Category Archives for Geometry
The Blue Marble
This video was produced by the Overview Institute to explain the effect of seeing the Earth from space. From space the Earth is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, hanging in the void, shielded and nourished … Continue reading
Foil Prank
Robert Kaplinsky kindly contributed this post. We think it would make a great April Fools day activity. Check out his site for more great lesson ideas. Watch this movie with your class: foil_prank The Challenge(s) How much does it cost to … Continue reading
Green, green river
During the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Chicago, the local plumbers union dyes the Chicago River emerald green. Students learn what PPM (parts per million) means and attempt to figure out how much dye is used to sufficiently color the … Continue reading
Pi day and more pi activities
Thursday is pi day (3.14) and we have tons of math activities and tasks to engage your students. Check out our pi day post which includes several pi explorations. You might also consider some of these timeless yummymath tasks that let students … Continue reading
Chocolates
Valentine’s Day is here again and that means candies and chocolate. In this activity students approximate the volume (through finding surface area) of three different pieces of chocolate. The chocolates are shaped like a heart, a bat (for Halloween) and … Continue reading
Super Bowl and NFL posts
Use the Super Bowl and Football hype to motivate your students with one of our activities. Just click on any of the green links to go to that activity & post. 4th down – Use data to analyze whether to … Continue reading
Timeline towards racial equality
Help students be reminded of the movement towards racial equality as they create one or two time lines. One time line is about the events and accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr. The second timeline is about the progress made … Continue reading
How many feet of lights do I need?
Watch the video of my Xmas tree with your math class. We didn’t get enough lights for the tree. How many feet of lights do you think we need in total so that the tree is properly decorated? How do … Continue reading
Twinkies
Brian loves Twinkies and the news that Hostess is going out of business has upset him terribly. He needs his Twinkies. Twinkies last forever. Right? He’s going to buy enough for 15 years of Twinkies. In this activity, students examine … Continue reading
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade
Bob Olsen, a 5th/6th grade math teacher from Illinois, sent us this great activity. Students study a map of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, describe, measure, hypothesize why this route was chosen and give an equivalent distance route. Then they … Continue reading
Is this possible?
Brian Shoemaker, a Newton, MA mathematics teacher, saw this Dunkin Donuts Mazda traveling down the road. He wondered if that size coffee cup could really have coffee in it. Wouldn’t the car rock back on its rear bumper? How much … Continue reading
Want the most candy?
Use your student’s Halloween enthusiasm to do a study on volumes. We’ve created an activity that asks students to calculate the volume of candy containers that are silly and intriguing. Skip the cone and the sphere to make this activity … Continue reading
Fall hikes
Mt. Washington, NH Fall is a beautiful time of year for hiking. Many students will be walking in the woods and mountains to enjoy the colorful leaves and the cool weather outside. Let them combine what they are doing with … Continue reading
Autumnal Equinox
September 22, 2012 is the Autumnal Equinox. It is the time of year when the imaginary plane that might pass through the Earth’s Equator would also travel through the center of the Sun. At this auspicious moment the number of … Continue reading
