Saturday, June 20th, 2020 Sunrise on summer solstice at Stonehenge On Saturday, June 20th, at 5:44 pm EDT, the Earth’s North Pole will be tilted as far towards the Sun as it will ever be in the year. This marks the…
Summer Solstice, the longest day
Tag: estimation
National Donut Day
Two activities to help celebrate National Donut Day
How many donuts is that = huge box of donuts to approximate.
How have donuts changed = torus volume measurements, formula intuition, and algebraic transformation of one formula into a second formula.
Big beach towel
Since beaches are starting to open again, we thought this activity might bring smiles and hopes. Act One: Check out this beach towel! What do you wonder? What would you like to know? Miami artist, Misael Soto (pictured on the left below),…
How many feet of lights should I buy for my tree?
Check out our Christmas Tree. We need to buy lights for the tree. Without calculating, guess how many feet of lights you will need. What information do you need to better estimate the number of feet of lights that you…
How much snow is that?
Start out this activity with: What do you notice? What do you wonder? How many inches of snow produced that pile? How much snow in volume is on top of the car? How much could that snow weigh? Students try to approximate…
How long will it take you to trick-or-treat?
It’s Halloween and this is your neighborhood. How long will it take you to trick or treat at every house in your neighborhood? Possible conversation with students: How long will it take you to get from house to house? You…
Monster cake
Jodie Berman, a high school math teacher in Chicago, loves mathematics and loves to cook. We’ve created an activity based on her Monster Cake (composed of everything that Cookie Monster loves). This recipe is published in her blog, Binomial Baker, First,…
Hurricanes 2019
The official Atlantic hurricane season started on June 1 and doesn’t end until November 30th. Now Hurricane Dorian is approaching the East Coast. Encourage your students to join the conversation, knowledgeably, by using our activity. Students read about hurricane classfications and calculate…
The cost of going back to school
Back to school spending is huge and students might not appreciate what it costs to send them back to, essentially, their job of learning. In this activity students decide what equipment and supplies are necessary, estimate how much that will…
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…
Opening Weekend – Avengers: Endgame
Can you tell from its opening weekend how much the new movie, Avengers: Endgame, might earn in theaters? This activity can be used anytime and is especially timely when there is a new blockbuster movie released. We’ve left blank spaces…
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…
Does seeding really matter?
March Madness is the big 68 team college basketball tournament that takes over our TV viewing during the weekends of March. School and office friends are filling out brackets. Engage your students in percents as they get excited about March…
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…
Do I have enough wrapping paper?
I have to wrap this box. In this problem based activity students first guess and then try to calculate whether they will have enough paper to wrap this present without taping pieces of wrapping paper together. …with…