Exploratorium
Angle Hunting
Do angles change with distance? Using a previously made tool, individuals find and measure angles on a playground. They observe that angles are the same measure regardless of the distance at which they're measured.
Exploratorium
Handy Measuring Ratio
Your hand can be a handy tool for measurement. Young mathematicians learn how to estimate the height of objects by applying similarity. They find the horizontal distance from the object where spreading their outstretched fingers results...
Exploratorium
Stride Ruler
Take it all in stride! Scholars learn to estimate distances using their strides as measurement. They take 10 steps next to a set of meter sticks and use the final distance to estimate the length of each step. Once they've found the...
Exploratorium
Making a Translation Tesselation
Make masterful art using math. An interesting activity has learners create artwork involving tesselations. First they cut out a base shape from index cards, then they apply translations to complete their masterpieces.
Achieve
Medication Dosage
Here's the cure to boredom. Given a patient file, including medication dosage information, scholars determine the amount of medication left in the patient's bloodstream over time. They analyze the sequence of numbers and determine a...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Generating Polynomials from Patterns
Patterns and polynomials go hand in hand. Budding mathematicians analyze sequences of dot diagrams to discover the patterns in the number of white dots and black dots. They use the identified patterns to write and simplify a polynomial...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Sometimes We Need Large Numbers to Describe Small Things
String the class along to help them understand large numbers. A multi-disciplinary lesson uses literature, science, and math to look at very large numbers. Pupils conceptualize how much a million is using literature before performing a...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Learning About Surface Area and Volume
Plan a dinner party. Using a book by Marilyn Burns as a context, pupils learn about the relationships between area and perimeter and surface area and volume. The hands-on activities have learners rearrange tables and cut up meatballs to...
New York City Department of Education
Chris’ Garden Dilemma
Make the connections between area, tiling, and multiplication. A performance task and associated unit presents the concept of area and makes the connection to multiplication. Pupils work through three major sections of instruction that...
New York City Department of Education
Isabella’s Garden
Create rows and rows of vegetables. Pupils use their knowledge of multiplication to find the number of vegetable shoots planted in a garden and ways to arrange the vegetables in the performance task. Teachers use the suggested unit...
ABCya
Christmas Present Hunt
An interactive game of hidden pictures challenges scholars to locate hard-to-find gift boxes. The number of presents increases and becomes harder to find as levels progress. A joyful reindeer praises players for a job well done.
ABCya
A Blocky Christmas!!
And you thought holiday shopping was tough! A fun Christmas game prompts players to direct a star block into position with the arrow keys on their keyboard. As they progress through levels, they use the star block to move additional...
ABCya
Christmas Lights Math
Get into the holiday spirit with math! As learners complete addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problems, they earn Christmas lights that they can then use to decorate a virtual house.
ABCya
Turkey Touchdown
Touchdown! A Thanksgiving Day, football-themed learning game challenges mathematicians to answer addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. After five correct answers, players aim and kick a field goal before the next...
ABCya
Thanksgiving Challenge
Set the Thanksgiving Day holiday table with a learning game that challenges participants to think critically about family members' likes and dislikes. Players scroll over a character to reveal what the requirements are for their seating...
ABCya
Hanukkah Gelt Hunt
A Hanukkah-themed learning game challenges players to find hidden gelt. Scholars examine festive pictures to locate hard-to-see gelt—chocolate coins— and click on them to earn points before the timer runs out. Levels become increasingly...
ABCya
Gobble Squabble
A Thanksgiving-themed interactive boosts addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. Using the keyboard's arrows, players navigate a turkey through a maze, gobbling up as many berries as possible without getting tagged by...
PHET
Fractions: Equality
What makes fractions equivalent? Learners first use an interactive that shows equivalent fractions with fraction models and number lines. They then play a game where they must match sets of equivalent fractions with different denominators.
PHET
Fractions: Mixed Numbers
Mix up math lessons by incorporating an interactive. An educational interactive teaches users about mixed numbers. They first see how to convert between mixed numbers and fraction models. After completing the instruction, they play a...
PHET
Expression Exchange
Bank on your ability to write equivalent expressions. Scholars use an interactive to create expressions using coins. They then convert these to algebraic expressions and figure out how to evaluate them. A game with various difficulty...
PHET
Equality Explorer: Two Variables
Solving equations in two variables can't be that much harder than solving equations in one variable. Using a balance interactive, scholars solve equations in two variables. They apply inverse operations by adding -x, -y, or -1 as...
PHET
Equality Explorer
Find the right balance between concrete and abstract thinking. After using interactive balances to explore inverse operations, learners solve multi-step equations with variables on both sides. Of course, they can still use the...
PHET
Equality Explorer: Basics
Not all interactives are made equal. Scholars use an interactive balance to explore the concept of equality. They place different objects on balances to determine the number of each object needed to balance the scale.
PHET
Build a Fraction
Build on knowledge of fractions to build fractions. Pupils use interactives that require building fraction models for given fractions or mixed numbers and identifying fractions or mixed numbers for given models. A lab area lets users...