Concord Consortium
Gestation and Longevity
Is the gestation length of an animal a predictor of the average life expectancy of that animal? Learners analyze similar data for more than 50 different animals. They choose a data display and draw conclusions from their graphs.
Concord Consortium
Function Project
What if a coordinate plane becomes a slope-intercept plane? What does the graph of a linear function look like? Learners explore these questions by graphing the y-intercept of a linear equation as a function of its slope. The result is a...
Concord Consortium
Boards IV
Build a connection between algebraic sequences and spreadsheets. Learners examine a specific folding pattern and convert the pattern into a spreadsheet. The goal of the spreadsheet is to produce a sequence of a specific pattern modeled...
Concord Consortium
Boards III
Learn to visualize mathematical patterns as a folded pattern. Beginning with a visual display, the task encourages pupils to view sequences as a folded table. The pattern of the table then becomes a formula in a spreadsheet that...
Concord Consortium
Boards II
Build spreadsheet skills while investigating decimal multiplication. An open-ended task asks learners to edit a spreadsheet to create a multiplication table for decimals. Provided with a specific interval, pupils create formulas that...
Concord Consortium
Cities and Gas Stations
In Utah, one stretch of highway goes for 106 miles without a single gas station. Where should people build one? Scholars face the dilemma of where to place a new gas station between three cities. They consider distance and proximity to...
Concord Consortium
Broken Spreadsheet I
There is power in spreadsheet formulas and learners use this power to model quadratic data. Given a scatterplot of a parabola, pupils create formulas in a spreadsheet to populate the data. The formulas they use lead to an understanding...
Concord Consortium
Boards I
Learners create patterns in a table to mimic the function of an electronic spreadsheet. The result is a table that creates an addition table for decimals in intervals of one-tenth. While creating the pattern, pupils must thoroughly...
Concord Consortium
Catching Up
Class members have some catching up to do. Given a linear equation describing the distance of a runner, young mathematicians interpret the equation in terms of the context. They consider a general equation of the same form and describe...
Concord Consortium
Calculator Numbers
Know thy calculator. Young mathematicians use their calculators to answer a set of questions. They consider how the number of digits the calculator displays affects the answers to calculations. They then find examples of computations...
Concord Consortium
Twinkle, Twinkle
Take a look at a star resource. Young mathematicians use a graphing calculator to draw intersecting lines that look like a star. They then apply translations to move the entire star and also consider what transformations must occur to...
CCSS Math Activities
Picking Apples
Pick the resource while it's ripe. A performance task challenges young mathematicians to consider the costs of apple picking. They compare the costs for two different orchards for different situations.
Concord Consortium
Betweenness III
Don't let a little challenge get between your pupils and their learning! Scholars compare two absolute value functions to recognize patterns and use them to build their own functions with outputs that are between the given. They then...
Concord Consortium
Betweenness II
Read between the curves ... quadratic curves! Young scholars analyze the graphs of two quadratic functions by writing their own function whose outputs are between the two given. They then consider intersecting quadratic functions and...
Concord Consortium
Betweenness I
Just between us, this is a pretty cool lesson! Given two functions with the same slope, learners write three new functions whose outputs are all between the given functions. The question is open-ended, allowing pupils to explore the...
Concord Consortium
Be Well
How much do you spend on healthcare each year? Data shows the expenditures in the US rise significantly each year. Young scholars use the data to calculate a rate of change over a 30-year period and look for—as well as provide— possible...
Pearson
Practice Test English Language Arts: Grade 8
As teachers, it is our job to encourage learners to stand up for what they believe in and help them learn lessons from life's events. A set of practice questions designed for the ELA MCAS assessment features passages that teach positive...
Fluence Learning
Writing an Argument: The NIEHS
Should the work of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences be funded by the government? Middle schoolers weigh in on the status of federal funding for programs that protect the environment with three text passages and...
Fluence Learning
Writing an Argument: Persuasive Speeches to Students
Powerful orators make their messages compelling with a combination of factors. Learn how to be an inspirational speaker with a reading assessment activity that presents a list of persuasive speaking techniques, as well as two speeches...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text: Beyond the Beyond—Galaxies
Everyone has a different point of view, even when it comes to the enormity of the universe. Two separate text passages explain the scope of a galaxy, prompting young readers to write an essay about each author's argument and how the...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literature: What Is Happiness?
Jack London's heart for adventure has come to define the spirit of America and its frontier. Selected passages from the foreword The Cruise of the Snark take eighth graders through London's construction and voyage of his ship before...
George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum
Teaching Primary and Secondary Sources
What makes a source primary or secondary? Middle schoolers read a definition of each term before exploring different examples and applying their knowledge to a research project.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Unit 3 Pre-Test, Grades 7–9
Earth's systems respond to changes in environments in all types of ways including migration, extinction, adaptation, immigration, and emigration to name a few. Part one in a series of seven is a pre-test consisting of 14 questions. Some...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Unit 4 Pre-Assessment
Pre-assessments are great to help teachers determine what information their classes lack, what misconceptions they have, and how in depth to teach specific concepts. The first in a five-part series is a pre-assessment of middle...