Updated: Free Math Resources for Schools During the COVID-19 Outbreak
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 06/08/20
(Updated June 8) Education technology companies and organizations have stepped forward to help educators bring STEM and STEAM experiences to students in virtual ways during the COVID-19 closures. The following is a list of free resources in mathematics for PreK–12. This will be updated regularly as announcements are made. (If you know of a company that should be included on this list, please send details to [email protected].)
ASSISTments is already free for use by middle school math teachers. The program allows them to assign homework or classwork and provide students with immediate feedback as they complete their assignments; teachers get a report showing individual student and class progress. There's a library of content that includes open textbooks, lessons and state test practice and skill-building problem sets. Now, the nonprofit is scheduling on-going sessions for helping teachers get ASSISTments set up for remote instruction. https://new.assistments.org/distance-learning
Carnegie Learning's LONG + LIVE + MATH has compiled a free blend of textbook and software resources to help with math classes. These include math lessons, skills practice and learning videos for students in grades 6-12. The company is also offering free access to its math coaching software, MATHia, until the end of the school year. https://www.carnegielearning.com/help-center/at-home-resources/at-home-resources-for-teachers/long-live-math-at-home/
Casio has several resources available to help with math education. The company is providing free access to ClassPad.net, a web-based calculator for calculations, graphing, geometry and statistics. There's also software to emulate Casio's most popular scientific and graphing calculators as well as downloadable calculator activities that teachers can assign for elementary, middle and high schools. https://www.casioeducation.com/remote-learning
ExploreLearning is providing free 60-day trial runs of three programs: For math and science, there are 400 "gizmos," covering topics and concepts in math and science for grades 3-12. "Reflex" helps students master basic math for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. And Science4Us covers inquiry, physical science, life science and earth and space science with lessons for K-2 students. https://web.explorelearning.com/coronavirus-response/
Good Calculators is providing a variety of free online calculators, to do math and statistics, engineering and conversions. The website also offers specialized calculators for financial, date and time, logistics, sales, sports and health. https://goodcalculators.com/
Hand2mind has launched a home learning resource for K-5 students. The "Learning at Home" program includes videos on math and literacy content taught by teachers and activities to reinforce the lessons and downloadable worksheets. The company has committed to posting new content daily. https://www.hand2mindathome.com/
I Know It is offering free access to its online math practice lessons for students in grades K-5. The site features over 500 graphical math activities. Animated characters guide students through math lessons, and hints and graphical explanations help them along when they need it. This tool tracks progress and scores for teachers and parents. Parents and teachers can request unlimited access in a form online. https://www.iknowit.com/access.html
JumpStart Academy is making JumpStart Academy Math free for users until Aug. 31, 2020. Domains include operations, measurements and data, fractions and geometry. Parents can play with children in team-based multiplayer games, students can design their avatars and children can "show their thinking," which can be accessed in the teacher dashboard to understand where gaps are surfacing. The content is available in Spanish. https://www.jumpstart.com/academy/math
JumpStart Academy and Edmodo are offering Edmodo's tutoring program AskMo for free. AskMo is a mobile app for Apple and Google devices to get live, personalized tutoring in math or science for students in grades 7-12. https://askmo.com/
Kiddom is offering math curriculum for grades 6-8 for free until August 2020. The materials include assessments and practice problems, multiple-choice auto-grading and resources for differentiated learning, English learners and students with disabilities. https://teach.kiddom.co/covid-support/
Knowre has announced that it would make its math service free to all American teachers, schools and districts through the end of the school year. Knowre Math is an online core supplement for grades 1-12 that needs only a browser to view or an iPad app. Features include "walk me through" support and targeted assignments to help the student work independently. Teachers receive access to student progress via a dashboard. https://www.knowre.com/school_closure_support/
Legends of Learning has opened access to its 2,000 standards-aligned math and science games for free for the rest of the school year to schools and parents. The company is also providing its premium-level custom assessments, scheduling features, data and analytics and training and support for all schools affected by closures.
LoonyLearn is making a bunch of free K-5 math and spelling games available to students. Paid family, teacher and school subscriptions are needed to get access to dashboards that can help the adults assign topics to their students and track progress. To get to the games, choose a selection on the giant wheel on the home page. https://www.loonylearn.com/
Mathchops helps students build core skills for standardized tests through adaptive games. Teachers can view high-level stats for their students, see individual questions and create and assign quizzes. All questions have explanations and are graded automatically. Versions for SAT, ACT, ISEE, and grades 4-11 are being made available free during the COVID-19 school closures. https://www.mathchops.com/signup/free-trial
Maths Chase, already free, provides online learning games to help students practice their math skills. Games include times tables and problems for addition, subtraction, division, odd and even, sequences, prime numbers and place values. https://www.mathschase.com/
MathNook has added new games and puzzles for play by students learning at home. The resources can be filtered by grade level, covering K-12, and include worksheets, mobile apps, tutorials and teaching tools. No registration is required for access to the games. https://www.mathnook.com/
MathTutor Educational Software is making its math tutorial software for grades 6-12 available to schools at no cost through Jun. 30, 2020. The series is available in online and desktop versions. The programs feature interactive, self-paced tutorials that help students build proficiency in math concepts and problem solving. https://www.mathtutor.com/coronavirus.html
Matific is making its math software free for 60 days. The program's Common Core learning standards-aligned activities, worksheets and word problems combine gamified activities with real-world problems, to help students see the relevance of what they're learning. Teachers can assign activities, assess results with the real-time reporting system and email progress reports home to parents. Access is provided through a school account. https://www.matific.com/us/en-us/home/onboarding/
MIND Research Institute is offering ST Math to parents, schools and districts for grades K-8, free through Jun. 30, 2020. The company has also compiled resources to help parents and teachers get their students up and running on the lessons. https://www.stmath.com/coronavirus
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which is celebrating its hundredth birthday has announced 100 days of professional learning for educators -- for free. The organization is also offering free NCTM membership as well. Each webinar will run on Zoom and be held at 7 p.m. eastern time, leading up to the opening of the NCTM 2020 Annual Meeting in St. Louis, which begins on Oct. 21. The sessions, which are limited to 1,000 participants, feature a variety of speakers and topics geared to all grade levels and interests. The webinars will be recorded and made available the following day. https://www.nctm.org/100-Days-of-Professional-Learning/
Omni Calculator is continuing to make its thousand-plus free calculators available. Each one is targeted to help students and others handle any type of equation or conversion imaginable. As a home-schooling parent told us, each "is equipped with tips and detailed explanations of concepts to various scientific phenomena. They are fun, they are helpful and they can teach you a lot more than 2+2." https://www.omnicalculator.com/
Open Up Resources (OUR) and Kiddom have teamed up to offer free access to Open Up math curriculum for grades 6-8 within Kiddom's digital platform, through Aug. 1, 2020. Additional resources include the "No-Nonsense Distance Learning Resource Guide," weekly webinars to support teachers and districts, professional learning materials to aid with distance learning and peer-to-peer communications with the OUR education community. https://teach.kiddom.co/covid-support/
Sparx, a UK company, is making its math virtual classroom available free to schools affected by the coronavirus. Sparx Maths has been adapted to help teachers build online math lessons that can be delivered through a streaming channel of the teacher’s choice. The platform includes a "bank" of 2,000 learning objectives. As students complete their classroom online, it's automatically marked. Teachers can monitor the progress of every student in real-time, including whether students have joined the lesson and who might be struggling. https://learning.sparx.co.uk/virtualclassroom
Sumdog, which provides personalized math and spelling practice for grades K-8, uses games and rewards to encourage students in their studies. The company is offering full access free to all features and subjects for the duration of school closures until the start of the summer break. That includes online video guidance to support home learning, as well as one-on-one remote walkthroughs, daily teacher webinars and phone support. https://pages.sumdog.com/home-learning-during-school-closures/
UPchieve, a nonprofit that provides free, online math tutoring to low-income high school students, traditionally asks schools with participating students to pay a small fee to keep its service running. In response to COVID-19 school closures, that fee has been waived through the end of the school year. And any student who creates an account during this period can keep using UPchieve for free, forever, the organization said. The service works on any device; students choose the subject they need help with, and UPchieve matches them with a volunteer tutor in a virtual classroom. Students can get as many free sessions as they want. https://upchieve.org/school-closures
Voyager Sopris Learning is providing free access to VmathLive, a math program that lets students master the content at their own pace while earning badges, trophies, and points. The program is intended for grades K–8 and is available through Jul. 31, 2020. The trial is set up for a single-student login, but teachers may request access for a whole class. The company has also put together a "Step Up to Writing" program, to help teachers develop various strategies for supporting the writing done by their K-12 students. https://www.voyagersopris.com/remote-learning
Zapzapmath, a line of programs under Visual Math Interactive, is providing free premium subscriptions to "Zapzapmath School," through July 2020 for parents and teachers. This application for students in grades K-6 includes 180 math games, with a reward system, where students can redeem and personalize their own spaceship using coins they have earned from completing math games. https://www.zapzapmath.com/school
Zearn has made its K-5 math curriculum available for free to teachers. The content includes 400 hours of digital lessons with on-screen teachers and "supportive remediation," as well as paper-based materials that can be used device-free. The company is running continual webinars for district administrators, teachers and parents to help them get the service set up for their students. https://about.zearn.org/distance-learning
Z-kai has released extensive booklets with math worksheets for students in grades 2-5, selected from the company's Zoom-Up Workbook Math. According to the company, the worksheets contain "challenging problem sets and [are] tailored to develop students' math skills." https://zkaibooks.com/free-resources/#
Find more resources for schools during the COVID-19 crisis here. Or return to the main list of free resources.