Sunday, 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…
In preparation for the Boston Marathon, we thought that an analysis of running speeds might be appropriate.Have you heard of The Six Million Dollar Man? He was the character in a science fiction show about an astronaut that was rebuilt,…
April 15th, 1947 was a date to remember. Jackie Robinson became the first African-American baseball player to play in Major League Baseball since the game was segregated in the 1890s. Robinson broke the baseball color barrier when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him in 1947…
We’ve found that some students believe that the approximation that their calculators show for irrational numbers is exact. Here’s an activity that you can advertise as long multiplication review. After they study our calculations have a discussion just to clarify…
In this activity students decide how to divide 2 pizzas amongst 6 adults and 3 pizzas amongst 8 kids. Fractional pizza parts need to be drawn and considerations discussed about which fractions are greater. Students interpret a fraction as division…
Probably most of us have heard of and even used hexadecimal color codes. Don’t you wonder why their number descriptions really make sense? In this activity we first ask students to color in our Golden Spiral by giving them the…
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…
April Fools Day ideas – We have two strange mathematical riddles to decipher; a “why does this work?” task using the Ghost Whisperer; and Robert Kaplinsky’s Foil Prank. Take your choice! MP.1, MP3,4.OA, 5.G, 8.EE, 8.SP Peeps – Students estimate the number of Peeps sold…
What do you wonder about these recipes for coloring? What would happen if I used the wrong recipe (i.e. cake mix instead of egg dying) for coloring my eggs? Do all of the recipes (cake, icing, and eggs) have basically…
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
March Madness is the big 68 team college basketball tournament that takes over our TV viewing during the weekends of March. School and office friends are filling out brackets. Engage your students in percents as they get excited about March…
Green, green river – They’re doing it again. In Chicago, the local plumbers union “dye” the Chicago River emerald green. Students learn the meaning of PPM (parts per million) and attempt to figure out how much dye is used to sufficiently…
Sunday, March 11th, is Selection Sunday for the Men’s March Madness Tournament. Monday night, March 12th is the selection night for the Women’s March Madness Tournament. The March Madness bracket predictions can begin. What are your chances of picking every…
6 possible activities! Celebrate π in your school and in your math class with activities that demonstrate how π was derived; visually show why π makes sense; show a surprising place where π is used; increase students ability to measure and long divide; applauds…
Use the need for cleanliness during flu season to engage your students. Does it really matter whether you kill 99.9% of the bacteria or 99.999% of the germs? In this 3-act activity we’ve asked students to consider whether these claims…