Category Archives for Math and Science
Cicada swarmaggedon
Most of the life cycle of the Magicicada Septendecim is spent underground. Then at 17 year intervals, these cicadas emerge from the ground, climb deciduous trees, molt into adults, mate, lay eggs, and die. Why does the 17 year interval … Continue reading
True cost of lights bulbs
Last year the House of Representatives voted to withhold funding to enforce a law that was passed in 2007 and increases efficiency standards for light bulbs. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about the cost to consumers of CFL … Continue reading
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
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
Shamrock Shake
For Saint Patrick’s Day add a little nutrition math to your celebration. In this post we look at calories, carbohydrates, sugars, fats, and proteins to decide what would be left for our day’s meal allotment after we had lunch and … Continue reading
Cruising
There have been a lot of cruise ship mishaps and disasters this year. While these are in the news, let your students consider how these floating cities manage their resources and which of their needs are precarious as they calculate … Continue reading
Is this a leap year?
Will we have a 29th of February this year? How can you tell? Students work with a flow chart to deduce what years are going to be leap years. They learn about the exact measurement of a solar year and … Continue reading
Snow Days
Here are some pictures from a recent snowfall at my house. It snowed for 23 hours and we ended up with two snow days (no school). Using the pictures in the slide show make a prediction as to how many … Continue reading
Voyager on the edge
The two Voyager space probes are in the news recently as they approach the edge of our solar system. Scientist can tell that the Voyager’s environments are changing. They are receiving more high-energy particles streaming in from outside of our … Continue reading
Happy 14th B’ak’tun!
Clicking on this map of the Mayan territories will open it larger and in a new window Luckily, we’ve passed 12/21/2012 and the world is still here and we’ve made it into the start of the next Mayan calendar cycle … Continue reading
Hanukah is too early this year
Saturday evening, December 8th, is the first night of Hanukkah this year. Students look at the Hebrew calendar and appreciate the incredible mathematics involved in creating a calendar that aligns both the moon’s rotation about the Earth and the Earth’s … 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
Timely links
Hurricanes We wrote this activity last year for Hurricane Irene. The Saffir/Simpson Hurrican Wind scale is explained and data about past hurricanes is explored. Students are led to an analysis of whether hurricanes are becoming more frequent or more intense. New … Continue reading
Light bulbs
Last year the House of Representatives voted to withhold funding to enforce a law that was passed in 2007 and increases efficiency standards for light bulbs. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about the cost to consumers of CFL … Continue reading
