Curated OER
Energy and Control
Students investigate the question, "how does understanding the properties and characteristics of light help us to enhance our quality of life?". They apply knowledge gained though the unit in order to create an optical device.
Discovery Education
Architects in Action
Hands-on and real-world applications are great ways to teach mathematical concepts. Creative thinkers examine how ratios are used to create scale models of buildings and structures. They practice working with ratios by looking at a map...
Math by Design
Transformations – Reflections
Scholars use interactive resources to figure out how to mathematically draw a reflection of a geometric shape viewed in a mirror. To conclude the activity, class members are asked to deduce the result of multiple reflections across...
Curated OER
Areas of Geometric Shapes with the Same Perimeter
A triangle, square, hexagon, and circle all have a perimeter of one unit. Eighth graders must attempt to find the area of each and arrange them in order from least to greatest areas. A terrific task for applying four different...
Curated OER
Connect the Mathematical Dots
Teachers can choose visual activities that demonstrate the elegance associated with the coordinate plane.
Curated OER
Exploring Geometric Figures
Tenth graders explore mathematics by participating in hands-on daily activities. Learners identify a list of different shapes and classify them by shape, size, sides and vertices. They utilize tangrams and geometric pieces to gain...
California Education Partners
Yum Yum Cereal
Design an efficient cereal box. Scholars use set volume criteria to design a cereal box by applying their knowledge of surface area to determine the cost to create the box. They then determine whether their designs will fit on...
Education Development Center
Rational Exponents
It's rational to root for your class to learn about exponents. Scholars study rational exponents by reading a fictional dialogue between classmates. They analyze the conversation to understand the connection between rational exponents...
Curated OER
Creeping
Students observe, measure, and graph a model of slow down slope movement representing soil creep. This task assesses students' abilities to collect, record, and organize data, set up graph axes, plot data points, draw line graphs, apply...
Curated OER
Statistical Pictures of School and Life
Students explore how mathematical data is used to summarize and illustrate everyday life. They apply mathematical concepts and skills to analyze data. Students conduct a five question survey of 50 people or more and graph the data.
Curated OER
Peat Pots
Students place a peat pot in water to observe and calculate the rate of capillarity in a model of a soil. This task assesses students' abilities to make simple observations, collect, record, and represent data, use a data table to...
Curated OER
Turning the Tables: A Guide to Devising Your Own Story
Students observe and demonstrate how to decipher and organize the information in a math word problem and apply mathematical concepts to different story problems. They discuss the parts of a story problem, and write their own original...
Curated OER
Fruitvale Extension
Pupils determine sources and extent of ground water contaminate, apply mathematics to model in real world simulation, and use technology to present results.
University of Wisconsin
What’s a Square Foot Anyway? Laying Out the Design Plan
Clever! Participants don square-foot cardboard shoes to mark out the rain garden plot that they have spent the last few weeks designing. In this way, they are practicing scale modeling as well! Note that this activity is part of a unit,...
EngageNY
Addition and Subtraction of Rational Numbers
Apply addition and subtraction of integers to solve problems with rational numbers. Pupils apply the rules for adding and subtracting integers to add and subtract rational numbers. Class members represent the problem with equations and...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Building Ecological Pyramids
Looking for a fresh take on traditional food/energy pyramids? Conduct an innovative activity where pupils build their own! The lesson uses research data from Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique for a real-life safari touch. Scholars...
Balanced Assessment
Don't Fence Me In
Investigate the complexities of design problems using geometric concepts. The task asks scholars to design a fence for a horse based on the distance it can travel within one hour. It is a seemingly simple task — until individuals learn...
Concord Consortium
City of New Orleans
In the United States, most trains operate at a top speed of 100 miles per hour. Scholars use information on the distance and time of a train trip to determine if the train ever reaches a specific speed. They connect pieces of information...
EngageNY
Dividing Segments Proportionately
Fractions, ratios, and proportions: what do they have to do with segments? Scholars discover the midpoint formula through coordinate geometry. Next, they expand on the formula to apply it to dividing the segment into different...
EngageNY
Unknown Angle Problems with Inscribed Angles in Circles
We know theorems about circles—now what? Class members prove a theorem, with half the class taking the case where a point is inside the circle and half the class taking the case where a point is outside the circle. The lesson then...
EngageNY
The Inscribed Angle Alternate – A Tangent Angle
You know the Inscribed Angle Theorem and you know about tangent lines; now let's consider them together! Learners first explore angle measures when one of the rays of the angle is a tangent to a circle. They then apply their...
EngageNY
Matrix Multiplication Is Distributive and Associative
Learn the ins and outs of matrix multiplication. After discovering the commutative property does not apply to matrix multiplication in a previous lesson in the series, pupils now test the associative and distributive properties. The...
EngageNY
Volume of Right Prisms
Apply volume and area formulas to find the volume of any right prism. The 26th lesson of a 29-part module examines methods for finding the volume of right prisms with varying shapes of bases. Learners use the formula V = Bh to find...
EngageNY
Slicing a Rectangular Prism with a Plane
What do you get when you slice a prism? Pupils discover that the answer depends on how the prism is sliced. The second half of the 29-part module focuses on three-dimensional objects. Learners use their two-dimensional vocabulary and...