Curated OER
Jazz Exploration: A Collage Project
Middle schoolers explore and experience jazz through collage. They listen to improvisational jazz, discuss the origins of jazz, then design and create a collage that shows jazz being played. This project will result in amazing works of...
Noyce Foundation
The Wheel Shop
Teach solving for unknowns through a problem-solving approach. The grouping of five lessons progresses from finding an unknown through simple reasoning to solving simultaneous equations involving three and four variables. Each lesson...
Noyce Foundation
Movin 'n Groovin
Examine the consequences of varying speed. An engaging set of five problem sets challenges young mathematicians by targeting a different grade level from K-12. In the initial lesson, scholars make conclusions about the time it takes two...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Made Up Math
Is there a way to connect creative thinking, logical reasoning, mathematical understanding, and humor? You bet there is! Kids begin by creating creative math quizzes, which require creative thinking to solve. For example, 1+1=24, one...
Illustrative Mathematics
Friends Meeting on Bikes
It is the job of your mathematicians to figure out how fast Anya is riding her bike when meeting her friend. The problem shares the distance, time spent riding, and Taylor's speed leaving the last variable for your learners to solve. Use...
Noyce Foundation
On Balance
Investigate the world of unknown quantities with a creative set of five lessons that provides problem situations for varying grade levels. Each problem presents a scenario of fruit with different weights and a balance scale. Using the...
Noyce Foundation
First Rate
Explore distance and time factors to build an understanding of rates. A comprehensive set of problems target learners of all grade levels. The initial problem provides distance and time values and asks for the winner of a race. Another...
Noyce Foundation
Tri-Triangles
Develop an understanding of algebraic sequences through an exploration of patterns. Five leveled problems target grade levels from elementary through high school. Each problem asks young mathematicians to recognize a geometric pattern....
Discovery Education
Clutter Cutter
Challenge young learners to cut the clutter with this fun engineering project. As employees of a home and office supply company, young engineers are asked to develop devices that organize everyday items. After participating in a...
Illustrative Mathematics
Security Camera
A different-than-normal problem that allows learners to practice their reasoning to find an answer. The problem bases itself off a graph drawing of a store that needs to install security cameras. The challenge is to find which placement...
North Carolina State University
Construction
Engineering design projects serve as great opportunities for collaborative problem solving. In this case, students work in small groups designing, building, and eventually testing a structure that meets a teacher-specified objective. It...
Curated OER
St. Patrick’s Day
Combine math, creative writing, and leprechauns in a fun St. Patrick's Day activity! Using a bag of gold coins and marshmallows, kids write a math story about a leprechaun that includes a multi-step equation to solve.
Illustrative Mathematics
Paper Clip
With minimal setup and maximum freedom, young geometers are encouraged to think outside the box on a seemingly simple application problem. Though the task seems simple, measuring a given paper clip and finding how many 10 meters can...
Illustrative Mathematics
Dimes and Pennies
Help your fourth graders make cents out of fractions and decimals with this short word problem. After learning that dimes are one-tenth and pennies one-hundredth of a dollar, learners write a fraction and decimal for a given number of...
Noyce Foundation
Digging Dinosaurs
Build a function to solve problems rooted in archeology. A comprehensive set of five lessons presents problems requiring individuals to use functions. The initial lesson asks learners to find the possible number of dinosaurs from a...
Noyce Foundation
Miles of Tiles
Create number sentences and equations to solve geometric problems. Each activity in the series of five asks young mathematicians to consider different-sized tiles to build structures according to specific criteria. The first activities,...
Noyce Foundation
What's Your Angle?
Math can be a work of art! Reach your artistic pupils as they explore angle measures. A creative set of five problems of varying levels has young learners study interior and exterior angle measures of polygons. The introductory levels...
Noyce Foundation
Poly-Gone
Investigate polygons from rectangles to triangles to octagons. Each level of the five-problem series targets a different grade level. Beginning with the level A problem, learners examine the relationship between area and perimeter by...
Noyce Foundation
Lyle's Triangles
Try five problems on triangles. Levels A and B focus on shapes that can be created from right triangles. Level C touches upon the relationship between the area of a six-pointed star and the area of each triangle of which it is composed....
Education Development Center
Integer Combinations—Postage Stamps Problem (HS Version)
It seems the post office has run out of stamps! Learners build all the values of postage available if the post office only sells five- and seven-cent stamps. The task provides an opportunity to create an expression in two variables and...
Education Development Center
Choosing Samples
What makes a good sample? Your classes collaborate to answer this question through a task involving areas of rectangles. Given a set of 100 rectangles, they sample a set of five rectangles to estimate the average area of the figures. The...
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...
Integrated Physics and Chemistry
Law of Conservation of Matter
Does mass change during a chemical reaction? Demonstrate the Law of Conservation of Matter while encouraging class members to be creative with a two-part lesson. First, learners use Alka-Seltzer® tablets and water to demonstrate the...
Illustrative Mathematics
The Stamp Collection
By using language like "half of the stamps," children are exposed to patterns in arithmetic that requires solving a two-step word problem. This type of language opens a new door for transitioning learners toward understanding fractions...