SMART Notebook Math Tools - Part I

SMART Technologies released its full version of Math Tools for Windows last month (download a 30-day free trial version here). This new Math toolbar appears bolted under the original tool bar in SMART Notebook and looks like this:

I gotta say, despite the fact that I taught Social Studies for the majority of my teaching career, I'm very impressed with the amount of calculations, demos and visuals this new Math toolbar can do! While I'm no expert on teaching Math, I am very much aware of how these new features can improve student understanding of abstract concepts, and open the door for some inquiry-based learning in the field of Mathematics (but that's a post for another day!)

Therefore, I will be devoting a number of future blog posts to helping teachers uncover the various features of this amazing tool -- starting today. It's also an excuse to begin experimenting with creating SMART Notebook instructional videos -- so please bear with me as I not only relive my Calculus and Algebra days, but also venture into amateur movie making :)

** Note: For this particular post, I've been faced with the problem of my MAC recognizing my microphone drivers on the Windows side...sigh...therefore, rather than narrate this one, I'll record the steps in written text below the video!

Lesson #1: Shape Division

Steps:


1. Select the "perfect circle" option under the shapes tool


2. Press where you want the middle of the circle to be and drag to increase the size


3. Select the circle either by clicking on its border or marquee selecting


4. Select the drop-down menu that appears and choose "shape division"


5. Designate the number of segments you'd like to divide the shape into (up to 12)


Voila!


For the square, choose the 'perfect square' option under the shapes tool and repeat steps 2 - 5.

For an even better visual, you can choose to fill one or more of the segments with different colours -- use your properties tab and choose 'fill effects'

Watch for more Math Toolbar tips in the future!

Vanessa