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?
In this activity students work together to decide what equipment or supplies are necessary and how much they might cost. They research actual supply costs and finally decide how long they would have to work at minimum wage to pay for it all.
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…
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…
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…
Where will the eclipse be seen? What if you are not in the path of totality? Total solar eclipse? What is apparent size? How can the moon seem to cover the sun completely? We’ve created a pretty extensive investigation about…
The crack in Antarctica’s Larson C ice shelf has been growing for years. Has the speed of the rift’s growth stayed about the same? increased? decreased? Do the math and discuss the implications. The activity: ice-sheet-rift.pdf
Grubs are killing my grass. I don’t want to put poison into the ground. What can I do? There are tiny roundworms called beneficial nematodes. They can kill destructive soil pests in your garden and lawn. They are tiny worms that…
Disney’s animated movie, Tangled, came out in 2010. We’ve shown students some of the Brothers Grimm’s original fairy tale along with giving them a glimpse at the physics involved in the animation of Rapunzel’s hair. Ratios are needed to estimate…
In 2010, March was so rainy that flooding was the topic of every newscast and many, many conversations. The picture shows how students went home from school in Wayland Mass. on March 31st – on a Duckboat. This two page investigation asks…
Let your students practice exponents, fractional exponents, and roots with this powerful assignment that asks them to compute impressive mathematics in their heads. If you list the values of various 2 to the … s then you can ask students…