• Ideas for Teachers
• Ideas for Pupils
• Independent Learners' Guide - html | doc | rtf
• Teachers' Guide - html | doc | rtf

Teacher as researcher planner:

The thesaurus is a useful tool in planning, not only because it can help you check definitions of terms you are likely to use in a lesson, but also give links to related topics and terms. These are organised into 3 pairs of relations: broader/narrower, references/referenced and seeAlso/seeAlso. The SeeAlso pair is reflexive.

The broader/narrower pair do not form a strict tree like hierarchy. Instead, terms can have many broader 'parents' as well as many narrower 'children'. You may see relationships here which you did not anticipate which will provoke a more complete exploration of a mathematical topic in a wider context.

The references/referenced pair gives you some feeling for ideas that build on other ideas, and in the graphical view of the site this relation helps attract terms together that are not related hierarchically. These links take you to areas which may provide useful foundation or extension material.

The SeeAlso pair provides catch-all for relations that the main relations miss. This is usually reflexive since if it is worth seeing term B from term A, the reverse is also usually true.

It is possible to copy and past text into a word processing package for use in work sheets and copy graphs using the PrtSc key on your computer in order to support pupils in placing the current concept in a broader mathematical framework.

Definitions, or explanations of concepts can differ according to levels (related to age). You may like to start with a definition that is within the age range of the pupils but it is recommended that you look at levels above and below to consolidate both your own understanding of the concept but to check that one of the other level descriptors does not meet the needs of your pupils more closely.

In the classroom - whole class teaching

How about: Preparing a graph of a mathematical concept in advance of a lesson and presenting it on a whiteboard or screen for discussion of how a new or current topic fits into pupils current mathematical lexicon/world.

Creating graphs and using definitions and ideas to include in worksheets.

Searching for a term and presenting the graph then editing it with pupils discussing missing links or concepts and deleting concepts or links that are not of immediate relevance. The pupils can then view, even if briefly, the mathematics they are currently studying as part of a much larger whole.

Both the above approaches can lead onto small group or individual work on the thesaurus.

Using the thesaurus to ask pupils to create maps of their own.

Pupils working in small groups or independently

Use the thesaurus to check the meaning of mathematical terms used in your books or by your teachers. The thesaurus will allow you to look at terms or words linked to your original enquiry. If you find that another term used in the definition you have found is not clear, you can use the references link to find an explanation of this term.

You might also wish to find out how the term links to other concepts you have met. The thesaurus tries to map these connections for you.

It is possible to use the thesaurus when you are reading other sites online. If you have installed the m-Button in your browser's links bar you can use it to look up any mathematics word you may come across on any site.

How about using the thesaurus to produce a map of your own around an area of mathematics you are currently studying? Are there ideas that you have not met before that look particularly interesting or connections that you had not thought about? You can produce a map of your own for display in the classroom. Use the PrtSc key to capture maps.

You can use the thesaurus to help you find material on other mathematics sites. Most sites have a search function, but it can sometimes be tricky to know what to type in. How do you find something when you can't remember what it is called? The answer is to use the thesaurus first! Start from something you know and use the relations to navigate to the term you want. You can copy and paste the term into a search engine - or use the shortcuts to search engines that we provide.