Education Development Center
Adding Fractions with Unlike Denominators
If the fractions don't have a common denominator, make them have one. Learners first read and analyze a conversation of pupils trying to add 2/5 and 1/2. They compare the process of adding fractions to the process of adding quantities...
Curated OER
The Canoe Trip, Variation 1
Your river sportsmen will explore an example of paddling upstream as they build functions modeling speed and time in terms of the speed of the current. They then use their algebraic models to interpret features of the function related to...
Kentucky Adult Education
Probability Lesson Plan
Roll the dice with this multimedia math lesson on probability. After first viewing a series of three short videos explaining probability, independent events, and dependent events, young mathematicians complete a set of practice...
Education Development Center
Word Problem with Rational Numbers—Balancing Bars of Soap
Here's a resource teachers won't want to wash their hands of. Given a task where a full bar of soap is on one side of a balance and 3/4 of a bar of soup and a 3/4-ounce weight is on the other side, young mathematicians must determine the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Dan’s Division Strategy
Can Dan make a conjecture about dividing fractions with the same denominators? That is what your scholars are to determine. They must show that if the statement is true, they understand how the quantities were determined, and how the...
Curated OER
Comparing Exponentials
Growing money exponentially is the context of this scenario that asks learners to compare investments in two certificate of deposit accounts. Your young investment analysts will learn about the exponential characteristics of money...
Curated OER
Compounding with a 5% Interest Rate
The balance in an account continuously compounding interest is the context of this engaging task. Your young accountants will investigate the ending balance in an account as they compound the interest more and more. Learners write the...
Curated OER
Summer Intern
Your young apprentices build a function describing the percent concentration of salt in a brine. The rational function is then related to the parent function, y= 1/x, and graphed. Finally, the apprentices predict the amount of fresh...
Curated OER
Newton's Law of Cooling
Your Algebra learners analyze and solve an exponential equation in this popular, real-life model of the cooling of a liquid.
Massachusetts Department of Education
Nostalgia
To prepare for crafting their own memoir, class members examine poetry by Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, Robert Hayden, and Claude McKay, stories by Richard Rodriquez and Willa Cather, and Barry Levinson's film Avalon. They examine how...
Illustrative Mathematics
Calculating and Rounding Numbers
Mathematicians need to know that not all numbers are rational. We approximate irrational number with rational numbers. That is why a calculator may be misleading. This task give learners an opportunity to see how rounding a number and...
NASA
Transportation and Space: Reuse and Recycle
What can I use in space? The three-lesson unit has groups research what man-made or natural resources would be available during space exploration or habitation. Team members think of ways that resources can be reclaimed or reused in...
NASA
Space Transportation: Reshooting the Moon
What does it take to get stuff to the Moon? Design teams create subsystems for a space transportation system to go to the Moon. The teams study Earth transportation components along with historical space transportation systems to guide...
Illustrative Mathematics
Seeing is Believing
How many visual models can be used to show multiplication? Three basic kinds of models can be used to represent and explain the equation 4 x (9 + 2). The commentary section provides description and graphics to explain the set model,...
Illustrative Mathematics
Influenza epidemic
This activity presents a real-world problem about an epidemic of influenza spreading through a city. Learners refer to a graph that shows the number of individuals infected in relation to the number of weeks that have elapsed since the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Identifying Graphs of Functions
Match the graph with its function in an exercise that focuses on variations of the graph of y = e^x. Learners are given four graphs on the same set of axes and four functions, all involving e^x. The task is to match each function with...
Curated OER
The Canoe Trip, Variation 2
The behavior of a rational function near a vertical asymptote is the focus around this trip up a river. Specifically, numerical and graphical understanding is studied. The canoe context pushes the variables as numbers, rather than as...
Curated OER
Interesting Interest Rates
Your young bankers compare earning interest accumulated yearly and monthly to decide which method most increases their balance. Using an exponential function to model the bank balance affords the learners more practice connecting these...
Curated OER
A Saturating Exponential
Your learners analyze the familiar model of a cold beverage warming when it is taken out of the refrigerator. The general form of the equation and its graph are presented. Learners learn about the specific pieces of the function by...
Curated OER
What Functions do Two Graph Points Determine?
Your algebra learners write linear, exponential, and quadratic equations containing the same two graph points in this collaborative task.
Curated OER
Why Does SAS Work?
Your geometry learners are guided by questions that help them use the language of reflections to explain the Side-Angle-Side congruence between two triangles in this collaborative task. Given a sample solution, declaring the triangles...
NASA
The Case of the Wacky Water Cycle
Join the tree house detectives in learning about the processes of the water cycle, water conservation, water treatment, and water as a limited resource.
NASA
NASA: Moving Cargo
How does NASA transport people and cargo to planets? The five-lesson unit breaks down the transportation system that scientists use to transport cargo to space. Pairs team up in order to devise a transportation system that will carry the...
NASA
Lunar Plant Growth Chamber
Would astronauts be able to grow their food on the Moon? Teams research plant growth in order to design and build a growth chamber that will function on the lunar surface. They narrow down plant choices based upon their strengths and...