Illustrative Mathematics
The Florist Shop
A real-world approach to common multiples asks learners to find different groups of flowers based on their multiples. Useable as a class activity or independent exercise, they will have to organize their thoughts to explain the totals of...
Illustrative Mathematics
Ordering 4-digit Numbers
Place value is a concept that sets a foundation for mathematical understanding. Ordering these sets of three- and four-digit numbers will help to strengthen that foundation. A great independent practice worksheet or short assessment to...
Illustrative Mathematics
Centerpiece
Learners hear wedding bells in this problem set, as they help a fictional bride plan the centerpieces for her wedding reception. Algebra is married to geometry as volume, aesthetics, and budgeting all come into play. Learners are asked...
Illustrative Mathematics
Temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit and Celsius
Learners investigate the relationship between the Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales. Given two data points, they construct a linear function to describe the relationship, find the inverse of the function, and make observations...
Illustrative Mathematics
Chocolate Bar Sales
In this real-world example, algebra learners start to get a sense of how to represent the relationship between two variables in different ways. They start by looking at a partial table of values that define a linear relationship. They...
Curated OER
Ant and Elephant
Have you ever wondered how many ants make up an elephant? Inquisitive minds will be amazed as they use scientific notation to compute and compare the mass of an elephant to an ant. Have participants make guesses and see how close they...
Curated OER
Valentine Marbles
if you've ever had to guess how many items were in a jar, then this problem is for you! With a big jar full of red and white marbles, does picking a sample of 16 allow your learners to get a good estimate on the percentages of each...
Curated OER
Throwing Horseshoes
Collaborative learners interpret a quadratic expression written in different forms in this task centered on throwing horseshoes.
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...
Illustrative Mathematics
Foxes and Rabbits 2
The fox population chases the rabbit population. Groups model the populations of foxes and rabbits with two trigonometric functions. Individuals graph both trigonometric models on the same graph, and then teams determine an explanation...
Illustrative Mathematics
Cari's Aquarium
The volume of a fish tank is a rather important measure when it comes to building an aquarium for different species of fish. In this problem, your kids look at how many different ways they can make a fish tank of a specific volume, then...
Illustrative Mathematics
Looking at Numbers Every Which Way
Assess class members' ability to look at numbers every which way. A helpful worksheet contain four tasks, including writing numbers as a sum of 100's, 10's, and 1's, and drawing a picture to represent the number.
Curated OER
Animal Brains
Do big bodies make big brains? Let your learners decide whether there is an association between body weight and brain weight by putting the data from different animals into a scatterplot. They can remove any outliers and then make a line...
Illustrative Mathematics
Making 124
How many ways can you make the number 124 using only tens and ones? Use a task that prompts young mathematicians to make 124 in as many ways as possible.
Illustrative Mathematics
Stained Glass
A complex question looking for the total cost of a stained glass window by calculating area and circumference of a circle. With detailed components, this activity will challenge your designers to figure out if they have enough money to...
Curated OER
Music and Sports
With so much talent in the classroom, do your musicians and athletes have related interests? This problem has your learners taking data from their classmates to decide whether there is an association between the two activities. The...
Curated OER
Model Air Plane Acrobatics
Your young airplane enthusiasts will enjoy this collaborative task of graphing an airplane's distance from the ground as it flies in a perfect circle. They will discover that they have graphed a sinusoidal function that comes from the...
Curated OER
The Case of the Gigantic $100,000 Bill
Students investigate the money creation process and calculate the upper bound of the money creation process using a money multiplier. In this money creation lesson plan, students use a imitation $100,000 bill. Students demonstrate...
Illustrative Mathematics
Why Randomize?
Your statisticians draw several samplings from the same data set, some randomized and some not, and consider the distribution of the sample means of the two different types of samplings. The exercise demonstrates that non-random samples...
Illustrative Mathematics
Adding Tenths and Hundredths
Learning to add fractions with different denominators presents a big hurdle for many young mathematicians. Simplify the process for learners with this series of practice problems involving the friendly fractions tenths and hundredths....
Illustrative Mathematics
SAT Scores
If you earned a score of 610 on the math portion of the SAT, what would be your percentile ranking? Given the mean and standard deviation of normally distributed data, find the probability of getting a particular score, or that your...
Illustrative Mathematics
Log Ride
The rides at a theme park always have limits on weight or number of riders. This makes a natural example of the use of inequalities to solve real-world problems. Learners explore intuitive solutions using substitution to solve the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Data Transfer
A question to ask your class is, How fast is your Internet? That depends on the data transfer rate (DTR), which is the unit rate used in this activity. Math young scholars will calculate how long it takes to download a music file and a...
Curated OER
Trina's Triangles
Practice evaluating polynomial expressions at the same time you find Pythagorean Triples. Look for patterns and find examples when the "formula" does and doesn't work. Finally, verify the formula by proving the identity true.