Curated OER
TE Activity: A Tornado in My State?
Students study data about tornadoes in the United States while completing a worksheet. They develop a bar graph showing the number of tornadoes for the top ten states in the US. They find the median and mode of the data set.
Curated OER
Math in the Wetlands Field Trip
Get your class out in the environment for hands on math activities. In this wetlands lesson, learners transplant native plants, calculate how much soil is needed, and perform math activities based on this experience. They then make...
American Statistical Association
A Sweet Task
Candy is always an effective motivator! A fun math activity uses M&M's and Skittles to explore two-way frequency tables and conditional probability. The candy can serve a dual purpose as manipulatives and experimental data.
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
The Planets and Scale
Scholars gain an insight into the relative size of planets and distance between inner and outer planets with the help of informational text, a data table, and a series of four questions.
Curated OER
Sky Observations Sky & Cloud Windows
Young scholars observe the sky and weather to gather data. They conduct experiments to answer questions about the sky and weather phenomena. They measure, analyze and present data. They create sky windows by gluing sky colored paint...
Virginia Department of Education
Quadratic Curve of Best Fit
Class members create a table of the number of chords that can be drawn given the number of points on a circle. Pupils analyze the data created, find a function to fit to it, and use the function to make further predictions.
Virginia Department of Education
Exponential Modeling
Investigate exponential growth and decay. A set of six activities has pupils collecting and researching data in a variety of situations involving exponential relationships. They model these situations with exponential functions and solve...
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
National Debt and Wars
Take a functional approach to the national debt. Learners collect information about the national debt by decade and plot the data. They determine whether an exponential curve is a good fit for the data by comparing the percent changes...
Curated OER
Nutrition and Food Security
Examine the three basic nutrients and their effects on the body. Fifth graders will research data to construct a bar graph and then demonstrate the relationship between malnutrition and food security. This is a very comprehensive...
American Statistical Association
What is the Probability of “Pigging Out”
Learners apply their understanding of luck to a probability experiment. They play a game of Pass the Pigs to determine the probability of a specific outcome. Using analysis for their data, pupils declare the measures of center, dot...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Tree Rings: Living Records of Climate
Open with a discussion on weather and climate and then explain how tree rings can provide scientists with information about the earth's past climate. Pupils analyze graphics of simulated tree rings from various US locations for the...
EngageNY
Ruling Out Chance (part 1)
What are the chances? Teach your classes to answer this question using mathematics. The first part of a three-day lesson on determining significance differences in experimental data prompts learners to analyze the data by determining the...
Rochester Institue of Technology
Ergonomic Design
To an engineer, the glass is never half full; it's just double the necessary size. The fifth installment of a nine-part technology and engineering series teaches pupils about the idea of ergonomic design. Measurements of popliteal height...
Curated OER
Bird Ecology Unit
Tenth graders conduct various activities utilizing the scientific method to formulate a hypothesis, conduct a controlled experiment, collect and analyze the data and communicate their results through a poster. They also identify...
Curated OER
Questioning NASA
Space science and math collide in this inquiry that investigates launching times for antacid-tablet rockets! Upper elementary or middle school learners collect data as they launch these mini rockets. They apply concepts of place value...
NOAA
Biological Oceanographic Investigations – Keep Away
As of 2015, there are 53,481 oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. Scholars determine how species diversity is impacted based on the ecosystem's distance from a drilling platform. It focuses on finding the mean of data sets and creating bar...
Curated OER
Pen Pals
Young scholars make their own predictions about the amount of different types of birds at each site before they go there. In groups, they collect the bird data and compose letters to their pen pals sharing their information. To end the...
Rochester Institute of Technology
Skateboard Performance Testing
Perform an activity on performance testing with a lesson focused on the purpose of wheel bearings on skateboards. Learners conduct performance testing on a skateboard to collect and interpret data.
Curated OER
Boiling and Freezing Points of Water
Challenge your sixth graders with this lesson about the freezing and boiling points of water. In these activities learners graph temperature data, read and analyze information, and identify the freezing and boiling points of water and...
Curated OER
Using Graphical Displays to Depict Health Trends in America's Youth
Identify the different types of graphs and when they are used. Learners will research a specific health issue facing teens today. They then develop a survey, collect and analyze data and present their findings in class. This is a lesson...
NOAA
El Niño
El Nino, La Nina ... and the Santa Maria? The 11th installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program explains the mechanism of El Nino/Southern Oscillation. Pupils use previous data to determine...
Statistics Education Web
How Wet is the Earth?
Water, water, everywhere? Each pupil first uses an Internet program to select 50 random points on Earth to determine the proportion of its surface covered with water. The class then combines data to determine a more accurate estimate.
Mathematics Assessment Project
Modeling Motion: Rolling Cups
Connect the size of a rolling cup to the size of circle it makes. Pupils view videos of cups of different sizes rolling in a circle. Using the videos and additional data, they attempt to determine a relationship between cup measurements...
Virginia Department of Education
Scatterplots
Math is all fun and games with this activity! Learners use an activity designed around hula hoops to collect data. They create scatter plots with their data and then analyze the graphs for correlation.