Year of the Metal Rat Lunar New Year begins on Saturday, January 25th. This will be the year of the Metal Rat. The year name is a combination of 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches creating a sequence of…
Lunar New Year 2020 – Year of the Rat
Tag: 7.SP.8
Stacking Jack
Act One: Check out the video slide show. What questions do you have? The Activity: Stacking Jack Suggested Question: How many different ways can I stack Jack? That is, how many different color arrangements are there? If I wanted to take…
The perfect bracket
Sunday, March 17th, is Selection Sunday for the Men’s March Madness Tournament. Monday night, March 18th is the selection night for the Women’s March Madness Tournament. The March Madness bracket predictions can begin. What are your chances of picking every…
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…
What are the odds that Justify can win the Triple Crown?
Justify has won the Triple Crown. He’s the 13th horse to ever win all three races … Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. Amazing! How do you calculate compound probability? Skip the betting odds and deal only with the…
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…
Can I get your order just right?
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?
3 winners on the Price is Right – what are the chances?
Act One: Show this clip of the recent Price is Right program. What questions do your students have? We were wondering what the chances are of 3 contestants in a row, each spinning $1.00, and earning $1,000 each. Act Two:…
Games with dice
Time to let students become naturally curious about probability. In this activity students work in teams to record the frequency of rolled dice combinations. They observe the difference between experimental and theoretical outcomes and consider how sample size affects how the…
In the Cloud
I want to find a way to keep my photos, documents, videos and music in a place that is safer than on my computer. If my Macbook Air melts, where can I keep my irreplaceable files so that they aren’t…
Can you predict the Bears’ 2015 schedule and win big?
This year, the Chicago Bears have created a schedule-predicting contest with the prize being two tickets to all 16 home and away games. Plus air fare and lodging for the road games Plus $500 per road game in walking-around money…
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…