Tag: MP.4

Inflation and the cost of gasoline

In 1980, a gallon of gas costs $1.22.  Today’s prices are a lot higher.  Is that because the price has gone up or because in 1980 you could buy a lot more with $1.22 than you can buy today?

Wrapping presents on the diagonal

In this activity students determine if this method for minimizing wrapping paper is actually more efficient then the traditional method. For a hands on learning experiment, have students actually wrap a small rectangular prism using any available paper in both the traditional and diagonal methods. Then let them compare the two quantities of wrapping paper and decide which method uses less paper and by what percent.

How many athletes brought home no medal?

Probably most of the athletes that went to Tokyo didn’t win a Gold, Silver, or Bronze medal.  We couldn’t find any numbers about these people.  Can you figure it out from what we could find?

The drag in swimming – 5 Olympics activities

To win in Olympic swimming, contestants have to be incredibly fit and have marvelous endurance and technique.  Do they also need to consider the science of their motions and their equipment? Could your swimsuit, swim cap and goggles be holding…

Fidget spinners – fad or lasting trend?

Do you recognize what these are? Are you noticing students with these gadgets? Is this a forever toy or just the newest thing? Can you tell by looking at trend charts of Google searches how this phenomena will proceed?  Let’s…

Civil rights marches, how do you count a crowd?

On October 16, 1995, perhaps a million black men gathered for the Million Man March on Washington.  This was 32 years after Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial to 250,000 civil…

Pokémon GO! I should have invested

Pokémon GO is all the rage.  News reports show people glued to their smart phones as they travel to nearby landmarks where virtual critters appear and need to be caught by throwing Pokémon Balls with a phone swipe. Well, at least…

Who can play in this play area?

                We visited a Chic-fil-A recently.  We had a great meal and my son loved playing in the play area.  While at the play area I noticed two different signs that gave the…

How Many Pennies did Otha Save?

Otha Anders used picking up pennies as a way to remember to pray.  In this 3-act activity we try to estimate how much he actually collected and stored in 5 gallon water jugs.  Kick off the activity with the article with…

Free Pizza for a Whole Stadium?

Act One: Clemson Football Head Coach, Dabo Swinney, offered an amazing “poll party” with pizza for everyone if Clemson makes the College Football Playoffs in the last poll of the season.  See the written news story here.  See the news video clip…

How Much is a Tweet Worth?

These days it seems everyone is on social media. Are you? Famous athletes and entertainers are on social media and they can make a lot of money.  In this activity students study how the number of Twitter followers relates to tweet…

Free Flights?

This can’t be right!  If my flight cost $200 and I stayed for 10 days it would be free.  Right?  You can kick off this activity by asking students to think about where in the world they would love to travel…