If you have a set of cubes for your classroom, this would make a great group hands-on project. Its an old puzzle but the activity deserves a revisit. Below are two straight-on images of my stack of blocks. Can you…
Point of view
Tag: 8.G
Betsy Ross’s Star
Flag of the United States from 1777 to 1795. In honor of Independence Day we thought it would be fun to look at one story about the first American Flag. The rough design of the flag was drawn by a…
How long would it take to build this underground house and pool?
The building of this underground house and pool was presented by Cayote Person and his partner, Mark Lavins, on their youtube channel, “Brave Wilderness.” At BraveWilderness.com the business partners post animal and adventure films to promote education and conservation. Here…
Huge Key Lime pie
More for π Day! On a cold and snowy day in Boston, two chefs created a huge Key Lime pie to remind the frozen people of the Northeast how tasty and warm the Keys of Florida are. After you…
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…
What me? Irrational?
We’ve found that some students believe that the approximation that their calculators show for irrational numbers is exact. Here’s an activity that you can advertise as long multiplication review. After they study our calculations have a discussion just to clarify…
Greasing light poles
The Philadelphia police were being proactive about keeping their enthusiastic Eagles fans from being reckless as they celebrated last year’s Super Bowl outcomes. So, the police departments have frosted the city light poles with Crisco shortening to help discourage fans…
Crop circles
In the travel section of our newspaper this week, Wiltshire, England was a recommended destination to see Stonehendge and crop circles ……….. crop circles? Many of the crop circles in England appear mysteriously overnight. They are often huge but appear…
Ladder figuring
Brian can’t even go to his town’s spring festival without seeing math. Let your class approximate the height or length of this ladder by using the relative size of the cars or the people to approximate the ladder’s length.
What time is it in Cambodia?
I need help! My daughter is traveling in Cambodia and we are supposed to Skype just before her dinner time in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. What time is that here in Boston?