Probably most of us have heard of and even used hexadecimal color codes. Don’t you wonder why their number descriptions really make sense? In this activity we first ask students to color in our Golden Spiral by giving them the…
Hexadecimal coloring
Category: Number Sense
Greatest March Madness program
Based on this data, which do you think is the greatest March Madness program ever? Once students decide their “best program ever” challenge them use a different criteria than they originally used. That is, ask them to think of another way…
Passover, Easter, and April Fools day – 10 Activities
April Fools Day ideas – We have two strange mathematical riddles to decipher; a “why does this work?” task using the Ghost Whisperer; and Robert Kaplinsky’s Foil Prank. Take your choice! MP.1, MP3,4.OA, 5.G, 8.EE, 8.SP Peeps – Students estimate the number of Peeps sold…
Mixing colors with food dye
What do you wonder about these recipes for coloring? What would happen if I used the wrong recipe (i.e. cake mix instead of egg dying) for coloring my eggs? Do all of the recipes (cake, icing, and eggs) have basically…
Want to earn $150,000? – Mersenne prime search
What’s a Mersenne prime? How hard could it be to find the next one? Why are there only 50 known Mersenne primes? What’s with $150,000? The activity: NewMersennePrime.pdf
Does seeding really matter?
March Madness is the big 68 team college basketball tournament that takes over our TV viewing during the weekends of March. School and office friends are filling out brackets. Engage your students in percents as they get excited about March…
Saint Patrick’s Day
Green, green river – They’re doing it again. In Chicago, the local plumbers union “dye” the Chicago River emerald green. Students learn the meaning of PPM (parts per million) and attempt to figure out how much dye is used to sufficiently…
The perfect bracket
Sunday, March 11th, is Selection Sunday for the Men’s March Madness Tournament. Monday night, March 12th is the selection night for the Women’s March Madness Tournament. The March Madness bracket predictions can begin. What are your chances of picking every…
Pi Day is almost here!
6 possible activities! Celebrate π in your school and in your math class with activities that demonstrate how π was derived; visually show why π makes sense; show a surprising place where π is used; increase students ability to measure and long divide; applauds…
Killing bacteria
Use the need for cleanliness during flu season to engage your students. Does it really matter whether you kill 99.9% of the bacteria or 99.999% of the germs? In this 3-act activity we’ve asked students to consider whether these claims…
Movies and the upcoming Oscars
We have 11 activities for your Oscar week. Highest Grossing Movies – Let your students develop their own ideas about compounded percent change while they have the opportunity to speak about the upcoming Academy Awards show. Worldwide box office income is compared…
Is the Iditarod really the Last Great Race on Earth?
The Iditarod Dog Sled Race begins on Saturday, March 4th in Anchorage, Alaska. This long and grueling competition is called the Last Great Race on Earth. Students do some rate, distance, and hardship comparisons to decide if they agree that the…
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…
Olympic rankings
Check out the two images of the 2008 summer Olympic medal counts. What do you notice? The Olympic Games are competitions between athletes in individual or team events and are not meant to be between countries. The International Olympic Committee…
Big Air snowboarding
Graphic generously supplied by GraphicNews.com Starting February 18th a new Olympic sport will be televised … Big Air Snowboarding. Some of your students may be officianados of snowboarding. Using this activity could be an opportunity to let those students shine.…