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?
Shooting for Three
Tag: 8.G
Daylight Savings Time and Pi Day are coming up!
How does the start of Daylight Savings Time make you feel? – updated! Will you wake up and go to sleep earlier or later on Sunday? What kind of chart or picture could you draw to help you compare before…
What can you tell about a snowflake?
As a snowflake falls from the sky, its crystal grows according to the humidity and temperatures of the air that it passes through. In this activity, students interpret a graphic that clarifies that growth and try to deduce what conditions…
2 New Macy’s Parade balloons
Students figure out the dimensions of these two new balloons using Macy’s hints and judging from the handlers’ sizes.
Betsy Ross’s 5-pointed star
The Times Square ball
It’s a gorgeous ball, covered with Waterford Crystal triangles, shaped as a geodesic icosahedron. Every New Year’s Eve it descends in Times Square to mark the beginning of the new year. Students can take a closer look at this construction…
Lots of Cranberries
In this timely activity, students learn about how cranberries are grown and harvested; estimate their size and quantities; and see what they can deduce from published statistics.
A socially-distanced party
I risked infecting my friends or becoming infected myself by throwing a very small socially-distanced party. I served baked appetizers, disinfectant wipes, and latex gloves. I cooked while wearing clean latex gloves and served the appetizers with a spatula. The…
Macy’s has some new balloons
These giant beauties can be measured in handler height, taxi cab widths, stories tall, and bicycle lengths. What does that all mean? How big are these balloons. The activity: Macy’sNewBalloons.pdf
Point of view
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…
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…
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 their 2018 Super Bowl win. So, the police departments frosted the city light poles with Crisco shortening to help discourage fans from…
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…