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...
Curated OER
Fast Growing Plants
Negative exponents can be tricky, but this resource makes a mathematical conundrum an easier concept to grasp by relating the concept of exponents to the amount of time a plant has been owned. Fifth, sixth, and seventh graders will...
North Carolina State University
Construction
Engineering design projects serve as great opportunities for collaborative problem solving. In this case, students work in small groups designing, building, and eventually testing a structure that meets a teacher-specified objective. It...
Illustrative Mathematics
Mile High
What is the meaning of sea level? This resource helps your class understand the meaning of elevations above, below, and at sea level. Provides for good discussion on using positive and negative numbers to represent quantities in the real...
Project Maths
Planes and Points
Build a solid foundation on which to develop future concepts. Through a guided exploration, learners compare and contrast the characteristics of points, lines, planes, rays, and segments. They measure lengths and practice notation for...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Polygons-Changing Area Versus Changing Perimeter
Investigate the area and perimeter of polygons in this geometry lesson. Young geometers use grid paper to draw a quadrilateral and calculate its area and perimeter. They also read The Greedy Triangle to identify the changing shape of...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Pi Day Fun!
In this multi-faceted introduction to pi, participants perform a bevy of pi-related activities. Ranging from measuring household items to singing pi songs and reading pi stories, this fun and non-intimidating resource serves to bring up...
Curated OER
Fuel Efficiency
Looking for a real-world situation to practice converting units? In this problem, learners must change miles per gallon to liters per km (or vice versa) to determine which car gets better gas miileage. It is a relatively short problem,...
Curated OER
Birds' Eggs
More than just data, scatter plots are full of information that can be used to answer a variety of questions. This lesson plan uses a plot with information about bird egg sizes to answer questions about the relationship between length...
Teach Engineering
Can You Take the Pressure?
Do not let the pressure get to you. The first lesson in a unit of 22 introduces the concept of air pressure. Using background knowledge, the resource gives teachers the information they need to discuss how people measure air pressure and...
Teach Engineering
Floaters and Sinkers
Whatever floats your boat. Young engineers learn about density by measuring the masses and volumes of boxes filled with different materials. Using their knowledge of densities, they hypothesize whether objects with given densities will...
Curated OER
Problem Solving: Surface Area or Volume
Strengthen young geometric muscles with this exercise in finding surface area and volume. Six problems provide practice at determining the surface area and volume of two solid figures shown in cubic units, deciding which to find given a...
Teach Engineering
Flow Rates of Faucets and Rivers
Go with the flow and use a helpful resource. A set of two activities has learners investigate flow rates. They first determine the flow rate of a faucet by measuring how long it takes to fill a bucket. Using the results, they make a...
Curated OER
Goal Setting
Students understand how they can incorporate dietary guidelines in their daily life. In this investigative lesson students set dietary goals and incorporate an activity to learn how to create a new seed variety while studying...
Teach Engineering
Stormy Skies
Young meteorologists examine the four main types of weather fronts and how they appear on a weather map. Participants learn about the difference between the types of weather fronts along with their distinguishing features. A...
Curated OER
Bouncing Ball : Function Families
A bouncing ball serves as more than entertainment when learning to apply quadratic functions to real-world events. This is the second of a two-part lesson, which can also be accessed from the website. The instructions say to measure the...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Designing a 3d Product in 2d: a Sports Bag
Sew up pupil interest with an engaging, hands-on lesson plan. Learners first design a sports bag given constraints on the dimensions of fabric. They then evaluate provided sample responses to identify strengths and weaknesses of included...
Curated OER
Let's Plot Points
Use coordinate grid paper to plot points and identify shapes that are already plotted on the paper by saying their coordinates. Pupils also measure the distance between points and play the game Battleship. There are several web links and...
Curated OER
Massive Migrations
Here is an exciting exploration of a fascinating topic for your emerging ecologists: bird migration! They begin by visiting the US Fish & Wildlife Service website to discover which Arctic birds come to their areas. They are assigned...
Curated OER
Action-Reaction! Rocket
Learners construct a rocket from a balloon propelled along a guide string. They use this model to learn about Newton's three laws of motion, examining the effect of different forces on the motion of the rocket. They measure the distance...
CK-12 Foundation
Introduction to Mean, Median, and Mode: The Tree Conundrum
How many trees should we plant? Using an interactive as a manipulative, individuals find the mean, median, and mode for sets of data. They determine the number of trees to plant in each plot of land to reach a statistical goal.
Shodor Education Foundation
Plop It!
Build upon and stack up data to get the complete picture. Using the applet, pupils build bar graphs. As the bar graph builds, the interactive graphically displays the mean, median, and mode. Learners finish by exploring the changes in...
Curated OER
Long Day?
Students become aware of the effects of tides on the Earth's rotation. In this tides lesson, students calculate the number of seconds lost over various periods of time.
NASA
Food For Thought
Science can be quite tasty. A delectable unit from NASA shows learners why it's important to consider food, nutrition, and health in space. Four lessons explore the idea in great depth, including testing cookie recipes. Along the way,...