Can we reach for the stars?

John E. Franklin · 2005-12-27 12:09:55

The Braille dots should be 3 lines high because Braille characters are 2 dots wide and 3 dots high.
Hence there were other carriage returns that were lost somehow.

MathsIsFun · 2005-12-30 09:37:24

OK, irspow laid down a challenge "Can we reach for the stars?"

Can we?

Can we create a world-respected repository of worked examples, puzzles and worksheets?

I have the software side of this functioning (at a basic level anyway, and I will improve it as we go), and so it is now over to you guys to add any useful material you can.

Start here

justlookingforthemoment · 2005-12-30 19:08:41

Okay, I've taken a look, and had a bit of a play around, and things seem great!

Now for a long question/suggesting asking session:

Will all worksheets have the same style/format or just however we want to make them?

Could there be a way to be able to select more than one subject for the worksheet, e.g. addition and patterns; division, ordering and multiplication?

Maybe instead of selecting one year level, we could select a range. Kinder; 1-3; 4-6 etc.

What is 'country'? Does that mean where the creator lives, or the country which the sheet is aimed for...?

This is a kind of stupid question, but does there need to leave a line to write the answer/s on? (If printing out or for younger children.)

One last thing - sometimes when you press print preview, sheets get a bit distorted because the person has made the content of the page too wide. Are these sheets made for printing or for looking at on the screen? I think they need to be printer friendly.

MathsIsFun · 2005-12-31 09:09:54

Thanks for looking justlooking ... and asking

* The "manual" worksheets can be in any style you want. The editor is a mini web-page designer, so you can make it as pretty as you want, with text sizes, colours, bold, centered, even tables. Image upload is a big part of it, too. So you can create drawings, formulas, etc on your PC, then upload.

* More than one subject is a good idea, but not developed at the moment. If you use a good title, that will help (for example "Patterns in Multiplication")

* Pick the middle year. The search form uses a range of years.

* Country is where the sheet is aimed for (just because of different curricula). Don't worry too much about it, though.

* Yes, leave lines for answers for younger people. The automatic sheets do. But for advanced questions, puzzles, etc you would imagine people will get a fresh sheet of paper to answer them.

* Yes, they should be printer friendly.

Your worksheet may be used by a grateful student, it may be handed out to a class or even used for a lesson, or just used for fun to while away a quiet night.

Once again, may I encourage members to get behind this idea. Just one new worksheet a week from every member will see a great resource develop. Help the people coming up behind you, and be helped by the people ahead.

John E. Franklin · 2005-12-31 12:26:58

I editted the Braille worksheet, but I noticed that multiple spaces are truncated to one space, like in HTML, so
I put in the "pre" thing, but no use.
As a test I put in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9, but it ended up 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Last edited by John E. Franklin (2005-12-31 12:28:29)

MathsIsFun · 2005-12-31 17:22:42

It works fine now, because I have now included the "pre" tag (I have a limited set of html for security reasons). Good idea using "pre".

Thanks for the feedback. It is just going to get better and better

John E. Franklin · 2005-12-31 19:24:28

Awesome work with the "pre". Braille test sheet works great. Only drawback I can see is when you go to edit it, all of the carriage returns are missing in the editor so the lines are all wrapped around together.
Can't complain though, it reads fine when you use the sheet.

MathsIsFun · 2005-12-31 22:20:29

Well, I played around with your worksheet ... and messed it up completely, sorry. I wanted to use courier font (for monospace) and "pre" together.

Can you fix?

John E. Franklin · 2006-01-01 04:55:09

.  .  .   ..   . .. .  ..
   .  .   .   .      .  . ..    The lowered "f" ( .. ) is an exclamation point.
   .  .          ..       .                       .

Last edited by John E. Franklin (2006-01-01 04:57:31)

MathsIsFun · 2006-01-01 09:32:07

got it!

BTW, we now have 5 worksheets. One from you, one from me, and 3 from Guests. Guests are beating Members!

justlookingforthemoment · 2006-01-01 13:56:23

Rod, you said there are three worksheets from Guests - how come when I search for sheets by 'Guest', 1860 worksheets come up which all say 'by Guest'? Are these somehow different?

MathsIsFun · 2006-01-01 18:23:52

Oh ... I meant "Manual" type worksheets, sorry.

BTW, it is interesting that guests are stumbling across the manual worksheets when I only made them publicly available a few days ago.

MathsIsFun · 2006-01-01 18:43:28

John ... I got to reading about Braille and made this, which can do this:

 . .  .  ..    .     .. .  .  .. .  .   . .. 
..  . ..  .     .    .  ..     .    .  .   . 
   .     .              .     .  .  .     .

Now ... (ahem) ... can you tell me what to do next ???

Is it a "translator"? How do I make it really useful? Should I have a "draw-it" option - so people can screen-capture something with empty/full dots? Who would use it and why?

John E. Franklin · 2006-01-03 09:08:05

Excellent work, MathIsFun!! I don't know who would use it. But it certainly is a nice thing to do because then families of a blind person, can play around with your translator. How people use either text dots or a bitmap image is endless. But someone would surely find it useful for something if you made it. Also, you are currently translating into grade 1 braille, which is single letters. In grade 2 braille, which is what the Braille Reader's Digest is in, they have other characters for common letter combinations like "er", "ing", "en", "in", "the", etc. I didn't try a period on your thing yet, but I noticed the exclamation point and question marks were both the same and as a lowered "e". Actually, they are lowered "f" and lowered "h". Period is lowered "d".

Last edited by John E. Franklin (2006-01-03 09:09:05)

John E. Franklin · 2006-01-03 09:39:43

I just made a worksheet twice called Tricky Subtraction.
It isn't searchable yet, probably because it isn't approved yet.
Feel free to change it or have me rewrite it if it is still around and not deleted.

MathsIsFun · 2006-01-03 10:32:54

Thanks for feedback - I will work on an upgrade to the Braille Translator and let you know when I am done

Nice worksheets. Why are they "Guest" worksheets - were you not logged in? Or is something odd happening.

I also noticed you used "pre" - it looks fine when viewed, but strange in the editor. I took a copy here (just for an experiment -I will delete it when you have looked at it). I then removed the pre tags and used the editor to insert newlines and indents. It looks good in the editor and when viewed. Maybe you could try that?

John E. Franklin · 2006-01-04 07:27:53

I looked at the copy and it looks great except I left out an "of" or something in one sentence, but that's minor. Yes, I think I realized I might not have been logged in later. How do you add in newlines and indents in the editor? Use <HTML> or just press <enter> and <tab> when editting?
The reason I used <pre> is because the <Enter> keys I did press were not shown when I was first making the Tricky Subtraction worksheet. Also check out Google today! The title "Google" is in Braille, what a coincidence!

mathsyperson · 2006-01-04 07:58:57

That's because it's Louis Braille's birthday today.

It's also National Trivia Day today, where you're supposed to tell everyone you know a little-known fact. But it's a little-known fact that it's National Trivia Day, so that's my job done.

MathsIsFun · 2006-01-04 09:59:28

I couldn't believe it either - I thought "How did my braille work suddenly appear on Google?"

Good on Google!

MathsIsFun · 2006-01-04 10:05:02

Yep, just use enter, and there are indent/outdent and other formatting keys you can try out. It is a nice little editor, really.

I am making progress on Grade 2 Braille, but I think it is impossible to do a proper job on the computer (you need a humans understanding), so I will do a "Partial Grade 2" and leave it at that.

I also have different styles of images now.

MathsIsFun · 2006-01-04 18:37:51

John, I have a (very much) updated Braille Translator now. How do I verify its accuracy?

MathsIsFun · 2006-01-05 21:06:22

Have a look at this worksheet desgined by a Guest. What fun.

justlookingforthemoment · 2006-01-05 21:11:46

Buying bugs off a tree. Brilliant.

What about this one? It's rather funny.

Is it just me or do more Guests seem to be creating worksheets? There's quite a few now. In the end I presume the worksheets will get edited or proofed in some way as there are a few blank worksheets at the moment.

Another thing: why is there a copy of 'Tricky Subtraction', and did you make it?

MathsIsFun · 2006-01-05 22:32:24

I allowed Guests to create manual worksheets a few days ago (because, ummm, no-one except John and I are making them). If it doesn't work out I can stop it again. I also have a button I can press that deletes blank worksheets.

I copied Tricky Substitition when trying out formatting. I will delete my copy now.

John E. Franklin · 2006-01-06 09:23:14

The grade two Braille is working really nicely. I can read it since I studied it many years ago and am quite familiar. What are the 70 abbreviations you have programmed. I'll test them all in sentences. I saw "this", and "that", and "the", "er", "en", "in", etc.
I noticed that the graphic image of Braille, when more than a few lines, the rest gets cut off, just so you know. I love the variations of displaying the Braille with/without empty dots. Awesome work!!!

(off the subject, but the word receive is spelt recieve when you send out a web card.

Last edited by John E. Franklin (2006-01-06 09:52:14)

Math Is Fun Forum

#26 2005-12-27 12:09:55

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#27 2005-12-30 09:37:24

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#28 2005-12-30 19:08:41

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#29 2005-12-31 09:09:54

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#30 2005-12-31 12:26:58

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#31 2005-12-31 17:22:42

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#32 2005-12-31 19:24:28

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#33 2005-12-31 22:20:29

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#34 2006-01-01 04:55:09

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#35 2006-01-01 09:32:07

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#36 2006-01-01 13:56:23

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#37 2006-01-01 18:23:52

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#38 2006-01-01 18:43:28

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#39 2006-01-03 09:08:05

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#40 2006-01-03 09:39:43

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#41 2006-01-03 10:32:54

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#42 2006-01-04 07:27:53

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#43 2006-01-04 07:58:57

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#44 2006-01-04 09:59:28

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#45 2006-01-04 10:05:02

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#46 2006-01-04 18:37:51

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#47 2006-01-05 21:06:22

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#48 2006-01-05 21:11:46

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#49 2006-01-05 22:32:24

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

#50 2006-01-06 09:23:14

Re: Can we reach for the stars?

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