This activity introduces students to the power of a parabolic mirror in focusing the Sun’s rays to a single, hot, point … the focus of the parabola.
Lighting the 2022 Olympic Torch
Category: Sports
Bowl by the hour or the game?
Students consider the posted pricing of this bowling alley. What must they consider when choosing how to pay? What do you expect will be the best deal? How do you know?
Home team advantage?
Ask students whether they think a game played at home gives their team an advantage. If so, how much of an advantage? Enjoy the discussion first, then show them our graphic.
Students use the infographic to compare NFL team home and away wins. They consider the best home team, the best away team and decide if NFL teams really do seem to have a home field advantage.
Before the holidays activities (19 ideas)
Giant Macaroon Nutcracker – In 2013, Chef Andrew Yeo, built a giant macaroon nutcracker in a Boston hotel using given amounts of ingredients. Students try to figure out how much of each ingredient I will need to make a similar but much…
Thanksgiving, shopping, football and giving
14 Activities to bring some seasonal math to your classroom! Ways to cook a turkey; shopping activities; football stuff; and seasonal giving.
Watson saves
Students use the Pythagorean Theorem with Ben Watson’s incredible tackle to figure out how far he must have run. Truly phenomenal play!
Steepness and fall hiking
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?
Just ONE hot dog
A newly released nutritional and environmentally sustainable study shows that eating just one hot dog can take 36 minutes off your total healthy lifespan. How many would you have to eat to lose a whole year of your lifetime? How much did Joey Chestnut loose in the 10 minutes of Nathan’s annual contest?
How many athletes brought home no medal?
Probably most of the athletes that went to Tokyo didn’t win a Gold, Silver, or Bronze medal. We couldn’t find any numbers about these people. Can you figure it out from what we could find?
The drag in swimming – 5 Olympics activities
To win in Olympic swimming, contestants have to be incredibly fit and have marvelous endurance and technique. Do they also need to consider the science of their motions and their equipment? Could your swimsuit, swim cap and goggles be holding…
Olympic Skateboarding + more
We are very excited to see skateboarding as an event in the Tokyo Olympics. Skateboarding is athletic, artistic and difficult to master. Why has it taken so long to become an Olympic sport? What events will you be able to…
Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest will return this year
Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest has been held each July 4th since 1972.
What do you wonder about this event?
What questions do you have from looking at all of this historical data?
How have the records changed?
Why do you think that is?
How many hot dogs can a human possibly eat in 10 minutes?
Shooting for Three
The NBA court has a 3-point line that separates how many points a player will earn for his team by making a basket from outside of that line. Teams have been shooting more and more three’s, but should they be and why?
Does an NFL player’s draft order mean a lot for the player?
Students interpret the graph relating draft pick number and contract value. They consider how much being selected earlier or later, either by a few picks or rounds effects a player’s earnings and if players should really be concerned with where in the order they are selected.
Greatest March Madness program
Gonzaga just won the finals of this year’s March Madness tournament. Still, which NCAA teams have had the best basketball programs over the years. Students decide which stats count towards the “Greatest March Madness Program”. Once students decide their “best program ever,” challenge them use a different criteria than they originally used.