Category: Number Sense

Powerball, Mega Millions, and probability

Recently the Mega millions’ jackpot was won in Maine at 1.35 billion dollars.  Last year, someone won 2.04 billion dollars in Powerball.   Students examine compound probability and decide whether playing Powerball or Mega millions is worth it.

Lunar New Year 2023

A combination of 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches, the year’s symbol creates a sequence of year names that eventually repeat. Students explore the least common multiple of these two cycles without ever hearing the term LCM.

Median age of country populations

The median age of countries is used to predict the future needs of each country. What are the ramifications of a predominately young population or a predominantly older population,  Why do scientists use the median measurement to study this?

Big bucks 2023

Huge sports contracts! We often hear about big player contracts. Who makes the most per year? Per game? What sports?

Beautiful mathematics

Color, measure, design, Sierpinski, spirals, Pythagorean triples, hexadecimal color codes, fractals, string design, modular math, Pascal’s triangle, Fibonacci, polyhedra, build an eclipse … Enjoy!

Before the holidays (16 activities)

We have tons (well, 16) of activities to bring to your class in this last week before the holiday break. Movies, science, art, cooking, economics, weather and the logic of calendars. Enjoy!

Winter Solstice 2022

How is the amount of darkness now related to your location on Earth? Understanding the Winter Solstice. 7.G.3, HSG.C, HSG.GMD.4, HSG.MG.1

Do I have enough wrapping paper?

In this problem based activity students first guess and then try to calculate whether they will have enough paper to wrap this present without taping pieces of wrapping paper together. I have to wrap this box. ⇒     ⇐  …

Wind chill

Students use the National Weather Service’s chart to look for patterns, make predictions, decide how many ways the wind-chill could be -22 degrees F, and compare the formula’s outcome with their chart predications.

Whole lot of cookies

Jennifer Fairbanks from Hopkinton, MA sent us this picture of the cookies that she baked in 4 hours using 13 eggs and 5 cups of sugar. Do you see some math here?

Buy, buy, buy and ship (8 ideas)

Here comes Black Friday, Small business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday.  It’s a crazy time of year.  Use all of that shopping to educate your students about good deals and how shoppers can be fooled. Is this really 70%…

Thanksgiving, shopping, football and giving

How should I cook my turkey? – Students judge timing, cost, tastiness, and quantity necessary as they plan for the feast. 4.MD.1, 5.NBT.7, 4.MD2, 6.RP.3, 6.NS.3, 7.NS.3  Great video on a deep frying fire with William Shatner. Shopping season already! – Students will…