Updated! You can order a ton of combos at Chipotle. They advertise that there are 65,000 ways to order their meals. Do you think that is correct?
Can I get your order right?
Tag: 7.SP
It’s tick time again … and Lyme disease
Spring is the start of tick encounters. Help students study the prevalence of Lyme disease in the US; in their own state; and methods for preventing it. What are your odds of contracting Lyme disease?
Peeps
This activity is a investigation intended to get students and teachers to loosen up a little and appreciate how just considering a situation might lead you to a very reasonable approximation.
Too often students think that there is only one answer that is right and that the method for approaching that solution is also limited to the “correct” approach. Surely this fear of experimenting and guessing leads to math anxieties and the fear to reason and experiment.
At least the days are getting longer
What’s your guess? How fast are the number of daylight hours changing each day? Are the changes dramatic or subtle? Students make guesses; compute how long, on average, the change in daylight hours should be; and finally understand the variability in our year of daylight hours.
Holiday soda displays
The holidays are coming! We found these timely soda displays made up entirely of 12-pack of Coca-Cola products. What questions do you have? Clicking on either image will show them larger in their own windows. Start out the activity by…
The new largest Lego set ever – The Roman Colosseum
Note: This is a remake of our 2014 and 2017 activities “How Much Does a Lego Cost?”. How much could the Roman Colosseum Lego set cost ? Student first make a guess and then think about what information would be…
Extreme weather 2020
Use the open number line and our lists of temperature extremes to make signed number operations and absolute value sensible. Students compare record high and low temps (integers) and use absolute value in order to always find the positive difference. Subtraction of negatives becomes obvious in this lesson.
It might be a good year to see the Perseid meteor shower
Catching a productive meteor shower can be a stunning experience. On the evenings and mornings of August 11th, 12th and 13th there could be a very good show. A last quarter moon will leave the night sky growing darker each…
What does the data show?
When you look at the new case numbers of the Coronavirus in the U.S. and compare that with various world and national events and our present scientific understandings, what do you wonder? What can you deduce? What might the future…
Do the best movies make the most money?
Do the “Best” movies make the most money? How could you measure the “best” movie? What information would you need to make this judgement? At most ten movies are nominated each year to receive an Oscar for the Best Picture. On Sunday, February…
The Forever Roll
Why would anyone need such a big roll of toilet paper? How does it compare to Charmin’s other toilet paper products? If this roll lasts for one month, how big a roll would I need to be able to last for one year?
Does it pay to get educated?
Updated! Why should students do well in school, graduate high school, or go on to college? In this activity median earnings by various education levels are explored. Students compare the earnings of a non-high school grad with workers who graduated…
Who’s going back to school?
Updated! Students look at the past and present populations of the U.S. and the past and present population of school attendees to calculate the percentage of the population that are enrolled in K-12 schools. They are asked to draw conclusions…
Are original movies better than their sequels?
We’ve gathered some data on movie ratings and their sequels and asked students to analyze the data, decide on some analysis and debate (with their mathematical data) which are better … the original movies or their sequels. Students see what…
Checking in on LeBron
Now the that season is underway let’s check in on how Cleveland and the Lakers are doing since LeBron changed teams. LeBron is arguably the best player in the NBA and a tremendous addition to a team … a real…