Thirteen provocative activities for this holiday season of Thanksgiving, football, and shopping.
Thanksgiving, football, shopping and giving
Tag: 8.G
What is a quantum dot?
Students learn about nanotechnology and why it works by looking closely at surface area and its comparison to volume. Hopefully they will begin to understand the incredible possibilities of this science.
Heating with wood – What’s a cord?
Students get a visual and geometric understanding of the measurements and shapes of a cord of wood while using the relative size of a ruler in various images.
Lego Fireman +
Students use our lego measurements to underestimate and over estimate this giant firefighter’s construction time and LEGO block quantity. Then students average their class estimates and compare to the real time and and quantity.
How many baseballs are in this truck?
To see this poster larger in a new window, click on the image. In 2017, Old Dominion Freight Line offered 2 free tickets to the next 3 World Series to the person who guesses closest to “How many baseballs are…
200 people
Let your students ponder this gif in full screen and then let them share what they notice and why this gif might have been created.
Wheel of Theodorus
Bring a little art into your math class as you begin to use the Pythagorean theorem and your students first meet irrational numbers.
The HAT tessellation
An Einstein aperiodic tile has just been discovered. Find out what that means and why it is significant. Plus – play with the tiles. Do you want to tile your shower floor with these? Could a tile setter pull this off?
The Times Square Ball
What does truncation mean? How is the Times Square Ball related to an icosahedron? Let students learn about the crystals and the LEDs that create this beautiful construction.
Before the holidays (16 activities)
We have tons (well, 16) of activities to bring to your class in this last week before the holiday break. Movies, science, art, cooking, economics, weather and the logic of calendars. Enjoy!
Lots of Cranberries
In this activity, students learn about how cranberries are grown and harvested; estimate their size and quantities; and see what they can deduce from published statistics.
Total lunar eclipse
On the morning of November 8, 2022, many of us will be able to see the last full lunar eclipse until March 2025. Luckily, many of us will be able to see the eclipse pretty close to when we would…
How many gumballs are there?
The James Webb space telescope and the Hubble
There have been outstanding images coming to NASA from the James Webb Telescope. Take some time to compare the Webb to the Hubble telescope that has been sending images to Earth since 1990. Look at what is different and what…
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?