On Friday, June 21st, at 11:54 am EDT, the Earth’s North Pole will be tilted as far towards the Sun as it will ever be in the year. This marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and…
The longest day
Tag: 6.EE
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…
Mardi Gras – Fat Tuesday
Tuesday, March 5, 2019, will be the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of the season of Lent. Mardi Gras is a last hoorah and is celebrated throughout the world with feasting, partying, and general indulgence. In New Orleans…
Who’s going back to school?
In this investigation students calculate the percentage of the U.S. population (current and historically) that are enrolled in K-12 schools. They are asked to draw conclusions from these variations. Finally, they use their calculations to predict the number of enrolled…
World Cup rankings
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…
Prince Harry and Meghan Markel’s Royal Wedding
This weekend is the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markel. This will be quite an event and we can expect it to dominate the media. What have you heard about the event? What interests you? The mathematics in this…
Want to earn $150,000? – Mersenne prime search
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
Winter Olympics, PyeongChang: February 9 – 25
Scoring Ski jumping – The scoring rubric for each of the Olympic events is intended to eliminate the possibility of scoring bias from the judges. Let your students learn more about the scoring of one event and decide whether it seems fair…
Days are getting longer
What’s your guess? How fast are the number of daylight hours changing each day? Will the changes be dramatic or subtle? Students make guesses; compute how long, on average, the change in daylight hours should be; play with a cool…
Patriots’ Day
In Massachusetts, Monday April 15th, 2019, will be a holiday from school and work. We celebrate Patriots’ Day on the 3rd Monday in April to commemorate the beginning of the Revolutionary War and the battles of Lexington and Concord. Students…
Electoral College vs the Popular vote
Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com Let your students see how votes really count with our activity on the Electoral College. Can someone win the popular vote in the Presidential election and still not become President of…
Which is the best deal?
How do you calculate and justify which deal is a better savings? By dollars saved? By percent saved? By some other measure? The activity: WhichDealOffersMostValue.pdf CCSS: 4.OA, 4.NBT, 4.MD.A, 5.NBT, 6.RP, 6.EE, 7.RP, 7.EE.A
Who can play in this play area?
We visited a Chic-fil-A recently. We had a great meal and my son loved playing in the play area. While at the play area I noticed two different signs that gave the…
How much can my DVR record?
How many hours of HD video can my DVR strore? How about SD video? I love my DVR. I can record my shows and movies and watch them whenever I want. I know that when I record HD programs my…
Three great World Cup activities
World Cup ranking – Students explore the ranking formulated from each team’s previous 4 years of play in their geographical divisions. The formula is complex and weighted. Is it fair? 5.OA, 5.NBT, 5.NF.B, 6.NS.B, 6.EE, 6.SP, 7.EE, 8.F, 8.SP, HSA World…