Monthly Archives for January 2011

Chinese New Year

The year of the Rabbit begins on the evening of February 2, 2011 in the United States. Students learn a little about Chinese New Year and a little about the Chinese calendar as they try to figure out why the … Continue reading

30. January 2011 by Leslie
Categories: Algebra, Holidays and Annual Events | Leave a comment

Typical Super Bowl scores

Do Super Bowl games tend to have typical scores? Are there usual point spreads between the losing and winning teams? In Brian’s latest creation, students study historical Super Bowl data to reflect on average (mean, median, and mode) losing scores, … Continue reading

27. January 2011 by Leslie
Categories: Data and Probability, Holidays and Annual Events, Number Sense, Sports | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 comments

Super Bowl numerals

Super Bowl numbers are appearing again. When students see the current Super Bowl hype, let them understand the notation that all of the sports writers and advertisements are using. Introduce Roman numerals to your students as they learn the rules … Continue reading

23. January 2011 by Leslie
Categories: Holidays and Annual Events, Number Sense, Sports | Leave a comment

Super Bowl commercials

  Newton teacher, Matt Timmins gave us this timely activity. Students practice using scientific notation as they calculate the cost of Super Bowl commercials. After working with these incredible costs, students get to express their opinions about the ads and … Continue reading

18. January 2011 by Leslie
Categories: Data and Probability, Holidays and Annual Events, Number Sense, Sports | 1 comment

Season ten American Idol

Let your student study American Idol viewing figures over the last nine seasons. Students compare historical season premier and season finale audience size in several different ways to determine which event has had higher viewership. Students consider outliers and judge … Continue reading

12. January 2011 by Leslie
Categories: Data and Probability, Movies and Entertainment, Number Sense | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A losing team in the playoffs

The Seattle Seahawks just made the NFL playoffs with a losing record. They are the first NFL team to do so in a non-strike year. Let your students explore other teams in the three major sports who have made their … Continue reading

06. January 2011 by Leslie
Categories: Algebra, Data and Probability, Number Sense, Sports | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cold out … or is it?

Students ponder the relationship between place latitudes and average January temperatures while they try to discover a correlation. Is this a linear or near linear relationship? … averaging, missing data for averaging, line of best fit, Google Earth, world locations, … Continue reading

05. January 2011 by Leslie
Categories: Algebra, Holidays and Annual Events, Math and Science, Number Sense | Leave a comment

Happy Perihelion

On January 3, 2011, Earth will be as close as it gets to the Sun during its orbit. Students become familiar with the terms perihelion and aphelion as they calculate 1 AU and the perihelion distance in miles and kilometers, decide how … Continue reading

01. January 2011 by Leslie
Categories: Algebra, Holidays and Annual Events, Math and Science, Number Sense | Leave a comment