Teach Engineering
Off-Road Wheelchair Challenge
Challenge your class to use their understanding of the engineering design process to design and build a small-scale, off-road prototype for an assistive technology device. Teams select materials to build their scale models, and, using...
Teach Engineering
Amusement Park Ride: The Ups and Downs in Design
Groups design the ultimate roller coaster by considering potential and kinetic energy. They test their designs using marbles and then go on to rate each group's design based on aesthetics, loop diameter, and cost.
Teach Engineering
About Accuracy and Approximation
How accurate are robots? Groups draw lines by moving robots backwards and forwards by one rotation of the wheels. Using the appropriate formula, they determine the percent error in the length of the lines in relation to the calculated...
Perkins School for the Blind
Volume, Mass, and Density Boxes
Mass and density are difficult topics for kids to understand, and even more difficult when you have visual impairments or blindness. Learners will make boxes and fill them with cotton, sand, or crushed paper. They will feel the density...
NOAA
Fishy Deep-sea Designs!
Oceans represent more than 80 percent of all habitats, yet we know less about them than most other habitats on the planet. The instructor introduces the epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, twilight, and midnight zones in the ocean....
Baylor College
Lungometer
Life science learners construct lung-o-meters from gallon-sized milk jugs and then measure their lung capacities. For older students, have them graph the vital lung capacities of each person in the class. Cross-curricular pieces are...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Modeling Food Webs in Darién, Panama
It's a jungle out there! Young biologists journey to Darien, Panama to examine the intricate relationships between the organisms that inhabit the jungle. Groups begin by demonstrating an understanding of energy flow in ecosystems, then...
Curated OER
WORLD POPULATION STUDY
Students explore an exponential relationship and how it relates to human population growth and the current global population crisis.
Curated OER
World Population Study
Pupils explore an exponential relationship and how it relates to human population growth and the current global population crisis. They graph both exponential and linear information.
Curated OER
Design-A-Room Project (Part 3 of 3)
Students culminate a unit on measurement with a focus on area and perimeter. They design a floor plan of their dream room on graph paper showing the proper area and perimeter. They plan the budget for their room and make a 3-D scale...
Curated OER
Mathematical Models with Applications: The Sounds of Music
Students use an electronic data-collection device to model the sound produced by a guitar string. They identify the graph of a periodic situation and use the graph to determine the period and frequency of sound waves.
Curated OER
Replacement and Probability
Students explore sampling with and without replacement. They explore the effects on the probability of drawing a desired object. Students examine probability and the difference between sampling with and without replacement.
Curated OER
Building a Tree Stand or Tree House
Young scholars, in groups, design and create a model of a tree stand or house. They create a budget using given criteria. They try to sell it to the class.
Curated OER
Curve Ball
Learners explore the concept of parabolas by collecting quadratic data on a bouncing ball as it is falling using a motion detector. They plot the data and determine the equation of the quadratic in vertex form, then determine the values...
Curated OER
Slow Down - Speed Up
Pupils explore the concept of distance and time as they use a CBR to mimic distance v. time graphs. Learners walk towards and away from the monitor to create various distance v. time graphs, then discuss what motion creates certain graphs.
Curated OER
You Are Here
Students determine the relative size and distance of the planets in the solar system. They use ratios in their mathematical calculations to make models of the planets after discussing the relative sizes of the planets. They keep a...
Curated OER
Archeologist Frieze Patterns
Learners construct frieze patterns using translations and rotations. They will discuss how frieze patterns are similar to jigsaw puzzles and use Cabri Jr. to build a triangle frieze pattern using rotations, translations, and reflections.
Curated OER
Topos, Compasses, and Triangles, Oh My!
Students triangulate using a compass, topographical (topo) map and a view of outside landmarks. They take a field trip to another location away from school and mark discernible landmarks (like mountains or radio towers) and changes in...
Curated OER
The Average Kid
Students determine the traits they have in common with other students in the class and create visual profiles of the "average" boy and the "average" girl.
Curated OER
What's My Pattern?
Students recognize, describe and extend patterns in three activities. They organize data, find patterns and describe the rule for the pattern as well as use the graphing calculator to graph the data to make and test predictions. In the...
Curated OER
Exploring Graphs
Students are introduced to connecting graphing in a coordinate plane to making scatterplots on a graphing calculator. Working in pairs, they connect points plotted to make a sailboat and complete questions on a worksheet as well as plot...
Curated OER
Transformations, Tessellations, and Technology
Middle schoolers complete a unit about transformations and tessellations. They explore various tessellation websites, determine which shapes tessellate, complete a log about which website activities they complete, and create a...
Curated OER
Check Mate
Students share opinions about the goals and strategies of the games they play. They investigate the World Chess Championship by reading and discussion the article "In Major League of Chess, Next Year Comes So Soon." Students study the...
Curated OER
Filling the Glass (Water, Air, and Fractions)
Students predict which of two glasses is 1/2 full using visual estimation, height measurement, and liquid measurement methods. Mathematical equations to accurately solve the problem are determined and verified.