These posts help students see patterns and relationships.
Not enough mashed potatoes – Use Brian’s famous mashed potatoes recipe to practice changing decimals to fractions; calculating ingredient measure for various-sized Thanksgiving gatherings; have students explain their reasoning; and to have students figure out how many servings 7½ pounds of…
When shopping next Friday, students will be able to add some understanding and analysis to the trip after calculating savings in dollars and percents with this timely investigation.
As we get ready for next week’s holiday, students can study a map of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, describe, measure and hypothesize why this route was chosen and then calculate how long each band will be marching and…
Should I oven bake it, deep fry it or barbecue and smoke it? When do I have to wake up to begin preparations? How long will the cooking take? How much will it cost? How many can I feed? Will there…
TJ Watt was fined for roughing the passer. Check out the tweet from Darren Rovell and engage your students in a familiar context for a classic percent problem – solving for the “whole.” JUST IN: @_TJWatt lost 38% of his…
The growing deficits of our government and accumulated debt are constantly in the news. Allow your students to investigate these concepts and their causes with this timely activity. The activity involves reading charts, making comparisons, computing percents and analyzing trends…
As the Halloween season begins, let your students play a spooky game. How does this work? Students can play this game online at Ghost Whisperer Crystal Ball and then Figure out why it works. Construct viable arguments Critique the work of others…
Ooooo. Scary! This is a slightly didactic activity on vampire bats. We’ve given lots of interesting metric and customary unit facts and asked students to relate those sizes to more familiar objects. Simply enjoy the season with this slightly creepy activity…
In 2015 the NFL changed the extra point kick distance to 33 yards and now teams have a tough decision to make, go for one or two points? The one point extra point is no longer a given with…
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 midst of another NFL season, we introduce students to Fantasy Football. Students first calculate football points given touchdowns, yardage gains and interceptions. They are then challenged to generalize an equation that gives a player’s total fantasy points. Students solve…
Sol LeWitt (1928 – 2007) was a an American artist involved in Conceptual art and Minimalism. This structure is housed in the garden of the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall. The activity: Four-sidedPyramid.pdf CCSS: 4.OA.C, 5.OA.B, 7.EE.B, HSF.BF, HSF.LE, HSM, MP5 Two related…
Who’s going back to school? – Students calculate the historical changes in U.S. population percentages of people who are going back to school and try to formulate reasons for these variations. 6.EE, 6.RP.3, 6.SP, 7.EE, 7.RP.3, 7.SP Does it pay to get…
You have probably heard about major storms hitting Hawaii and the Carolinas. Now is the season for increased cyclonic activity around the globe. How is it measured? Are storms becoming more intense? Did you know there is a formula for…
Thursday, September 22nd of this year will be 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…