In this activity student need to use a shoe size chart, patterns or linear modeling to try to figure out what size this shoe must be. Then they try to estimate how tall this person must have been.
This shoe is huge!
Tag: 7.G.1
How many times bigger?
Listen to students initial thoughts as they wrestle through what “bigger” means … length? height? wheel-base? volume? Come up with guesses that are too high and too low. Show that the average of guesses is pretty close to actual.
World Cup 2022 – Qatar (2 activities)
The World Cup of Soccer begins November 20, 2022. We have two different activities involving the logic of setting up a fair draw and the number of matches that each team may have to play.
Shooting for Three
The NBA court has a 3-point line that separates how many points a player will earn for his team by making a basket from outside of that line. Teams have been shooting more and more three’s, but should they be and why?
How big is this hornet really?
Giant hornets have now migrated to North America. In this activity students take the hornet’s measurements in millimeters and try to draw the hornet, life-sized, on centimeter graph paper. They learn a little more about the new beast.
National Donut Day
Two activities to help celebrate National Donut Day
How many donuts is that = huge box of donuts to approximate.
How have donuts changed = torus volume measurements, formula intuition, and algebraic transformation of one formula into a second formula.
World record Snickers Bar
This World Record Snickers Bar was created in late January at the Waco, Texas Mars Wrigley Plant. What proportions would be an accurate cross sections of this monster bar? How many Mars Wrigley workers would this feed? How are your calculations different from what was published? How must their calculations have differed from yours?
Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade 2019
As we get ready for next week’s holiday, students can study a map of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, describe, measure and hypothesize why this route was chosen and then calculate how long each band will be marching…
BIG Snickers bar
Wow! This snickers bar is huge! Act 1 – Big question = How many times bigger than a regular Snickers bar is this? What info would you like to know? How are you going to judge how much bigger this is…
Total solar eclipse – apparent sizes
Where will the eclipse be seen? What if you are not in the path of totality? Total solar eclipse? What is apparent size? How can the moon seem to cover the sun completely? We’ve created a pretty extensive investigation about…
Giant iceberg
Over the past Easter weekend this giant iceberg drifted passed Ferryland, Newfoundland. Its hard to tell how large it actually is but it looks huge. Use some of the data that was supplied and your estimation skills to gauge the…
Giant macaroon nutcracker, revisited
Each year the Boston Ballet highlights the holiday season with the Nutcracker ballet. In 2014, the Boston Ritz Carlton Hotel’s chef, Andrew Yeo and his pastry team, created a gorgeous and massive Nutcracker cake of macaroons and fondant to celebrate the…
Flag Art
A little ratio art might be a fun way to get ready for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday. In this activity students measure; create whole number ratios for the official U.S. flag; decide how our artistic flags will be different…
Glowing rectangles
People spend lots of time staring at their screens (glowing rectangles). Kids spend hours each day using their cell phones, computers, tablets, television and more. Use that interest to motivate your student’s analysis of screen ratios and what proportions they…
How Many Donuts is That?
Act One: Take a look at the picture. What is the first question that comes to mind? How many donuts is that? What information would be useful? Act Two: See pictures below. Your students can view all of the pictures…