On Friday, June 21st, at 11:54 am EDT, the Earth’s North Pole will be tilted as far towards the Sun as it will ever be in the year. This marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and…
The longest day
Tag: 7.SP
Memorial Day, 2019
This Monday Americans will celebrate Memorial Day. Who are we honoring? How did the holiday come about? Isn’t Memorial Day usually on May 30th? Students learn a little about the history of the holiday, analyze the possibilities and patterns for when…
Earth Day – 12 possible activities
Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day – There is so much to bring to your classroom to support recycling, conserving resources, studying climate change and protecting our planet. Have you seen more Monarch butterflies lately? – Students read charts, do a little research, and make observations…
Which car should I buy?
Presidents Day is also about car sales. Should you buy a hybrid car or an electric car to save money? Students create equations for finding the break-even points of these vehicles by mileage and years of ownership. They then work…
Who’s going back to school?
In this investigation students calculate the percentage of the U.S. population (current and historically) that are enrolled in K-12 schools. They are asked to draw conclusions from these variations. Finally, they use their calculations to predict the number of enrolled…
Perseid meteor shower
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…
World Cup draw
This is part II of our reflections on the World Cup games. Part I, World Cup rankings, explained and let students practice with the formula and weighting that is used to establish each country’s team rank. This second activity deals with…
Saint Patrick’s Day
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…
Winter Olympics, PyeongChang: February 9 – 25
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…
The Olympic Torch trip in South Korea
On October 24, 2017, the Olympic flame was captured on Mount Olympus, Greece. (Lighting the Olympic Torch). That flame lit one of this year’s Olympic Torches and the Torch relay was begun on its way to the opening Winter Olympic…
Days are getting longer
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…
Scary costumes
Every year Americans spend lots of money on Halloween and Halloween costumes. Use our updated data on Halloween spending in America to engage your students in an analysis of the ratios and percents of population, participation, and money spent in honor…
Tick time and Lyme disease
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…
Powerball jackpot continues to rise in value
Powerball and MegaMillion jackpots are growing all the time. Having a terrible chance of winning half a billion dollars might be a context that engages your students. Examine compound probability to decide if playing Powerball is worth it. As part…
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…