This weeks features include an update on Google, Math Related Tools, and Specialized Search Engines for Academics and Educators

Google Apps for Education Now Called "G Suite for Education"​

Google Apps for Education has changed to G Suite for Education.  With this name change there are some additional features with the Google Tools.These features use machine intelligence to facilitate and add more functionalities to Google Apps.

1- Google Sheets
Explore in Google Sheets is a new feature added to Google Sheets to allow students to create smarter sheets. Explore makes it easy for students to ‘summarize spreadsheet data with automated charts and insights’. Students who can’t write formulas can now use Explore to instantly convert questions into formula. ‘Students can simply enter a question using natural language and Explore in Google Sheets will use Natural Language Processing to translate the question into a formula and offer an instant answer.
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2- Google Docs
Explore has also been added to Google Docs bringing with it a number of features such as the ability to search for and find related documents from Drive, automatic recommended topics to learn about, and for educators, the ability to conduct image searches and get results limited to those that ‘comply with SafesSearch and are approved to use with Creative Commons’.  Click here to check out the Explore feature in a Google Doc.

 3- Google Slides
Explore in Google Slides brings new features to help students create polished presentations. Explore offers a number of layout suggestions to help students better format their slides. Click here to see what Explore offers in Google Presentation.

4- Google Calendar
‘Google Calendar uses machine intelligence to help you easily find a time when invitees are free, and it also suggests available rooms based on your previous bookings. And, when the list of invitees grows long and no times are available, Calendar will suggest times across the group where the conflicts are easiest to resolve, such as recurring 1:1 meetings’. Click here to see a screencast about machine intelligence features about Google Calendar.

Math apps, sites and teacher tools

While looking through my blogs, I came across a collection of math apps, web-sites and teacher tools. I know that teachers are always on the lookout for apps to use with their students so this is a wonderful find.  I have noted if there is a cost, otherwise, the tool, app, etc. appears to be free. Please check them out.  They range is age appropriateness for K-12 students.

​iPad Math Apps

• Motion Math $2.99 Feed your fish and play with numbers! Practice mental addition and subtraction with Motion Math: Hungry Fish, a delightful learning game that's fun for children and grownups. Ages 6-8
• Geoboard Geoboard is a tool for exploring a variety of mathematical topics introduced in the elementary and middle grades. Learners stretch bands around the pegs to form line segments and polygons and make discoveries about perimeter, area, angles, congruence, fractions, and more.
• Sushi Monster Meet Sushi Monster! A game to practice, reinforce, and extend math fact fluency is completely engaging and appropriately challenging. Ages 9-11
• Math Flash Cards Designed for people of all ages, Math Flash Cards Multiplication is an app that allows the user to practice simple basic multiplication facts or extend the users ability to work out complex multiplication problems up to three digit numbers. Users can control the number of digits used to generate the problems.
• Math Vs Zombies $6.99 The world is overrun with zombies. You are a part of a squad of highly trained scientists who can save us. 
  Use your math skills and special powers to treat infected zombies. K-5
• Mystery Math Town $3.99 Use your math skills to rescue the fireflies in Mystery Math Town for ages 6 and up. Best Math App 2014 - Tech with Kids
• Everyday Mathematics $The Equivalent Fractions game by McGraw Hill offers a quick and easy way to practice and reinforce fraction concepts and relationships. This game runs on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
  Players try to match equivalent fractions on cards showing halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, eighths, tenths, and twelfths. When cards are matched, they disappear and points are awarded. As cards disappear from the array, the cards behind them become accessible. The game ends when all cards are matched or no more matches can be made. Players earn extra points for making two or more matches in a row. To earn all possible points, players must clear the board!2.79
• Math Ninja Use your math skills to defend your treehouse against a hungry tomato and his robotic army in this fun action packed game! Choose between ninja stars, smoke bombs, or ninja magic - and choose your upgrades wisely! 
  
  ✔ Works on your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad - download once, works everywhere!
  ✔ Action-packed strategy in the castle defense genre! You'll have so much fun you won't even realize you're learning Math!
  ✔ Choose your weapons - from ninja stars to fire magic - and upgrade their power along the way!
  ✔ Humorous story starring the ever-hungry Tomato-San, who is building a robotic army to steal your tasty math treasure!
  ✔ Math options are fully customizable - disable/enable operations, or even toggle number ranges to practice!
  ✔ Great for all age groups, from 6-99.
• Elementary School Math $2.99 Based on the classroom hit Middle School Math HD, Elementary School Math HD is a stunningly beautiful and powerfully engaging application built for today's technology-driven elementary school classroom. Emphasizing game-playing and skill development, the eight modules in Elementary School Math HD have been carefully designed by classroom teachers to provide the perfect balance between fun and the practice of fundamental skills
  Here's what's included: Ordering Numbers, Data Magnet, Pinpoint Plotter, Place Value, The Patterning Cage, Shape Board,Rounding Numbers
• Math Tappers $1.39 While flashcards have some utility in helping people memorize, they are best used after
  we have mastered a topic and need to build fluency – they are not magic and won’t support the development of understanding on their own. MathTappers: Multiples isa simple game designed first to help learners to make sense of multiplication and division
  with whole numbers, and then to support them in developing fluency while maintaining
  accuracy.
• SlateMath SlateMath is an iPad app that develops mathematical intuition and skills through playful interaction. The app's 38 activities prepare children for kindergarten and first grade math. 
  SlateMath forms the foundation of numbers, digit writing, counting, addition, order relation, patterns, parity and problem solving. 

Math Games-Web-based

• Topmarks Math Games for Ages 3-14
• PBS Kids Math Games - There are numerous games on this web-site but this link will take readers to Curious George Hide and Seek.
• Fun Brain Math Games - for Grades K-5
• Math Magician Games - Covers Addition, Subtractions, Multiplication and Division
• Cool Math Games - This site looks like K-5 level.  It appears to have some free activities, but there is also a subscription option.

 Mac Math Apps

• PhotoMath Simply point your camera toward a math problem and Photomath will magically show the result with a detailed step-by-step instructions.
• Graphing Calculator by Desmos - This is a Chrome add-on the reviews are good.  
• Math Drills Lite Graphically rich and fun environment allows a single student to learn basic math skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Explore solutions to problems using number lines, wooden blocks, facts and hints. Solve nine-times problems using your fingers!Math
• MathBoard $4.99 MathBoard® is a highly configurable math app appropriate for all school aged children. Beginning in kindergarten, with simple addition and subtraction problems, through elementary school where learning multiplication and division can be a real challenge. MathBoard will allow you to configure the app to best match the abilities of your individual child/student.
• iMathematics lite version -  iMathematics is your personal maths tutor. It is used by millions of students every day, and it’s the only app about math that includes everything you need to successfully pass your exams. WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IMATHEMATICS:
  • Learn quickly from over 70 topics, thanks to the clear and simple explanation.
  • Easily repeat formulas, theorems, definitions and properties, thanks to the effective synthesis.
  • Practice with various interactive calculators which you'll find in some subjects.
  • Quickly find the topics that matters to you thanks to the advanced search algorithm.
  • Save your Favorites arguments to have them always at your fingertips.
  • Add your personal notes to topics, to remind you something.
  • Solve the exercises with some Utilities, like the Advanced Calculator, the Fraction Approximator and the Equation Solver.
  • Download the app now and try the Pro version for free: you'll have all the most advanced features for a few days.

Graphing Calculators for Math Teachers

• Scientific Calculator A powerful, programmable calculator for Google Chrome.
  
• GeoGebra - Graphing Calculator for Functions, Geometry, Calculus, Statistics and 3D Math
  GeoGebra (www.geogebra.org) is free dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that brings together geometry, algebra, spreadsheets, graphing, statistics and calculus in one easy-to-use package. Interactive learning, teaching and evaluation resources created with GeoGebra can be shared and used by everyone at tube.geogebra.org.
• Desmos Graphing Calculator This is a Chrome add-on the reviews are good.  
• Graph.tk - Plot mathematical functions with this graphing utility
  Graph.tk is an online and open-source graphing utility. It's very easy to use. Use the "+" button to create a new equation. Use "/" for fractions, "^" for exponentials, and "*" for multiplication. To type special characters use "\name". For example, "\sqrt" yields √, and \pi produces a π.
• Desmos -This is the web-based version of Desmos

Search Engines for Academics and Educators

Behavioral Brain Science Archive:
Check out this searchable archive to find extensive psychology and brain science articles.

Social Science Research Network:
In this research network, you can find a wide variety of social science research from a number of specialized networks including cognitive science, leadership, management, and social insurance.
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Psycline:
Find a journal with Psycline’s journal and article locator, a tool that offers access to more than 2,000 psychology and social science journals online.

Ethnologue:
Search the languages of the world with Ethnologue, offering an encyclopedic reference of all the world’s known living languages. You’ll also be able to find more than 28,000 citations in the Ethnologue’s language research bibliography.

SocioSite:
Use this site from the University of Amsterdam to browse sociological subjects including activism, culture, peace, and racism.

The SocioWeb:
Check out this guide to find all of the sociological resources you’ll need on the internet. The SocioWeb offers links to articles, essays, journals, blogs, and even a marketplace.

WikiArc:
With this custom Google search engine, you can find open access articles about archaeology.

Encyclopedia of Psychology:
Search or browse the Encyclopedia of Psychology to find basic information, and even translations for information about psychology careers, organizations, publications, people, and history.

Anthropology Review Database:
Through this database, you can get access to anthropology reviews, look up publishers, and find resources available for review.

Anthropological Index Online:
This anthropological online search includes both general search of 4,000 periodicals held in The British Museum Anthropology Library as well as Royal Anthropological Institute films.

Political Information:
Political Information is a search engine for politics, policy, and political news with more than 5,000 carefully selected websites for political information.