I have to wrap this box. In this problem based activity students first guess and then try to calculate whether they will have enough paper to wrap this present without taping pieces of wrapping paper together. …with…
Do I have enough wrapping paper?
Tag: 7.EE.B
How much does it cost to send you back to school?
Back to school spending is huge and students might not appreciate what it costs to send them back to, essentially, their job of learning. In this activity students decide what equipment and supplies are necessary, estimate how much that will…
Really big beach towel
Act One: Check out this beach towel! What do you wonder? What would you like to know? Miami artist, Misael Soto (pictured on the left below), created this giant art project to make a statement about people sharing territory at the beach.…
Boeing 787 draws an airplane over the United States
Recently, pilots of a Boeing 787 testing a new set of Rolls Royce engines, fulfilled their FAA required long-distance endurance requirement in an unusual way. The Boeing pilots decided to have a little fun and fly a flight path that traced…
Spiraling triples
Let students explore the patterns of perfect squares and Pythagorean Triples as they analyze our piece of art and decide why the resulting construction looks like spiraling squares. For a finale they color their own spiraling triple. The activity: SpiralingTriples-activity.pdf
Chocolate heart-shaped raspberry cake
Students calculate base area or volume of cakes made from 2 cake pan sizes and observe how the volume of the cake changes with the increased pan size. This is an activity intended to demonstrate that the volume increase is…
Cubs bury curse !
Wow! It’s been a long time coming. The Chicago Cubs just won the World Series! The last time they won the World Series was in 1908 (For some perspective, that is the same time the first car, the Model T,…
Swimsuits – a drag?
To win in Olympic swimming, contestants have to be incredibly fit and have marvelous endurance and technique. Do they also need to consider the science of their motions and their equipment? Could your swimsuit, swim cap and goggles be holding…
How much snow is that?
Start out this activity with: What do you notice? What do you wonder? How many inches of snow produced that pile? How much snow in volume is on top of the car? How much could that snow weigh? Students try to approximate…
What’s with the plovers?
Cute little birds. Piping plovers are presently nesting on beaches along the Atlantic coast. Consequently beaches are often roped-off or closed to protect their nests and chicks. Is this conservation working? What should the numbers be like after so many…