Product Review of Numberphile – The Tech Edvocate

educators engage learners in discussing the problems’ solutions along the way. For example, educators need to be ready to press the pause button at the right time to let kids try to solve the problem and discuss their various explanations. After this discussion, continue to play the video that clearly explains the answer. When discussing puzzles, learners should make a clear claim and back it up with evidence and reasoning, just as the CCSS demand. Numberphile is also great for kids who are simply curious about math. By linking the site to your classroom website, you can connect kids to a place where they can explore their own math interests outside of school.

There’s some great content in these videos, but it can be tough to find. Navigating the website’s front page is tricky; each whimsical illustration links to a video, but it can be hard to use this systematically with learners. The Text Index provides titles and descriptors but still lacks a clear organization system. Additionally, not all videos are appropriate for the classroom; for example, “The Stable Marriage Problem” is an interesting example of a constructive proof, but the presenter swears during her explanation.

Once you do find the videos you’re looking for, you’ll hit gold: Kids can learn about probability with the classic Monty Hall problem or discover fun facts about Pi for math lovers. Kids who love math will be enthralled; others will be surprised to see the many places math appears in their world. While Numberphile is missing classroom support tools on its own site, other online communities like TED-Ed offer solid lessons around some videos. With some careful screening and thoughtful context, educators could build their own tasks that utilize these well-crafted, engaging videos.

Website: https://www.numberphile.com/videos

Overall User Consensus About the App

Student Engagement

Videos feature engaging problems that kids will want to solve. The site can be tough to search, so it’s best suited to a kid inclined to hunt around independently.

Curriculum and Instruction

Pedagogical appropriateness is highly dependent on the video: Some are perfect hooks to complement a classroom lecture, while others let kids passively view interesting math facts.

Customer Support

Numberphile is featured on other sites like YouTube and TED-Ed, providing additional ways to extend student learning. Since the videos are on YouTube, they have closed captioning in multiple languages.