Beyond Benign
The Final Floor
Finally, the final floor plan. The 11th installment of a 15-part series looks at floor plans for houses. Scholars try their hand at creating a scale drawing for the floor plan of their dream houses.
Beyond Benign
All A Loan
When designing a house, it's important to know about percents. Through a series of three lessons, scholars first review percentages through an activity involving M&Ms and then apply that knowledge to calculate compound interest and...
Beyond Benign
Drafting Bubbles
Let's start designing a house. Future architects create floor plans for a house given certain constraints. They calculate the area of each room in the house. This is the 11th lesson in a 15-part unit.
Beyond Benign
House Project Overview
What does your perfect house look like? Pupils design a sustainable house given certain specifications. They create concept maps that detail the math skills they need to use while considering their designs.
Beyond Benign
Leave Only Footprints
You don't need to tip-toe around an enlightening resource. Young environmentalists learn about ecological footprints in the fourth instructional activity of 15. Answering a questionnaire helps them see how their own families and homes...
K20 LEARN
Identity Theft: Don't Let This Happen to Your Grandma!
Class members consider how people steal online identities as they discover the essential elements of identity theft and consumer fraud. Pupils demonstrate learning by creating a poster or video about how to avoid identity theft.
K20 LEARN
Driving Rationally: Introduction To Rational Functions And Asymptotes
Calculating average speeds is not as simple as finding an average. The instructional activity introduces class members to rational functions by presenting a problem about finding an average speed for the rest of a trip. Pupils develop an...
K20 LEARN
Simply Elementary, Watson!
Explore the process of inductive and deductive reasoning. A collaborative lesson has some groups apply an inductive approach and others a deductive approach. Through class discussion, scholars compare their processes and discuss...
K20 LEARN
Do Placebos Kill Minotaurs?
But it's just a game! Learners play a game to learn basic concepts of statistical hypothesis testing. After using the digital-game module, pupils develop their own statistical hypotheses and test them.
K20 LEARN
Cumbersome Cubes
Halving is not always so simple. Small groups build a cube and then determine how to construct a cube that is half the size. Groups create two cubes, one that is the correct size and another that would be an alternative solution. To...
K20 LEARN
Are We Golden?
Lead your class on a search for precious bones. Using a presentation, the class investigates the golden ratio in art and nature. Groups of pupils measure specific bones and find the average ratio for the class. To further cement the...
K20 LEARN
Prime Time
How many prime numbers are there between 1 and 100? By using a prime time resource, your scholars should be able to answer this question. Using arrays, they determine if numbers are prime or composite, and then write a prime...
K20 LEARN
Quadrilateral Quandary
Classify quadrilaterals quickly. After playing a game to identify quadrilaterals, your young scholars should come away with knowledge of the properties of quadrilaterals. They then apply this knowledge to create a decision tree to ease...
K20 LEARN
Round and Round We Go
Connect the dots on trigonometry with K'nex. Scholars use a K'nex model of a Ferris wheel to collect data points to plot on a height versus time graph. They'll then consider what type of function best models the data in the graph—and...
American Institute of Physics
When Computers Wore Skirts: Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and the “West Computers”
Did you know that people, known as computers, performed the complex calculations that are now done by electronic computers? Three of these human computers, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and Melba Roy Mouton are featured in a...
American Statistical Association
Who Has the Longest First Name?
Name that statistic! Classmates each write their name and the number of letters in it on a sticky note to place on the board. As a class, they determine the median, mode, and range of the name lengths, and create a dot plot of the data....
American Statistical Association
Nonlinear Modeling: Something Fishy
There are plenty of fish in the sea, but only a few good resources on regression. Young mathematicians first perform a linear regression analysis on provided weight and length data for fish. After determining that a linear model is not...
American Statistical Association
A Tale of One City and Two Lead Measurements
Lead the way in learning about lead contamination. Pupils first read several articles about the Flint water crisis and the EPA's rules for lead concentration. They use provided data from 71 Flint water wells to compute the 90th...
American Statistical Association
Choosing a Study Design for the Polio Vaccine
Be on the right side of history. Scholars first learn about polio and the meetings of the 1954 Salk polio vaccine study. In groups, they select roles, such as parents, government officials, and statisticians, and decide on the best...
American Statistical Association
How Long Are the Words in the Gettysburg Address?
It's 268 words, but one only needs to consider 10 of them at a time. A data collection and analysis activity has learners investigate the lengths of words in the Gettysburg Address. They first self-select a sample of 10 words and...
American Statistical Association
The Gumball Machine
Chew on an activity for probability. Given information on the number of gumballs in a gumball machine, scholars consider how likely it is to randomly draw a blue gumball and how many of each color they would draw in 10 trials if the...
American Statistical Association
The Mean and Variability from the Mean
Discover the mean from fair share to the balance point. The lesson takes small groups of pupils through two different interpretations of the mean, the fair share understanding of the mean, and the balance point. Scholars use the...
Flipped Math
More Probability
Multiply the amount of probability using addition. Pupils use probabilities to make predictions in problems. They find shortcuts to find probabilities instead of listing the entire sample space. The learners then use the multiplication...
Flipped Math
Introduction to Probability
Chances are high that the class will probably like the lesson. Pupils view an introduction to probability and use the information to find probabilities of simple events based on the sample space. Scholars then use their knowledge of area...