Triple Crown hopefuls at the Preakness

Credit: AP Photo/Garry Jones

Saturday, May 20th, will be the running of the Preakness Stakes thoroughbred horse race in Baltimore, Maryland. The Preakness is the second major race for 3-year old thoroughbreds to run in their effort to claim the Triple Crown of horse racing.  Mage won the Kentucky Derby on May 6th.  Does he have a chance to win all three races?  In this activity we look at the empiracle probability of winning the second and third events.

The activity: Will-Mage-win-TripleCrown2023.pdf

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Mother’s Day ideas (14 activities)

Updated! How much do we spend on Mother's Day - Use the Mother's Day event to engage your students in approximating, reasoning, and investigating as students estimate how much is spent in the United States for Mother's Day.

  • For what is money spent?
  • For whom is money spent?
  • What is a low guess?
  • What is a high guess?
  • What facts would you like to know?

Spend-forMother’sDay2023.pdf

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Effects of new MLB rules

This year new rules have been added to Major League Baseball. Pitchers and batters are no longer allowed to "dawdle" or delay the game. The bases are larger. Now pitchers can only make two attempts to catch a runner trying to steal before he is penalized.

Why were these new rules begun?  How have they affected the game?

We've gathered data about the length of a 9-inning game over the years. How has that changed?  Students graph the data and hypothesize about the intent and effect of these changes.

The activity: MLB-new-rules-impact.pdf

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Guacamole for Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) is an annual celebration of the 1862 Mexican victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla. It has now evolved into a celebration of Mexican culture.

Cinco de Mayo traditionally involves dancing, speeches, parades, and Mexican food.

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo we are going to make a feast.  We've found Chipotle's actual recipe for their fabulous guacamole.  For our Cinco de Mayo dinner should we buy it from the restaurant or make it at home?

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New bust of King Charles … in chocolate

Saturday, May 6th will be King Charles' coronation. It's been a long time since a new monarch was crowned in the United Kingdom.

The artists at the Mars Wrigley company made the most beautiful chocolate bust of King Charles wearing his military uniform.  Wow!  We wondered how much that big piece of chocolate cost to make.  Chocolate doesn't last forever.  What happens next?

The activity: CelebrationBust.pdf

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Wheel of Theodorus

Bring a little art into your math class as you begin to use the Pythagorean theorem and your students first meet irrational numbers.

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