Brian and his son were doing some shopping when he found this shoe. Egad! Could that be someone’s real shoe? In this activity student need to use a shoe size chart, patterns or linear modeling to try to figure out…
Really big shoe
Tag: 7.G.1
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…
World Cup – How many ways?
How many games are played in each round of the World Cup? In the opening round each of the four teams in a group must play each other (round robin format). From then on each round is a knock-out round…
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. Here’s a simplistic picture of 1/2 of an NBA full court. Teams…
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…
How many times bigger?
Listen to students initial thoughts as they wrestle through what “bigger” means … length? height? wheel-base? volume?
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…
Kilauea’s lava flow
The volcano, Kilauea, on the Big Island of Hawaii, has been active and erupting since 2008. There are two lava flows at present and one is now approaching homes on the Big Island. This is another example of natural events…
How large a TV should I get?
This is a great looking room, but do you see what is wrong with this picture? Whether you are in middle school or high school, someday you are going to be moving out and you might need to select the…
Three great World Cup activities
World Cup ranking – Students explore the ranking formulated from each team’s previous 4 years of play in their geographical divisions. The formula is complex and weighted. Is it fair? 5.OA, 5.NBT, 5.NF.B, 6.NS.B, 6.EE, 6.SP, 7.EE, 8.F, 8.SP, HSA World…