Illustrative Mathematics
Sand Under the Swing Set
Help the local elementary school fix their playground by calculating the amount of sand needed near the swing set. The problem practices setting up proportions and ratios with three different options for solving. You can chose the option...
Illustrative Mathematics
Cooking with the Whole Cup
Whoops! Travis accidentally put too much butter into the recipe. Your bakers must find out how to alter the recipe to accommodate different changes by using unit rates and ratios . The activity has multiple parts and calculations with...
Illustrative Mathematics
Two-School Dance
Who's ready for the dance? When two middle schools combine for a dance, your learners' job is to calculate the ratio of girls attending. Provided with three different solutions, you can choose from setting up a ratio, linear equation, or...
101 Questions
Nana's Chocolate Milk
Nobody wants to make Nana mad! Help Mr. Meyer fix the chocolate milk he prepared for his Nana using too many scoops of chocolate. Youngsters develop a problem-solving strategy that leads to the solution using ratios and proportions.
101 Questions
Print Job
A watched printer never finishes—or does it? Engage your classes in a ratio and proportion task that asks them to predict how long it takes to print the numbers one through 88 on 88 sheets of paper. They use video to determine the rate...
Curated OER
How Fast is Usain Bolt?
Revisit the 2012 Summer Olympics by having seventh graders calculate the unit rate sprinting speed of the 100-meter gold medal winner.
101 Questions
Gas Light
You don't want to leave any learners stranded! Explore ratios using an analysis of gas mileage and distance. Given a scenario, individuals must determine if a car has enough gas to make it to the next gas stop.
Illustrative Mathematics
Gotham City Taxis
Taxi! Have your travelers figure out how far they can go in a taxi for $10.00. They must account for the mileage rate and tip in their calculation. They can set up a table or make an equation to solve for the exact mileage they can...
Illustrative Mathematics
Tax and Tip
Finding out how to calculate tax and tip is a valuable skill that all young adults should be able to do without a calculator. Learners are given a bill and asked to calculate the tax, tip, and total amount. Calculations can be exact or...
101 Questions
Ants Marching
Your classroom will be rockin' during an toe-tapping lesson! Dave Matthews inspires a lesson on proportions as youth listen to a song and predict its length. Lesson materials provide learners with ordered pairs that mark the time slider...
101 Questions
Amazon Percent Discount
Everyone loves a good sale! A straightforward lesson provides practice with calculating a percent off of a product. Using ads from Amazon, individuals calculate the percent off the ad does not show. Pupils see the answer after revealing...
Curated OER
House Project
Make young mathematicians' dreams a reality with this fun drawing project. Given the task of designing their dream home, students create drawings and physical models that demonstrate their understanding of proportion and scale.
Teach Engineering
Scale Model Project
Try your hand at scale models. Scholars create a scale model of an object using a scale factor of their choice. As part of the project, they give presentations on their processes and calculations. This is the last installment of the...
101 Questions
Sugar Packets
Depending on your eating habits, you just may not want to know the answer to the inquiry-based question! The task is to determine the number of sugar packets in one 20-ounce soda. Learners use nutritional information from the sugar and...
Curated OER
Task: Miniature Golf
"Fore!" All right, no one really yells this out in miniature golf, but this well-defined activity will have your charges using lots of numbers in their unique design of a miniature golf hole. Included in the activity criteria is the...
101 Questions
Shower v. Bath
Which requires more water--a bath or a shower? Given some specific criteria, learners attempt to answer the question. A video shows how long it takes to fill a gallon container using a faucet and a shower head. Using that information and...
Illustrative Mathematics
Setting Goals
Setting financial goals is a common occurrence in middle school that your learners can practice using this activity. They will be able to solve for how many hours Seth needs to work to save up for a skateboard, helmet, and trip. The...
101 Questions
Thanksgiving Taters
What would a meal be without the taters? The question is, how long does it take to peel those potatoes? Given the rate of peeling one potato, scholars predict the time it takes to peel the bag. The twist is that the first potato was...
101 Questions
Electric Bill
A brilliant resource is at your disposal. Future consumers investigate and discuss an electric bill. Given only partial information, they estimate the monthly bill. They then consider how tiered pricing will affect the bill.
Teach Engineering
An Inflated Impression of Mars
Help your class understand the magnitude of the distance between Earth and Mars with an activity that asks small groups to use balloons to create scale models of the Earth, Moon, and Mars. Class members figure out the distances...
Curated OER
Snail Invasion
Exponential growth is modeled by learners as they analyze and interpret the data presented in this real-life scenario centered on the destructive invasion of the Giant African Land Snail. Learners get a touch of history and practice...
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: What's My Ratio?
In this activity, students use linear measurement and calculators to investigate proportionality and determine the constant ratio between similar figures.
Wyzant
Wyzant: Proportion Basics
WyzAnt provides an explanation and examples on solving proportions. Proportions practice problems and a proportion calculator are included in this lesson.