Illustrative Mathematics
The Geometry of Letters
Use the alphabet as a tool for teaching your class about geometric figures. Break apart capital letters into line segments and arcs. Classify angles as right, acute, or obtuse. Identify parallel and perpendicular lines. An excellent...
McGraw Hill
The Wellness Triangle
Health is not simply the absence of disease or a one-dimensional notion, but is really a combination of physical, emotional, and social components. Discover the wellness triangle, which not only includes signs of health and ways to...
Illustrative Mathematics
Price per Pound and Pounds per Dollar
Help learners understand the concept of unit rate as it is applied to buying beans at a grocery store. The objective is to determine the unit rate in two ways, and then apply each ratio to an additional problem. The attached commentary...
Illustrative Mathematics
Dividing by One-Half
Understanding when to divide by two or one-half can be confusing. Here is an activity that gives four different scenarios. It is up to your number crunchers to decide if they divide by two or one-half. The easiest way to approach the...
Illustrative Mathematics
What is a Trapezoid? (Part 2)
This collaborative activity investigates the meaning of a trapezoid and a parallelogram. It begins by presenting two different definitions of a trapezoid. Learners are to reason abstractly the difference between the two definitions and...
Illustrative Mathematics
Banana Pudding
Making banana pudding despite misplacing your one-cup measuring cup is easy as long as you can find your quarter-cup measuring cup! This real-life activity provides a good opportunity for learners to interpret division of a whole...
Curated OER
The Class Trip
Mrs. Moore's class is trying to earn money for a trip to the science museum, but how much more do they need? Solve this problem with your own class as they develop their ability to model real-life situations algebraically. As an added...
Curated OER
Symmetry of the Addition Table
Help your class discover the commutative property of addition with this exploration of the addition table. By folding and coloring the table, a symmetry is found that directs students to an understanding of this crucial mathematical...
Curated OER
Snow Day
It's a snow day, and two brothers attending schools with different schedules each got a late start to the day. But who had the shorter school day? That's what your class will find out as they apply their knowledge of fractions to this...
Illustrative Mathematics
Battle Ship Using Grid Paper
You sank my battleship! The iconic cry of the time-honored game, Battleship will be heard in classrooms with this learning game that requires only grid paper, pencils, and an introductory knowledge of the first quadrant of the coordinate...
Friends of Fort McHenry
Sensory “Star Spangled Banner”
Music can help us to access memories and events in a meaningful way, and Francis Scott Key used specific words to convey what he had seen and felt when writing what would become America's national anthem. Help your class connect to...
Friends of Fort McHenry
Baltimore – Caught in the Middle
Choosing sides is no easy matter, and this was certainly true for the citizens of Baltimore in the beginning stages of the Civil War. Using video, group analysis of several primary sources, and discussion, this detailed and thorough...
Friends of Fort McHenry
A Just War or Just a War?
What, if anything, makes a war "just"? This is an interesting and important question to explore with your class, and you can utilize an excellent lesson plan to support your group inquiry. The American Revolution and the War of 1812...
Curated OER
Halves, Thirds, and Sixths
An excellent activity that effectively pulls together the concepts of area, fractions, and equivalent fractions! Using 3x2 rectangular arrays, 3rd graders are introduced to the concept of area in terms of square units. Building on this...
Curated OER
The Square Counting Shortcut
An excellent lesson that encourages young scholars to discover how complex figures can be broken into simpler shapes when measuring area. Working with block letters, learners are given the freedom to develop their own strategies for...
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
Finance: Depreciation (Double Declining)
Of particular interest to a group of business and finance pupils, this lesson explores depreciation of automobile values by comparing the double declining balance to the straight line method. Mostly this is done through a slide...
Center Science Education
Investigating the Climate
What do graphs of atmospheric gases over time show us? Do they indicate that carbon sources and carbon sinks are not in balance? Up-and-coming meteorologists watch video clips, read information, and analyze data from the HIPPO...
Illustrative Mathematics
Pennies to Heaven
Even though pennies seem to be relatively thin, stack enough of them into a single stack, and you could have quite a high stack. Enough so, that the final result can be a surprise to you as well as your class. This activity centers...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Mean, Median, Mode, and Range
What a find! Here is a lesson, designed to meet sixth grade math Common Core standards, that focuses on the calculation of different measures of center for the scores from a penalty shoot-out competition. An independent...
Yummy Math
Diapers
Most of your students probably think a car or college is the first big expense their parents could help them with, but as it turns out these kids have been costing their parents for their whole lives. Have they ever considered how much...
Curated OER
Mt. Whitney to Death Valley
This is an intriguing problem that brings together real-world data, technology, and mathematical problem solving. If visibility wasn't an issue, could you see from the highest point in the lower 48 states, Mt. Whitney, to the lowest...
Curated OER
Strict Parents
Are your parents or guardians strict? That's an interesting question many of your pupils are probably interested in discussing. How do you design a study directed at your high schooler to gain insight into that question? How do you...
Curated OER
Analyzing Congruence Proofs
Looking at numerous examples of triangles, each with different properties, geometers develop their understanding of congruency. They use the notation of a counter-example to disprove certain conjectures and prove geometric theorems and...
Curated OER
Interpreting Algebraic Expressions
Interpreting algebraic expressions is a fundamental skill in beginning algebra. This lesson approaches the task in numerous ways. First, learners assess their understanding with a short worksheet on converting between words and...