Consumers in the U.S. spend a lot of money. In this activity we look at historical data to see if there are any patterns in our spending. How does our holiday spending show up in these graphs? What accounts for…
Consumer spending 2018
Tag: 6.SP.5
LeBron effect?
LeBron recently left the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Los Angeles Lakers. Lebron is arguably the best player in the NBA and a tremendous addition to a team … a real difference maker. He began his career with…
Does it pay to get educated?
Updated! Why should students do well in school, graduate high school, or go on to college? In this activity median earnings by various education levels are explored. Students compare the earnings of a non-high school grad with workers who graduated…
Hurricanes
The official Atlantic hurricane season started on June 1 and doesn’t end until November 30th. Now Hurricane Florence is approaching North and South Carolina. Encourage your students to join the conversation, knowledgeably, by using our activity. Students read about hurricane classfications and…
NBA Finals, 2018
Celebrate the NBA and NBA Finals by involving your students in interpreting what can be deduced from graphical representations. In this activity students consider scatter plots, circle graphs, bar graphs, Venn Diagrams and the concept of mean. To start the…
Greatest March Madness program
Based on this data, which do you think is the greatest March Madness program ever? Once students decide their “best program ever” challenge them use a different criteria than they originally used. That is, ask them to think of another way…
Typical Super Bowl scores 2018
The Super Bowl is coming up! Share a prediction for the score of the big game. Don’t just guess, use math to help you get a better idea of what to expect. What are typical scores of a Super Bowl?…
How much does the biggest Lego set ever cost?
Note: This is a remake of our 2014 “How Much Does a Lego Cost” activity How much could the Lego Millennium Falcon cost? Student first make a guess and then think about what information would be useful in order to…
NBA Finals, 2017
Celebrate the NBA and NBA Finals by involving your students in interpreting what can be deduced from graphical representations. In this activity students consider scatter plots, circle graphs, bar graphs, Venn Diagrams and the concept of mean. To start the…
What does 95% confidence in the poll results mean?
There were polls about who would win the Presidential election. Now there are polls about approval ratings for Congress and President Trump. You can see the latest poll results here. I get so confused when polling results are reported. What…
In honor of Presidents’ Day find out about President’s pay
You can’t run for President now, but heck, 2036 is right around the corner. Being President of the United States will be quite an accomplishment and a ton of work. But, how is the pay? Does the job pay…
Fantastic Beasts – What did it cost to make?
In 2001, J.K.Rowling (the author of the Harry Potter series) wrote Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The movie of this book opened on November 18th, 2016. This is the first in a series of three movies that are meant to…
Pixar versus DreamWorks
Animated films are a billion dollar industry. The two biggest producers of animated films are DreamWorks and Pixar. The two have been going head to head for more than ten years now. So how do they stack up to each…
Which is better … original movies or their sequels?
We’ve gathered some data on movie ratings and their sequels and asked students to analyze the data, decide on some graphing analysis and debate (with their mathematical data) which are better … the original movies or their sequels. Students see…
How much does a Lego cost?
This is a three act task, with an activity guide. Show students the act one video. What questions do they have? How much could the Star Wars kit cost? Follow the activity guide, find costs based on the cost of…