Just updated!
Can you tell from its opening weekend how much the new movie, Avengers: Endgame, might earn in theaters? This activity can be used anytime and is especially timely when there is a new blockbuster movie released. We've left blank spaces in our chart for students to add their favorites or for future movies. The data for this activity can be found at: boxofficemojo.com. Just click on any movie and look for this info: 
Students compare "Opening Weekend" amounts to "Total Lifetime Gross (Domestic)" data to try to predict how much money the new Avengers movie (which just posted earning $350,000,000 in its opening weekend in the U.S.) will make at theaters. This task is accessible for any student who can plot points on a grid. It could be used for students as young as 4th graders. Older students can create a line of best fit and equation to model the data and make predictions. By plotting and analyzing the data students decide if they can, in fact, predict the future.
Does a player’s draft order (NFL) mean a lot for the player?
Every spring, roughly 250 college football players are drafted by NFL teams through the NFL draft. Team rosters, careers, and multi-million dollar contracts are on the line ... This is one of the biggest days of a football players life. Should a football player be overly concerned with where in the draft order they will be picked? How much does where they are drafted effect their earnings? How does draft pick selection relate to player contracts? Check out the graph below:
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Can this possibly be True?
Clicking on this pic will show it larger in a new window.
Could this possibly be true? What is reasonable? How do you check? Do you believe everything that you hear or read? Do you fact-check?
While considering the veracity of this statement students will need to subtract negative numbers in a very meaningful way.
Thanks to Lenny Monson for the idea for this activity.
The activity: Truth-_Real_Facts.pdf
CCSS: 6.NS.A, 7.NS.A,
Earth Day – 12 possible activities
Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day - There is so much to bring to your classroom to support recycling, conserving resources, studying climate change and protecting our planet.
Have you seen more Monarch butterflies lately? - Students read charts, do a little research, and make observations about the decline and resurgence of Monarchs. MP4, 3.MD, 6.RP.A, 7.RP.A, 7.EE, 8.EE, HSN
Measuring sea levels - We've given students a diagram of what the interior of this mechanism contains and asked them to try to decide what its purpose must be. Then we've given them the data that was collected from this place and others globally and asked what they can conclude. 6.RP.3, 7.RP.1, 8.EE.B.5, 8.F.B.4, HSS.ID.C.7, HSF.IF.B.6, MP8
Should I replace my toilets? - I have really old fashioned toilets and I'm trying to figure out if I should invest in saving water. Can you help me? 8.F.3, 8.F.4, 8.F.5, HSF.IF.B.4, HSF.IF.B.6, HSF.IF.C.7, HSF.IF.C.9, HSF.LE.A.2, HSF.LE.B.5
Passover and Easter are almost here
6 activities!
Peeps - Students estimate the number of Peeps sold each Easter season. They consider reasonability by making guesses they think might be too high and too low. Students determine necessary info, problem solve and improve their original estimates. They conduct random samplings of their estimates and compare the mean of their estimates to the actual number of peeps sold each season. 7.SP.1, 7.SP.2, HS, MP1, MP2, MP3
Patriots Day, Tax Day, and the Boston Marathon
So much is happening on April 15th this year!
As families and the news talk about filing taxes on time, it might be an excellent time to deal with where that tax money goes.
Debt and Deficit give meaning to what tax dollars pay for. The activity involves reading charts, making comparisons, computing percents and analyzing trends to let students and their families more clearly understand these issues. 5.NBT.B, 6.NS.C, 6.RP.A, 7.RP.A, 8.EE.B, HSF.IF, HSF.LE, HSM, HSS.ID, MP4, MP5, MP8
It's also the date of the Boston Marathon this year.
How long do you think the Boston marathon is? Make your best guess; how many people run it? Make your best guess; make an educated guess as to the fastest marathon time. We've gathered a lot of great data and asked some sensible and some surprising rate questions. 5.MD.1, 6.NS.3, 6.RP.1, 6.RP.2, 6.RP.3, 7.RP.1
This activity compares the best short and long distance record speeds as students learn the logic and mechanics of using fractional expressions for the number one to convert meters per second to kilometers per hour, etcetera. How fast can you run? 5.MD.A, 6.RP.A, HSA