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Greetings from Math Cats!

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     WHAT’S NEW AT MATH CATS
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* MATH CRAFTS
www.mathcats.com/crafts.html

It's a great time of year to be making crafts by hand. After you pass through the Math Cats' magic chalkboard, you'll find a new Math Crafts archway leading to some brand-new projects, including:

* ROTATING SHAPES
www.mathcats.com/crafts/rotation.html

Create interesting designs by rotating one cut-out shape around a central point.

* HEXAGRAMS
www.mathcats.com/crafts/hexagrams.html

Create six-pointed hexagrams with a compass and straight edge and decorate them in a variety of ways.

* SYMMETRICAL NAME DESIGNS
www.mathcats.com/crafts/symwords.html

Turn names into mirror-image designs or ambigrams that look the same upside-down.

You'll also find some familiar favorites which have migrated from the Explore section: String Art, Polyhedra, and Make Your Own Math Cat. I'll be adding several more math craft projects during the next week. Almost all of these projects would make nice gifts in the form of ornaments, mobiles, ready-to-frame art, or decorations for the lids of jars or small boxes.

Some of the new math craft projects have grown from ideas and student artwork sent in by a math teacher from Georgia. Please share some of your creative math ideas and student math art, too!

* JUMPING MATH CATS
www.mathcats.com/explore/puzzles/jumpingcats.html

In November, Jumping Math Cats arrived at Math Cats, one of the rare games on the site. It's an online version of the peg-jumping strategy game, but in place of pegs, little math cats jump each other (of course).

* SITE MAP
www.mathcats.com/sitemap.html

The site map is now fully hyperlinked for easier site navigation (although it is much more fun to visit the index page of each main section where the floating cat head follows your mouse up and down the page).

* NEW MICROWORLDS PLUG-IN
www.mathcats.com/microworlds.html

The MicroWorlds section remains my favorite part of Math Cats, and it is also the most neglected, because most visitors do not want to spend a few minutes to download and install the free MW Web Player for viewing these projects. The makers of MicroWorlds have just released a new version of the MW Web Player for compatibility with Internet Explorer 6.0. (It works with all other IE and Netscape browsers, too.) I understand that the new PC version is easier to install than the earlier verions. There is a link to the MW Web Player download page from every page of the MicroWorlds section of Math Cats. I do hope you will take a few minutes to install this plug-in so that you can enjoy the great variety of projects in the MicroWorlds section of Math Cats.

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     SITE SPOTLIGHT
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* MicroWorlds
www.microworlds.com

Can you guess that MicroWorlds is an even greater passion of mine than math? It is the reason that I started the Math Cats site in the first place. MicroWorlds is a multimedia version of the Logo programming language, very easy to learn. I taught MicroWorlds programming to elementary school children for many years. Even my students as young as 6 and 7 years old always loved the thrill of teaching the computer new tricks, such as drawing geometric designs with a few simple programming commands. I absolutely love programming with MicroWorlds. I also use MicroWorlds to create all of the graphics throughout the Math Cats site.

If you or the children in your life are curious to get a taste of creating your own games and multimedia projects with simple programming commands, you can download a free 30-day trial version through the link above.

Some of the projects in the Math Cats' MicroWorlds section include the procedures so you can create the same projects from scratch, to get you started. There are numerous resources at the MicroWorlds site to help you, too. (Check out the great projects in their Project Library, which are delightful educational resources in their own right as well as great examples of easy-to-create projects.)

If you get interested enough to purchase a single copy or a site license, please contact me first (through the Math Cats mailroom or by replying to this message), because I can arrange a special price for you. You will notice that I am not a retailer and have maintained the Math Cats site for over a year without attempting to sell a thing. My only motivation in mentioning it at this point is that I've worked out an arrangement to save you money so that you might be more inclined to purchase this outstanding software.

More than any other software or any website I've ever encountered, MicroWorlds helps me to explore math in fun, creative, open-ended ways. It helps me think logically and plan step-by-step strategies for solving simple or complex problems.

* Ambigrams

For fun and inspiration in converting any word or phrase into an ambigram with rotational symmetry, turn to Ambigram.Matic at:

http://ambigram.matic.com/ambigram.htm

... or view a great variety of clever ambigrams with reflectional and rotational symmetry at Erich Friedman's Wordplay page:

www.stetson.edu/~efriedma/ambigram/

You may have noticed that Math Cats doesn't link to external sites except in the "4 older cats" section, but you'll find links to these two clever cross-curricular ambigram resources at the new Symmetrical Name Designs project.

* Paper Folding Projects

For a real paper-folding challenge, learn how to make 3D Moravian paper stars at Maddy and Maverick's virtual "cottage":

www.highhopes.com/3dstar.html

This page also links to simpler paper projects: 5-pointed and 6-pointed stars, snowflakes, and paper boats.

You can purchase Safe-T compasses at the same site:

www.highhopes.com/safe-tcompass.html

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     MATH CATS IS HONORED
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* An Editorial Board of experts for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Illuminations site has chosen four Math Cats projects as Selected Web Resources: Polygon Playground, Number Stories, What a Crowd, and Really Big Numbers. You'll find many other useful links at NCTM's Illuminations site:

http://illuminations.nctm.org/swr/index.html

* McDougal Littell, a Houghton Mifflin company, featured Math Cats as the math teachers' "Link of the Week" from Nov. 26 to Dec. 3.

* You can read about these honors and many more at:

www.mathcats.com/awards.html

* Over 500 sites have linked to Math Cats in the 15 months since word began spreading.

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Math Cats News is now being hosted by listhost.net (not topica.com, as announced in the last issue). This service will allow Math Cats News to remain entirely ad-free, just as the Math Cats site is entirely ad-free. You can still contact me directly by replying to this message. I’ll be continually updating the Math Cats site, so I hope you’ll drop by for regular visits. I welcome your input. And if you like the Math Cats site and Math Cats News, I hope you will help spread the word. Please forward this Math Cats News to others! If you have received this Math Cats News as a forwarded e-mail and would like to subscribe, you can sign up in the "4 older cats" area of Math Cats:

www.mathcats.com/grownupcats.html

Thanks,

Wendy Petti, the one human at Math Cats
mathcats.com
wpetti@mathcats.com