, lakes, tall buildings, money,
anything that could possibly have a number or value attached to it.

 The site is the brainchild of Ashok Bansal of Santa Clara, Calif.,
who maintains it, but it's a sure bet that math fans' contributions
will swell the supply of ideas.

 The site is free, but $5 donations are solicited to keep the site
maintained. There is an e-mail link for ideas, testimonials and
questions.

 Mathstories.com is only one of many such sites on the Web.
But its organization, ease of navigation, response speed and
easy-to-print forms make it an excellent starting point, sure to
generate ideas and increase math literacy for both parents and
kids.