Who are we honoring? How did the holiday come about? Isn’t Memorial Day usually on May 30th?
Students learn a little about the history of the holiday, analyze the possibilities and patterns for when it is celebrated and make observations about the incredible numbers of deaths that have been caused by war.
Here in the Northeast, flowers are blooming and trees are leafing out. We thought the creation of a tree that grows before your eyes might be akin to what is going on all around us. What do you see that…
What was the going tooth rate in your house? Do you think that, on average, you were paid well or were you disappointed? Was your first tooth lost especially remunerative? Look at historical averages and check out how you did.
The date of the Presidential Inauguration this year can be written in an interesting way. What do you notice? What do you wonder? Do you think that this happens often in a year?
3 Hanukkah activities; the amazing Hebrew calendar, soda menorah, and potato latkes. In the calendar activity, students look at the Hebrew calendar and appreciate the incredible mathematics involved in creating a calendar that aligns both the moon’s revolution about the Earth and the Earth’s revolution about the Sun.
Students surmise what the difficulty of a jig saw puzzle entails and use rate calculations to estimate finishing times. They try to confirm whether doubling the number of pieces really increases puzzle completion time by a multiple of four.
What is this holiday about? Are we celebrating the start of school? New cars? The end of summer? In this short activity, students learn about the intended meaning of Labor Day as they read about its origin. For the mathematical…
Students learn how the Postal Service is funded and try to decide how the USPS could earn more or spend less in their operation. They finally get to think about whether the post office should be a government run service or a self-sustaining business.
There is a new dog aging formula that depends on methyl markers that adhere to the DNA molecules of living things. Now we know that dogs don’t age as we thought that they did.
How much more “stufed” are they compared to Triple Double Oreos, Double Stuf Oreos or even Original Oreos. Does this look yummy to you or gross? Why are they filled with creme and not cream? Maybe Nabisco’s employees can’t spell. What do you think?
Clock math, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,1,2,3,4,5,6,7… is modular math. Let your students learn about the usefulness of modular math as they color and explore Pascal’s Triangle. Very pretty math!
Why would anyone need such a big roll of toilet paper? How does it compare to Charmin’s other toilet paper products? If this roll lasts for one month, how big a roll would I need to be able to last for one year?
Math doesn’t usually create a buzz on Twitter. This past week this post did just that. People argued online about whether the answer was 16 or 1 and proceeded to insult each other’s intelligence in doing so. Use our write-up…
In December soccer teams with the strongest world rankings were chosen to play in the once-every-4-years World Cup. The World Cup competition has just begun and will continue through July 15th. The team rankings are calculated in a pretty complex…
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