Data on the National Mall sites – Two data analysis activities about the National Mall. Who do we honor? – What people or events are included in the National Mall monuments? Students use fractions or percents to decide what they can notice…
The Niña Columbus Day is a bit of an enigma that used to be celebrated throughout all of the Americas. Indigenous people were not treated well by the European colonization that began with Columbus’s voyage. For that reason, many U.S.states…
Catching a productive meteor shower can be a stunning experience. On the evenings and mornings of August 11th and 12th there could be a very good show. A nearly new moon will leave the night sky dark. Depending on the…
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?
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…
Scoring Ski jumping – The scoring rubric for each of the Olympic events is intended to eliminate the possibility of scoring bias from the judges. Let your students learn more about the scoring of one event and decide whether it seems fair…
Clicking on this image will show it larger in a new window. Hosting the Olympics sure does cost a lot. Why is that? How much money is $5 billion dollars? What is a cost overrun? Why would a country want…
What’s your guess? How fast are the number of daylight hours changing each day? Will the changes be dramatic or subtle? Students make guesses; compute how long, on average, the change in daylight hours should be; play with a cool…
On Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018, Earth will be as close as it gets to the Sun during its orbit. Shouldn’t that make this the warmest time of the year? In this activity students become familiar with the terms perihelion and aphelion as they calculate…
How much water is used? How much water could be saved? The activity: PottyTime-SavingWater.pdf CCSS: 5.MD.1, 5.NBT.7, 6.RP.3, 7.RP.3, MP2
With the start of summer and wonderful outdoor activities, it might be good to examine the growth of Lyme disease occurrences in the United States. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published maps for all of the…
In Massachusetts, Monday April 15th, 2019, will be a holiday from school and work. 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. Students…
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!
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…
Whether you or one of your siblings is going off to college next fall, it is useful to know how much colleges cost. Not going to college this fall? No worries, we can use the information on college costs in…