AIMS Educational Foundation

Thursday, September 22, 2011

What a fun math book that packs a big punch in a playful and "friendly" way. This is the way I wish I had learned about area formulas for Parallelograms, Triangles and Trapezoids!

AIMS in AIMS Educational Foundation stands for "Activities Integrating Mathematics and Science", and has been around since 1981. We were chosen to review a 15 day workbook on the Area Formulas for Parallelograms, Triangles & Trapezoids. This thin activity book comes with a CD of  files with instructions, but also printable pages. Up to 200 copies are allowed to be made for school use at one school. The book with accompanying CD is merely $9.95, but it does only contain 15 lessons, so it is more than I probably would typically spend on a unit? However, if you have a child that would benfit from a hands on approach and unique review through the use of comics, then under $10 for that seems worth it! Plus, if you have several children, this book can be preserved and pages can be printed out without the need to buy multiple books per family as is needed for many math books.

I knew my son would benefit from learning about the area this way. He needs to visualize in a more tactile way to really learn something. So, I was thankful to be given a chance to review this. To be honest, area never really made sense to me when I was his age. I constantly would get the perimiter and area confused. While this book is geared for 6-8th grade, it could clearly be used by an older student needing review OR by a younger advanced student. This particular book was certainly not written specifically for homeschoolers-  since the first lesson indicates to split up into groups for 4 - 5 students. Sometimes I am so used to texts that really are designed for the homeschooler in particular that it catches me off guard. Yet, this book can still be used by an individual student. Nonetheless, it would be possible to teach multi-ages at one time because all my kids love to cut and measure!  I doubt a very young child woudl have the ability to master the whole idea, but they could still have some benefit from the process. The CD included offers tips on teaching that can be used by the teacher or student if needed.

Not only is this text a fun and interesting approach, it is wonderfully illustrated with relatable cartoon kids and cute comics, but it isn't so heavy with illustrations that you lose sight that this is indeed still a math book.

There are other books available from AIMS in their Essential Math Series. I had never heard of this company before, but I do intend to look into other books in this series and spend more time on the AIMS site: www.aimsedu.org/ There is a lot of useful information and it is clearly laid out as well. A+ for presentation and performance!

 

 

 

As a member of the TOS review crew, I was provided a free copy of this math book in exchange for my honest opinion.

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