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The Best Free Algebra Homework Help Websites

Ryan Dube — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:00:28 +0000

The grade level where children make the transition from math to algebra can be very easy for some students, but difficult and confusing for others. Math concepts that are centered on clearly defined numbers and with all “factors” within the problem typically defined, are usually fairly easy for most students to follow and understand.

However, algebra concepts insert “unknowns” into equations and formulas that can really throw many students for a loop. Solving an equation for a factor that appears to be on the “wrong side” of the equal sign can feel like a very strange and impossible premise for those students.

As usual, help is available on the Internet, and the following list are some of the best free algebra homework help websites that can make the process of learning algebra a whole lot easier.

MyAlgebra – A Free Algebra Problem Solver

A very simple and useful resource is the MyAlgebra online problem solver application. While this isn’t the first place a student should go for help, because it simply provides the answer to the equation, it is an excellent website for students to check their work.

Students can work through their algebra problems, and when they’ve come up with a solution that they feel is correct, they can simply enter in the equation and click “Answer.” Of course, solving for equations isn’t the only thing the application can do – there is a long list of funcions in the drop-down list to choose from.

Obviously, the most common choice will be to “solve the equation,” and the nice thing about this online application is that it converts both the problem and the solution into the same sort of format that it would appear in the textbook.

Unfortunately, “show steps” isn’t really a legitimate option, as it takes you to a website for Bagatrix, where you can purchase Algebra solving software that provides step-by-step solutions. Regardless, as an answer-checker the free online app proves very useful.

Illuminations – Cool Algebra Activities and Lessons

Nothing is quite as frustrating for many students as trying to understand abstract concepts, and learning to do so by reading drab and boring textbooks that make you want to go to sleep. Luckily, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in the U.S. understands this problem and created a website called Illuminations that brings the subject (including algebra) to life for students.

The site includes high quality activities and lessons that cover all aspects of both math and algebra. Of all available free algebra homework help websites, this is definitely the one that’s the most fun and interesting. For lessons, you select grade levels and topics (one area is devoted to just algebra), and you get access to dozens of valuable lessons that teach important algebra concepts. However, my favorite part of the site is the “activities” area that offers some really high quality and valuable online applications that graphically show algebraic principles, such as this “pan balance” app that graphically displays what happens when you change different elements of equations.

Tutorvista – Free Lessons

While Tutorvista isn’t technically a free site, because the primary aim is to get parents to sign up their children for an online tutor, the website does offer an entire algebra help section with well formatted lessons that teach students about the many elements of algebra, from foundation principles all the way to the more advanced topics.

Of course, if you do need tutoring for your child, you can actually submit an assignment and for an average fee of $5, a tutor will actually send back the answer in a fully worked-out step-by-step solution. However, before you start dishing out your cash for any paid tutoring, make sure to check out the next free Algebra homework help website that actually does offer many tutoring services for free.

Algebra.com – Math Tutors Who Just Can’t Get Enough

Of course, the best place to get some free algebra tutoring is Algebra.com, an online community of mathematicians who are obsessed with the topic. You can turn their obsession into your child’s advantage by posting problems for the tutor community to answer. The website itself offers more lessons and information than probably any other algebra help website out there.

Just the algebra section includes pre-algebra, algebra I and algebra II – and of course there’s a quick and easy “Universal Simplifier and Solver” at the top that will either simplify or solve your algebra equations. At the top of the site, there’s a “Free Tutors” menu option that’ll take you to a section where you can either sign up to be a free tutor (a public service which gives you exposure for your tutoring business), or you can submit your own algebra questions to the tutors. There are almost a thousand active tutors – and the question/answer area is a huge community of fantastic tutors who are eager to help kids with their algebra problems.

Math.com – Interactive Algebra Help

Another valuable site filled with step-by-step instructions and lessons for students to learn the most important algebra concepts is Math.com. This site covers both the basics as well as advanced concepts under categories like “The Language of Algebra”, “Equations and Inequalities” and “Graphing Equations and Inequalities.”

The lessons at Math.com take students through an easy step-by-step “wizard,” and on each step there’s often a “show me” option students can click where the application offers examples or additional information that better explains a specific topic. It’s just like having a teacher available with instant answers to the typical questions that students often ask.

Drexel University – The Math Forum

The Math Forum is a valuable public service offered by Drexel University that offers both students and teachers dozens of resources. Many of the resources are buried within internal links, but the Algebra Section alone offers classroom materials for teachers, Internet projects, public forums and even links to algebra software throughout the net.

The Math Forum is one of the largest math & algebra resources on the net, and if you can afford to donate it would be a valuable and worthy cause to contribute. Mathematics, and algebra in particular are critical skills for students to learn early on that can tremendously simplify their lives later on. Any free algebra homework help websites that exist on the Internet are very positive resources that should be promoted and applauded by everyone.

Do you know of any additional algebra resources for teachers, parents or students on the Internet? Share them in the comments section below.

Image credit: aussiegall

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Websites For Students: 10 Online Learning Tools

Tina — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:01:20 +0000

When I was in elementary school I was very annoyed by all this studying. But my idea and hope was that once I was done with school, I would also be done learning. I couldn’t wait.

Thus I was rather irritated when I heard that my dad had to complete training for his job to learn new things. I remember I asked him when one would be done learning and the essence of what he said was of course never. Bummer!

Some 20 years later I’m still a student and I know I’ll never get done learning. So hang in there and enjoy it! Here are my favorite websites for students.

1. Chemistry

Dynamic Periodic Table

This periodic table helps in keeping elements apart. You can highlight them by their aggregate state (solid, liquid, gas, unknown) or group (nonmetals with subgroups and metals with subgroups). Clicking on an element or group will launch a separate window with the matching Wikipedia article.

Periodic Table of the Elements

This periodic table is more compact than the previous one and it’s great for a quick summary for each element. As can be seen in the screenshot below, all elements are represented by a matching image and clicking on it launches a small information window.

2. Biology

Foldit

Foldit is not really a tool you’ll need for your everyday biology class. BUT it can help you understand something about proteins AND help scientists at the same time. Basically it’s a game and it’s your task to build protein molecules based on previously described structures.

Simon has reviewed the tool in detail in his article Foldit – Solve Puzzles for Science.

3. Mathematics

Mathway

This is an online tool that will help solve your maths challenges. Just enter the “problem statement”, select a subject and hit solve for the solution including the steps taken to get there.

Varun previously wrote about Mathway – A Step By Step Mathematics Problems Solver.

SpeedCrunch (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Unlike Mathway, this is a very powerful desktop calculator that contains a ton of helpful libraries for various maths problems.

Damien just recently introduced this tool in all its depth, so check out his piece SpeedCrunch – High Precision Freeware Desktop Calculator.

4. Languages

LiveMocha

This is a social network for learning languages. While you are helping others to improve their skills in your native language, they may help you improve a foreign language you are struggling with. They may even help you with your French homework.

Saikat wrote a thorough review of LiveMocha – Small The Coffee & Learn The Lingo.

VerbaLearn

With VerbaLearn you can improve your English vocabulary with online study sessions. The tool learns with you, keeping a record of your progress and weaknesses. You can listen to your study list offline to better memorize the words and practice the pronunciation and online you can read examples of how the word is being used.

The tool was recently introduced by Tim: Practice Your Vocabulary With VerbaLearn.

Bullfighter (MS Word and Powerpoint plugin)

Similar To VerbaLearn, this tool is designed to improve your use of the English language. The tool will analyze your texts for jargon. The higher your Bull Composite score, the higher the chance people will actually understand what you are trying to say.

James has written about Bullfighter – Simplify Your Writing & Gain Results.

5. Literature

wePapers

On this website people can share and expand their knowledge for free. You can read the material others have provided and upload your own papers to contribute to the community.

Zotero (Firefox extension)

When composing an assignment or a thesis you have to reveal your sources. Zotero is a Firefox extension that can help you keep track of your references and organize a citation bibliography for Open Office or MS Word documents.

Mixed Literature Resources

Struggling to find cheap college text books? These resources collected by Nick may help: The Top 5 Sites To Find Your College Textbooks. Are you a medical student who’s looking for resources online? Have a look through Jackson’s list of The Best Reference Sites For Medical Students. Maybe you need to improve your writing and homework? I wrote about 7 Online Resources To Help You Improve Your Writing and Where To Research Material For Your Homework.

Finally, you may also find Ken’s article on 10+ Web Tools To Save Your Butt In School very helpful.

How do you use the internet to get through school?

Picture credits: amr_safey

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Where To Research Material For Your Homework

Tina — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:01:12 +0000

For homework or any other project that requires theoretical research, the internet offers a wealth of information. Instead of having to head to the library, everything is comfortably accessible straight from your desk. However, the flood of data can be quite overwhelming if you’re not using the right tools. Also, you may run into sources that are not credible. Thus it helps to know where the kind of information you’re looking for is best searched for.

Wikipedia for example may be a great start to get a general overview or an idea about a topic. But in most cases it does not provide in depth information which is required for any serious work. Plus all arguments about Wikipedia’s accuracy aside, in the end it is not accepted as a reliable source in academia. Neither is Google. Instead of quoting something that is already the quote of a quote, you must be more accurate and go straight to the original source or a first hand review of original sources.

So where do you find credible material? Here is where…

Google Scholar

This is the straight path to non-trivial information. In general, searching Google Scholar is no different than searching the regular Google. However, as the name suggests, Google Scholar relies solely on scholarly work, which includes peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, theses, books and further research literature.

As with the regular Google, the best results are yielded with exact search terms. For this you can use operators. For example if you’re looking for a specific author, type author:”first name surname”. For more details about how to properly use Google Scholar and about how to understand the search results, are found in the Help section.

Google Book Search

You would think that Google Book Search is Google Scholar limited to books. But you would soon realize that the search results are quite different. The Google Book Search includes more trivial information, in other words both mundane literature, such as science fiction, fairy tales or romance, but also non-fiction, including philosophy, mathematics, biology, and some random subjects, for example computer history, love or the history of medicine. Thus, although limiting searches to books, Google Book Search encompasses many more fields and requires a much more refined search specification than Google Scholar.

The results returned by the Book Search can include all listed books, a limited preview or a full view of books. If you need full text material, you should determine your preference by using the “Books Showing:” pull-down menu on top of the search results.

NCBI Bookshelf

If you happen to be looking for material to support your life sciences homework or thesis, I highly recommend the NCBI Bookshelf.

This is an example of a very specified book search engine. Its focus clearly lies on biomedical subjects, but the material is by far not limited to disease. You will find dozens of books on biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and more.

From the results page you can select whether you would like to view all results or only the figures. This is helpful if you’re looking for a good cartoon of a biological process.

The NCBI Booksearch may appear a little dry. There are lots of tabs and links and pull-down menus. You don’t need to use them. However, if you’re going to use the site regularly, I recommend looking into its features because they will help you organize your searches, collect details for references or even access even more detailed information.

If the life sciences are not your field, Google may pave the way to a resource in your field.

Finally, if you are going to use any of the material you found online, make sure that you quote your sources. (And while we are talking about bibliography you should check out EasyBib and BibMe.)

Obviously, it is illegal to just copy and paste text and images. However, with some rewording and diligent quoting of your sources, you may use almost any material found on the above mentioned sites. That’s for personal, educational purposes, not for re-publishing!

How do you go about researching material on the internet? What are your favorite resources?

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