Tag Archives for proportion
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
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
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
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
Valentine’s Data
Look down at the bottom of this post to link to our other Valentine’s Day activities. This is part of the graphic from http://visual.ly/valentines-day-facts What fraction of these roses are shaded red. The red ones symbolize flowers that come from Columbia … Continue reading
Fat Tuesday – Mardi Gras
Tuesday will be the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of the season of Lent. Mardi Gras is the last hoorah and is celebrated throughout the world with feasting, partying, and general indulgence. In New Orleans revelers throw and … Continue reading
Big Burger 2013
Time to treat the kids to ratios, proportions, fractions and big burgers! In this activity students explore ratio of the different ingredients in the world’s largest burger. They then apply this ratio of ingredients to other giant burgers. This is … 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
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
Enough mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving?
Using his famous mashed potato recipe, Brian has asked students to change decimals to fractions, to calculate ingredient measures for various-sized Thanksgiving gatherings, to explain their thinking in calculating these figures, and to judge how many servings could be created … 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
New world record pumpkin … and pie
Ron Wallace’s 2,009 pound pumpkin = 1st pumpkin over a ton in weight Let your students marvel at the new world record winning giant pumpkin as they use proportions to calculate the quantities of pumpkin puree and the number of … Continue reading
Starbucks, 2012
Time to give students some authentic math on a topic they will surely be interested in … Starbucks. We ask and answer a few questions in this activity. About how many drinks does Starbucks sell in a year? If I … Continue reading
Cheesy Goldfish
In this activity students do a little comparison shopping as they determine which size Goldfish product is the best deal. Students are introduced to the ratio table as a tool for determining equivalent ratios and comparing different rates. Students graph cost per ounce relationships and answer a … Continue reading
