For years middle schools throughout the United States have used Mathematics in Context (MiC) as their primary curriculum.  A program for grades 6-8 published by Encyclopaedia Britannica, it was developed jointly at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Utrecht, and funded in part, let us not neglect to mention, by the National Science Foundation.

Today we’re moving ahead with some enhancements to the MiC program, in a project where we’ll team up with The Math Forum @ Drexel University to provide teacher training and professional development for teachers who use the MiC curriculum. Details in our news release.

And if this interests you, perhaps you’d also like to take a look at our math curriculum for grades 1-6, Britannica SmartMath. News release on that here.

Oh, yes, and MiC has helped students in Philadelphia boost their math scores.

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I hope you won’t begrudge us a bit of crowing over the fact that Britannica SmartMath has just been named a finalist for the 2009 Codie Awards.  The Codie is the most covetted honor in the information publishing business, and, well, we covet it.  We’re only human.

Besides, Britannica SmartMath is new, and it’s nice to see a new product win praise.

SmartMath is an engaging, interactive program consisting of more than 35,000 practice questions that together form an integrated curriculum correlated to educational standards. It combines questions and activities with some very cute avatars to individualize student learning.  More about it here. 

You can see all the Codie finalists here.

As always, schools interested in Britannica SmartMath or any of our products can go to http://info.eb.com or call 1-800-621-3900.