This Monday Americans will celebrate Memorial Day. 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 for when it is…
Saturday, 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. McDonald’s moves toward Antibiotic-free chicken – What will the effects be on costs at the restaurant, costs in…
In Massachusetts, April 17th will be a holiday from school and work in Massachusetts. 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. We…
Green, green river – They’re doing it again. In Chicago, the local plumbers union “dye” the Chicago River emerald green. Students learn what PPM (parts per million) means and attempt to figure out how much dye is used to sufficiently color…
Tuesday, February 28, 2017, 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…
Here’s some more Valentine’s Day fun. How many dollars worth of sweet hearts candies are sold each Valentine’s season? What more could kids want than Sweetheart candies, problem solving, critical thinking, and number sense reasoning? Enjoy!
Time lines for life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. – Two timelines that show the rate and spacing of progress. One timeline about events and accomplisments of Martin Luther King, Jr Second timeline about the progress made in America, so…
What’s your guess as to how fast the number of daylight hours will change each day from now until June 21st? Will the changes be dramatic? Will the lengthening days be only a subtle change? Students make guesses; compute how…
Show your students this really cute segment comparing how the Electoral College functions in our elections to what students think is fair and just. From the New York Times, Electoral College 101. After showing the video consider asking your students what the grouping…
The Niña Columbus Day is a bit of an enigma that used to be celebrated all through the Americas. Columbus’s mission and arrival are now thought to have not been a noble endeavor in the way that indigenous people were treated. Now,…
These Aussi tomatoes (the tomato on the left of all of the tomatoes) are huge. How much do you guess one weighs? Can you figure it out?
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…
Conditions will be favorable for excellent views of the Perseids meteor showers in early to mid-August. Let students read charts, analyze data, work with percent of moon visibility at each phase, and understand apparent magnitude in the night sky with…
Jodie Berman, a high school math teacher in Chicago, loves mathematics and loves to cook. We’ve created an activity based on her Monster Cake (composed of everything that Cookie Monster loves) from her blog Binomial Baker. Students find the surface…
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
