Biggest losses since 2008 – The Dow is measured in points but this decline can also be measured in the percentage lost. Which way was the Dow being measured when this headline was produced? Which method makes more sense? Wasn’t the initial value of the Dow much lower in 2008?
It’s time to dye eggs … or make a rainbow colored cake. Proportions, saturation, hue and shade.
A Danish market found an interesting way to limit hoarding of hand sanitizer. How much are these costs in your currency? What is the unit price on these bottles? By how much (what percent) was the price increased? Is this…
I checked my data usage for the month. What do you notice and wonder? What could my data plan be? How much have I used? How much will I have used by the end of the month? Is this…
Finding 4-leaf clovers! Shamrocks in Ireland are actually be 3-leafed white clover, trifolium repens. If you are lucky, you can sometimes find a four-leafed clover. How rare is finding a 4-leafed clover? How hard do you have to look? What…
The Iditarod Dog Sled Race will begin this year on Saturday, March 7th in Anchorage, Alaska. It is often called The Last Great Race on Earth because it is so long and grueling. Students do some rate, distance, and hardship comparisons to decide…
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…
Bake it, deep fry it or barbecue it? When do I have to wake up to begin preparations? How long will the cooking take? How much will it cost? How many can I feed?
Brian’s son buys chocolate milk every few days to go with his lunch. His school creates an invoice that they send to parents every month that show the status of his milk account. Brian put $20.00 into this account to…
No joke. Saturday was National S’more Day. Thanks to Maggie Hefferman, Newton, MA educator, for the idea of this post. To help you celebrate this strange new holiday, we’ve asked students to do a little math to help quantify…
There is some beautiful land in Utah that was changed last year from federally protected land to Utah overseen land. The buttes of Bears Ears (shown above) and the surrounding territory contain over 100,000 archaeological sites and are sacred land…
We recently watched the approach of Hurricane Barry and worried about the fate of Louisiana. After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, what would another powerful hurricane do to this fragile state? What is it about Louisiana that causes so much…
After chlorination, it has been hard to measure the quantity of pollutants in pool water. A Canadian chemist, Xing-Fang Li, has found a marker for urine that chlorine doesn’t disguise. In this activity, students calculate volume of several pools, change that…
All soccer players on a team aren’t paid the same. The best players are paid more than the simply great players. And in Women’s soccer those same differences exist but at a smaller income scale. In this activity we examine…
What happens when you take 50% off again after taking 50% off at first? Students examine this retailer trick of giving double discounts. What happens to the price when you are given a double discount? Could everything be free?
