Category Archives for Math and Social Studies
How much do we spend for Mother’s Day?
Use the Mother’s Day event to engage your students in approximating, reasoning, and investigating. Brian has asked students to estimate how much is spent in the United States for Mother’s Day. There’s a lot to consider and that’s exactly what … Continue reading
Jackie Robinson
The movie “42″ is the story of Jackie Robinson, a baseball player who became the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball since the game was segregated in the 1890’s. Robinson broke the baseball color barrier when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him in April, 1947. He contributed to … 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
Patriots’ Day
Monday, April 15th is the official holiday this year to remember the Battles of Lexington and Concord that began the Revolutionary War 238 years ago in 1775. (The actual date was April 19th, 1775) Both Paul Revere and the British … Continue reading
Lifespan of a meme, the Harlem Shake
Five friends who skateboard and video tape made up a strange dance one afternoon and filmed it on February 2nd. Now the whole world knows them and their dance … weird. This is the story of the life of a … 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
Presidents’ Day 2013
Monday, February 18th, is Presidents Day. We honor presidents, veterans, purple heart recipients and sell cars. Is there more to Presidents Day? Students can learn a little of the history of the day while they check out how much various … 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
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
The Fiscal Cliff – sounds scary
We’ve used a graphic to help students understand what is meant by the Fiscal Cliff. Students will understand some of the terms and study the consequences of two upcoming scenarios. They will be deducing information from the graphic. FiscalCliff.pdf To … Continue reading
Veterans Day 2012
As Veterans Day approaches, let your students learn about and appreciate the meaning of the day by analyzing the powerful data that we’ve supplied. Students can use our numbers to create questions for their classmates … questions that are intended … Continue reading
Electoral College votes compared to Popular Election votes
On Tuesday, November 6th, eligible voters from the United States will go to the polls and cast their votes for President and Vice President. Actually we will be voting for our state’s Electoral College representatives. It will not be until … Continue reading
Halloween Boorito!
One of my favorite foods is a burrito. One of my favorite places to get a Burrito is Chipotle. Their food is delicious and environmentally friendly. For Halloween 2012, Chipotle ran the following promotion and charity drive (screen shot from … Continue reading
Electoral College
Let your students see how votes really count with our activity on the Electoral College. Can someone win the popular vote in the Presidential election and still not become President of the United States? With the 2010 census redistricting, let … 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
