Use the open number line and our lists of temperature extremes to make signed number operations and absolute value sensible. Students compare record high and low temps (integers) and use absolute value in order to always find the positive difference. Subtraction of negatives becomes obvious in this lesson.
Students use the National Weather System chart to gauge wind chill, examine the patterns that correlate increasing wind and/or decreasing temperatures, use wind chill numbers to estimate possible wind and temperature factors, and generally become familiar with this sort of interpolation and calculation. There’s a great high school extention that uses fractional exponents and logs to solve.
*** Two activities *** When Columbus landed in Guanahani (renamed San Salvador, Bahama Islands by Columbus), he began the European settlement of the New World. Guanahani was inhabited by the Taíno people and it wasn’t really a new world. In this…
Combine colorful and cool fall hiking with a little mathematics about percent grade change. What is a steep grade? Why is it in percent? How does grade change relate to slope?
Thursday, April 22nd is Earth Day – We have 15 interesting activities that support recycling, conserving resources, noticing climate change and protecting our planet. The shape of Louisiana – At what rate is the state loosing land and wetland? Why is this happening? Will…
How much snow is that? – How many inches of snow produced that pile? How much snow in volume is on top of the car? How much could that snow weigh? Approximation, snow/water equivalent rates (SWE) 5.MD.C, 6.RP.A, 7.RP.A, 7.EE.B, 7.G, 7.EE.A Snowy…
NASA and SpaceX plan to launch humans from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, to the International Space Station for the first time since July 11, 2011. This is a more current events activity than mathematical.
Last week millions of people marched in hundreds of countries worldwide to demand “climate justice”. Greta Thunberg speaking at World Economic Forum 2018 Choose from any of our 14 activities to let students quantify some of the results of climate…
Geometry Activities with a wow factor! Elementary grade activities Expressions, equation and systems of equations Artful Math Data and probability Number sense Weather Two variable relationships (linear, exponential etc) Coronavirus related activities Ratio, proportion, percent Summary activities
The Niña Columbus Day is a bit of an enigma that used to be celebrated throughout all of the Americas. Indigenous people were not treated well by the European colonization that began with Columbus’s voyage. For that reason, many U.S.states…
In the travel section of our newspaper this week, Wiltshire, England was a recommended destination to see Stonehendge and crop circles ……….. crop circles? Many of the crop circles in England appear mysteriously overnight. They are often huge but appear…
On Thursday evening Leslie and Brian spoke at Boston College as part of the ATMIM (Association of Teachers of Mathematics in Massachusetts) Winter Conference. Our presentation was on making mathematics meaningful to students. We shared, did and discussed math activities…
