Everyone loves a good sale! A straightforward lesson provides practice with calculating a percent off of a product. Using ads from Amazon, individuals calculate the percent off the ad does not show. Pupils see the answer after revealing...

As part of an initiative to strengthen our young adults' financial understanding, this problem explores the cost of bread and minimum wage since the 1930s. Learners are asked to find the percent increase from each year and compare it...

Let your class bounce to examine the concept elastic potential energy. Individuals bounce on a pogo stick in order to calculate its elastic potential energy. Groups then compare the elastic potential energy to the gravitational...

Serve up a rate of percents. The Math at the Core resource investigates the percent of daily value of sodium and saturated fats in different foods. Pupils determine the number of serving sizes they eat of popular snack foods and...

Who knew that the Egyptian, Julian, and Gregorian year were different lengths? Your mathematicians will! They will have to calculate the difference between the years in seconds and find the percent change. Using dimensional analysis,...

A quick activity to test your learners' knowledge of percent increase. When an electronic store needs a 30% increase in computer sales, your mathematicians must calculate how many computers they need to sell next month.

Everyone loves a good deal, and your mathematician's job is to calculate the original price when given the discount. A different type of problem than the traditional "find the percent change" has your learners working backwards to...

The class gets to practice being a mathematician in ancient Greece, performing geometric application problems in the way of Eratosthenes. After following the steps of the great mathematicians, they then compare the (surprisingly...

How accurate are robots? Groups draw lines by moving robots backwards and forwards by one rotation of the wheels. Using the appropriate formula, they determine the percent error in the length of the lines in relation to the calculated...

The scientific issue of carbon-14 dating and exponential decay gets a statistics-based treatment in this problem. The class starts with a basic investigation of carbon content, but then branches out to questions of accuracy and...

Which pulley system will give us a whale of a good time? Teams compare the theoretical and actual mechanical advantages of different pulley systems. They then form a recommendation for how to move a whale from an aquarium back to the ocean.

Which modification is the best? Using the scientific method, pairs determine the effects of each control surface on the distance of a glider's flight. The activity, section 16 in a 22-part unit on aviation, allows pupils to gain a better...

Practice sales tax when using the activity with three solution choices. Learners can use a percent table, benchmark percent, or solve by calculating. Solutions don't show how to multiply by the decimal, but method can be added in....

Adolescents love to shop, especially when an item is discounted. Here, shoppers only have a set amount of money to spend. Will they be able to make a purchase with the discount and tax added in? Percent discounts can be calculated...

When three classrooms are to split up prize money, your mathematicians must find the percentage that each class deserves and calculate the total amount. There is an option to use a calculator and practice rounding. 

Taxi! Have your travelers figure out how far they can go in a taxi for $10.00. They must account for the mileage rate and tip in their calculation. They can set up a table or make an equation to solve for the exact mileage they can...

Most appropriate if you are applying the entire unit to build a rain garden at your school, this installment involves calculating the area that will drain into it. Your garden planners will need data from previous lessons, so this one...

What a big job for such a small particle. Young scientists learn about the role of nanoparticles in catalytic converters for cars. They conduct an experiment to create alginate-MnO2 catalytic spheres. 

"Fore!" All right, no one really yells this out in miniature golf, but this well-defined activity will have your charges using lots of numbers in their unique design of a miniature golf hole. Included in the activity criteria is the...

Everyone loves a sale, and this worksheet allows learners to calculate which sale is more rewarding. The activity can be adapted for different thinking contexts. The answer key describes different answer choices, some being higher...

It may be tricky for a young mind to conceptualize that less than 1% of all water on earth is useable for humans to drink. Simulating the amount of fresh water available on earth by removing measured amounts of water from a five-gallon...

What a bargain—an informative, free resource! Given prices of several objects, learners determine whether 20 percent off or $20 off would be a better bargain. They use the results to come up with a generalization of the situation.

Learners must investigate the validity of a claim made in a running magazine. They must identify and look up unprovided information, make appropriate estimations, and be able to convert units. Might be best used as a group or whole-class...

All too often stores give coupons for an item, but when you go into buy it, the item is on discount.  The store won’t take the coupon if the discount is used. So what do you do, use the coupon or take the discount? This activity...