This week Hurricane Fiona caused major damage to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean, This is the season for increased cyclonic activity around the globe. How are hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones related? There is a measurement called the Accumulated…
The Kansas Jayhawks just won the finals of this year’s March Madness tournament. Which NCAA teams have had the best basketball programs over the years. Students decide which stats count towards the “Greatest March Madness Program”.
Are finding four-leafed clovers really hard to do? How much dye does it take to turn the Chicago River green? If you were keeping track of your food intake, how much would a Shamrock Shake cost you?
Students do some rate, distance, and hardship comparisons to decide if they agree that the Iditarod is really the Last Great Race on Earth.
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.
What is interesting about the number, 12 22 21 … and why did we put it on YummyMath today?
In this activity students try to figure out how time settings will change as they move from place to place and what variables are involved in the daylight savings time shift. Day length? Latitude?
The Day of the Dead is always on the first and second of November. Life and death are part of the natural cycle of life and the Dia de los Muertos honors that cycle. Peppery Mexican hot chocolate is part…
*** Two activities *** When Columbus landed in Guanahani (renamed San Salvador, Bahama Islands by Columbus), he began the European settlement of the New World. Guanahani was inhabited by the Taíno people and it wasn’t really a new world. In this…
Combine colorful and cool fall hiking with a little mathematics about percent grade change. What is a steep grade? Why is it in percent? How does grade change relate to slope?
In this activity student try to redistrict our pretend state in order to preserve the overall state’s leanings in its new districting plan. Then students redistrict the same state in a way that insures that the minority party will win the next election.
Now we’re plagued with the Delta variant of the coronavirus. What was the original virus’ R-naught number and what has it become?
New York City is still tallying its election results for a new Mayor. This year they tried Ranked Choice Voting. What does that mean? How does that work? What are the ramifications of this sort of voting? Do you think that this will be a fairer and more positive way of electing a Mayor? Students experiment with the technique of tallying the votes using our flow chart and make some observations and decisions about the process.
What is a payday loan? How is it different from a bank loan or debt on a credit card? Is this a good idea?
This activity is a investigation intended to get students and teachers to loosen up a little and appreciate how just considering a situation might lead you to a very reasonable approximation.
Too often students think that there is only one answer that is right and that the method for approaching that solution is also limited to the “correct” approach. Surely this fear of experimenting and guessing leads to math anxieties and the fear to reason and experiment.