Teenagers love to think about driving and buying their first car. The intent of this resource is to create an equation for the list price of a car and add the appropriate state tax. Once your teens understand the calculation, ask them to...

Equity. Increased productivity. Price stability. Environmental protection. Decreased poverty. Governments establish socio-economic goals and then must design and fund programs to address these goals. Groups investigate various...

Determine the better deal. Pupils write the equation for the cost of printing tickets from different printers. They compare the costs graphically and algebraicaly to determine which printer has the best deal based upon the quantity of...

Make an informed decision when choosing a medical insurance provider. An engaging lesson asks your classes to write piecewise models to represent the cost of different medical plans. The project-based learning activity is a variation of...

Feel like a rocket scientist for the day. Using only paper and tape, scholars create a framework for a spaceship to Mars. Each sheet of paper costs $10 million and each piece of tape costs $100,000. Make sure you stay within budget!

Math requires strength training, too. Scholars consider three different pricing systems for a gym. Given several scenarios, they determine which gym would be cheaper and find how many visits it takes for the costs to be equal.

How much gas does it take to drive around town? The class uses a variety of mathematical procedures to take a look at the use of gas for transportation. Class members use a different unit to determine the cost of driving a car as opposed...

As an introduction to monetary policy, groups investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of current monetary and fiscal policies on promoting full employment, price stability, and economic performance. They then apply monetary tools...

Buying enough candy for trick-or-treaters without spending a lot of money can be the ultimate Halloween trick. Middle schoolers solve two holiday-themed word problems to determine which brand of candy is the better deal, based on cost...

Use mathematics to help plan a field trip. Scholars use the results of a survey to determine where a class should go on a field trip. They use provided data about entrance fees and mileage to calculate the cost per person of such a...

Out with the old and in with the new. Learners use a set of prices of computer monitors from 1994 to make a prediction. They then use one current price and what they know about the old prices to make a more recent prediction. Their...

Good advertisers can make mathematics seem irrelevant. Teach your classes to use math to see through these tactics and make good decisions. The posed task has pupils analyze sweepstakes statistics to determine and compare the cost of...

A video presentation shows duck-shaped soap that has a $1, $5, $10, $20, or $50 bill in its center. Learners consider different population distribution of the bills to determine a reasonable price for the duck. 

Eat up the task on systems of equations. Given information on the total number of sandwiches and the total income, learners write and solve a linear system of equations to find the number of each type of sandwich sold at a shop. They...

Make sure your house is warm in the winter. Pupils analyze graphs of heating costs for two similar houses and make hypotheses for why the costs differ. They then build models of houses with appropriate insulation to reduce heating costs.

Using the article "Escaping Afghanistan: Children Pay Price," discuss the lives of Afghan refugees and the impact of Taliban rule. A detailed list of questions is provided, but you will have to search for the article. Extension...

Great real-world math application! Have the class compare and contrast their estimated home price and income data with actual data. In groups, they participate in simulations to discover how the housing market and mortgages operate....

Have your aspiring contractors compute the length of two walls in a compound-shaped attic when given a scale drawing of it and the other dimensions. They find the area, determine the number of rolls of insulation they will need to...

Give your future household repair specialists a real-life chance to apply the concepts of ratio and proportion. Using a scale drawing, they calculate the missing dimensions of two walls of a compound-shaped attic. They then figure how...

Use this resource to present your number crunchers with how to write a constraint equation and to determine viable solutions. The price of an object limits the amount that can be purchased. The speed at which you walk limits the number...

Setting financial goals is a common occurrence in middle school that your learners can practice using this activity. They will be able to solve for how many hours Seth needs to work to save up for a skateboard, helmet, and trip. The...

Show learners that function notation and multiplication notation are not the same. In the example, Katie is given a function, C(x), which is the cost of producing x amount of DVDs. Ask learners if Katie can divide the function notation,...

Young historians examine the cost of goods and services through the Consumer Price Index (CPI), output measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and unemployment measured by the unemployment rate to gain an understanding of the economic...

High schoolers calculate commission for a stock transaction through a broker using the relationship between percentages and decimals. They decide which stocks are preferable based on the price to earnings ratios listed on the stock...