This challenging problem and brainteaser gives first graders an opportunity to compose and decompose squares.
This is an instructional task related to deepening place-value concepts. The important piece of knowledge upon which students need to draw is that 10 tens is 1 hundred.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach third graders about counting vertices and sides in various shapes.
The objective of this lesson is to gain automaticity counting to 100 and to establish the importance of multiples of ten. The final goal of this lesson is for students to be able to count by tens and articulate the term for this.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fourth graders about counting the angles in a closed figure.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about counting the number of perpendicular lines.
This task involves solving equations with rational coefficients, and requires students to use the distributive law ("combine like terms"). The equation also provides opportunities for students to observe structure in the equation to find a quicker solution, as in the second solution presented.
This task presents a real world application of finite geometric series. The context can lead into several interesting follow-up questions and projects. Many drugs only become effective after the amount in the body builds up to a certain level. This can be modeled very well with geometric series.
In this video segment from Cyberchase, the CyberSquad must get into a vault before Hacker, Buzz and Delete by cracking a code of shapes and numbers.
It’s easy to take today’s ubiquitous colored crayons for granted, but they were the result of one individual’s innovation. Biebow introduces Edwin Binney—a mustachioed man and head of a carbon black factory—who wished to make color-pigmented wax crayons that reflected the world outside. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Think about the school/community/world in which you live and identify a problem that could be solved with a new invention.
A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fourth graders about creating largest and smallest numbers given digits.
Students learn about the role engineers and mathematicians play in developing the perfect bungee cord length by simulating and experimenting with bungee jumping using washers and rubber bands. Working as if they are engineers for a (hypothetical) amusement park, students are challenged to develop a show-stopping bungee jumping ride that is safe. To do this, they must find the maximum length of the bungee cord that permits jumpers (such as brave Washy!) to get as close to the ground as possible without going "splat"! This requires them to learn about force and displacement and run an experiment. Student teams collect and plot displacement data and calculate the slope, linear equation of the line of best fit and spring constant using Hooke's law. Students make hypotheses, interpret scatter plots looking for correlations, and consider possible sources of error. An activity worksheet, pre/post quizzes and a PowerPoint® presentation are included.
Student teams design and then create small-size models of working filter systems to simulate multi-stage wastewater treatment plants. Drawing from assorted provided materials (gravel, pebbles, sand, activated charcoal, algae, coffee filters, cloth) and staying within a (hypothetical) budget, teams create filter systems within 2-liter plastic bottles to clean the teacher-made simulated wastewater (soap, oil, sand, fertilizer, coffee grounds, beads). They aim to remove the water contaminants while reclaiming the waste material as valuable resources. They design and build the filtering systems, redesigning for improvement, and then measuring and comparing results (across teams): reclaimed quantities, water quality tests, costs, experiences and best practices. They conduct common water quality tests (such as turbidity, pH, etc., as determined by the teacher) to check the water quality before and after treatment.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to give fifth graders an overview of comparing decimals.
Students practice crossing from one family to the next in counting forward with this concentration game.
This word problem requires students to create expressions to calculate gas milage for a vehicle.
In this Cyberchase video segment, Shari Spotter gets help from the CyberSquad in doubling a recipe for crumpets.
One common mistake students make when dividing fractions using visuals is the confusion between remainder and the fractional part of a mixed number answer.
This task requires students to computer currency exchanges.
With your mouse, drag data points and their error bars, and watch the best-fit polynomial curve update instantly. You choose the type of fit: linear, quadratic, cubic, or quartic. The reduced chi-square statistic shows you when the fit is good. Or you can try to find the best fit by manually adjusting fit parameters.