Balanced Assessment
House Plan
A short assessment has individuals determine the scale of a house plan. They use the scale to calculate the size of a door and window that need to be replaced, and then divide a bedroom in two, calculating the size of rooms created.
Balanced Assessment
Egyptian Statue
Investigate the proportional relationships of length, area, and volume. Learners use the dimensions of rectangular prisms to create ratios and proportions. They compare the different ratios to solve more advanced problems.
Noyce Foundation
Photographs
Scaling needs to be picture perfect. Pupils use proportional reasoning to find the missing dimension of a photo. Class members determine the sizes of paper needed for two configurations of pictures in the short assessment task.
Noyce Foundation
Mixing Paints
Let's paint the town equal parts yellow and violet, or simply brown. Pupils calculate the amount of blue and red paint needed to make six quarts of brown paint. Individuals then explain how they determined the percentage of the brown...
Noyce Foundation
Cereal
Find the best protein-packed cereal. The short assessment task covers equivalent and comparing ratios within a context. Pupils determine the cereal with the highest ratio of protein. A rubric helps teachers with point allotments for...
Noyce Foundation
Lawn Mowing
This is how long we mow the lawn together. The assessment requires the class to work with combining ratios and proportional reasoning. Pupils determine the unit rate of mowers and calculate the time required to mow a lawn if they work...
Yummy Math
Really Big Pumpkins
You may think your holiday pumpkins weigh a ton, but in a giant pumpkin contest, they actually do! Middle schoolers read about the winners of the 2014 giant pumpkin contests before solving three word problems involving multiplication and...
Yummy Math
US Holiday Candy Sales
Candy is a big business! Calculate the amount of money consumers spent on major holidays—Easter, Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Valentine's Day—based on the total amount of candy sales from 2011 and the percentage of each holiday's...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Classifying Proportion and Non-Proportion Situations
Proportions, proportions, everywhere. Class members complete an assessment task solving problems involving proportionality. They then complete an activity classifying given situations as proportional or non-proportional.
Mathematics Assessment Project
Increasing and Decreasing Quantities by a Percent
As part of a study of percent and percent change, learners first complete an assessment task with several percent change problems. They then complete an activity using cards to create a diagram expressing percent increases and decreases...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Comparing Strategies for Proportion Problems
Having problems with proportions? Then solve these proportion problems with an exercise that asks learners to first individually solve a set of problems involving ratios and proportional reasoning. Groups then discuss provided sample...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Ratios and Proportional Relationships
Time to see what they've learned. Seventh graders solve a set of seven short problems in the ratios and proportional relationships domain. Applications include photo negatives, washing machines, coffee powder, sleep, stamps, etc.
Curated OER
Buses
Busy buses bustling back and forth. In this middle school assessment task, learners use information given in a graph to answer questions about bus schedules. They then determine how many times a bus passes by other buses going in the...
Mathematics Assessment Project
25% Sale
Free clothes? In the middle school assessment task, learners first consider whether four 25 percent reductions will result in a sale price of $0. Mathematicians then determine the sale price and discount percentage of such a sale.
Mathematics Assessment Project
Ice Cream
I scream, you scream, we all determine the amount of ice cream! Pupils calculate the amount of ice cream flavors needed based on survey results in a short summative assessment. They determine the number of tubs and cost of ice cream to...
Teach Engineering
Machines and Tools (Part 2)
Which pulley system will give us a whale of a good time? Teams compare the theoretical and actual mechanical advantages of different pulley systems. They then form a recommendation for how to move a whale from an aquarium back to the ocean.
Mathed Up!
Reverse Percentages
Boost math skills and inspire scholars to show what they know with a six-page independent practice that focuses on proportional relationships and percents.
Mathed Up!
Exchange Rates
Eleven questions make up an eight-page practice exercise that focuses on how to compute exchange rates. Money used is the American dollar, Euro, and British pound.
Mathematics Assessment Project
T-Shirt Sale
Everyone loves a sale! As pupils investigate a sale on t-shirts, they determine the percent discount and original prices.
Mathematics Assessment Project
Sale!
Let's save some money! High schoolers investigate different options for price reductions. They then determine the best and worst sale from a list of options.
Willow Tree
Percents
We see percents everywhere! Building a solid understanding of their meaning is important to future mathematics, but also as citizens. Young scholars practice rewriting decimals, percents, and fractions. They also determine percents of a...
Willow Tree
Percent of Change
Your car decreases in value from $20,000 to $17,000. What percent of the value have you lost? Pupils answer word problems by determining the percent of change.
Achieve
Greenhouse Management
Who knew running a greenhouse required so much math? Amaze future mathematicians and farmers with the amount of unit conversions, ratio and proportional reasoning, and geometric applications involved by having them complete the...
Achieve
Ground Beef
Ever wonder how a butcher creates the different types of ground beef? Young mathematicians explore the methods butchers use to create their desired ground beef quality. Given a combination of two types of meat with varying leanness,...