In this activity students decide what equipment and supplies are necessary, estimate how much that will all cost, confer with classmates to refine their lists, and then research to find out more accurately how much it will probably cost to send them back to school. This activity could be used for students in upper elementary school all the way to high school. It offers an opportunity for kids to estimate, research, reason, calculate and communicate with each other.
Probably most of us have heard of and even used hexadecimal color codes. Don’t you wonder why their number descriptions really make sense? In this activity we first ask students to color in our Golden Spiral by giving them the…
Civilian Ukrainians are fleeing the war zone in order to remain safe and find food and housing. How do these numbers compare with other tragic evacuations. While interpreting graphics and working with these huge numbers, bring your student’s opinions and concerns into your math class.
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…
Inflation in the cost of living, last year (2021) was estimated to be about a 7%. If “shrinkflation” is happening at the same time as general inflation, is the unit cost for those shrunk items actually raised even more than 7%? Let’s find out.
Let your students practice manipulating exponents. Multiplication, division, roots, powers of powers. This powerful activity asks them to do some impressive mathematics … in their heads.
This is one of the fastest Olympic sports. Lugers, on tiny sleds, zoom down a solid ice track at fantastic speeds, hold their bodies in an aerodynamically optimized position while fighting extreme G-force, and use only a helmet as their…
The Winter Olympics begins this week in Beijing.
Wikipedia had this schedule of events. We think that there is a lot of information missing and apparent in this graphic. What can you tell and what would you like to know?
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…
In this short activity, students decide if these two sales are the same. If not, which is better? How would you explain this to someone?
Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest has been held each July 4th since 1972.
What do you wonder about this event?
What questions do you have from looking at all of this historical data?
How have the records changed?
Why do you think that is?
How many hot dogs can a human possibly eat in 10 minutes?
The winner of the Presidential Popular vote (November 3, 2020) is not always the same as the winner of the Electoral College vote (January 6, 2021). In this activity students ponder how that could happen … with data. Electoral-college-compare2020.pdf
We found this chalkboard menu at a coffee shop recently. The shop had prices for the 12-oz (small), 16-oz (medium) and 20-ounce (large) cappuccinos. And they will also make you 40-ounce cappuccino but they haven’t listed the price. A 40-oz…
Worldwide Nike supports many teams and athletes. They design, manufacture, and supply gear for almost every sport imaginable. How much are those give-aways worth? Is the company going to go broke? Probably not. Nike is huge. In this activity we…
Here’s an opportunity to work with calculating percents and the percent changes in the U.S. immigrant population. Students can reflect on what those changes demonstrate. Start your class with this very cool movie showing the history of immigration in the…