In a six-problem learning activity, children are guided to solve word problems that involve rounding to the nearest ten and nearest hundred. A commentary and answer key provide different approaches that learners may take in solving the...

Common Core is all about getting your learners to open their minds and think about the why and how. This problem has them thinking about unknown numbers and their relationship with one another when we round and...

Mathematicians need to know that not all numbers are rational. We approximate irrational number with rational numbers. That is why a calculator may be misleading. This task give learners an opportunity to see how rounding a number and...

Reinforce number sense with a collection of math lessons for kindergarteners through fifth graders. Young mathematicians take part in hands-on activities, learning games, and complete skills-based worksheets to enhance proficiency...

Geometry gets an engineering treatment in an exercise involving a belt wrapped around two wheels of different dimensions. Along with the wheels, this belt problem connects concepts of right triangles, tangent lines, arc length, and...

How does your state compare? Using census data, scholars determine the total population and the number of 11-year-old boys and girls in two different states. They round and compare values, and then make up a question about the two...

State the population of the state. Pupils research census data on the total population, the number of children their age, and the number of children of the same age and gender in their states. They write these numbers in standard,...

Long considered the symbol of safe harbor and steadfast waiting, the lighthouse gets a mathematical treatment. The straightforward question of distance to the horizon is carefully presented, followed by a look into the...

Wonder how many pieces of candy a teacher can eat. Pupils watch a video of candy in a bowl as some candy is removed to be eaten and others are added. Learners devise questions about the situation along with estimated solutions. Scholars...

Time for more candy! Learners view a video of a candy bowl where some of the candy is removed and more placed back. Scholars come up with questions about the scenario to answer and request additional information from the teacher. At the...

Via the concrete setting of estimating the population of the US, your algebra learners are introduced to a logistic growth model. Comparing and contrasting logistic, exponential, linear and quadratic models, to see which fits the data...

How much rain can that cloud make? Through a simulation, the class estimates the amount of candy rain contained in different cup clouds. After probing the clouds using different methods, class members adjust their estimates. Participants...

To gain insight into the many different types of habitats, individuals must first get to know their own. Here, scholars explore their school environment, draw a map, compare and contrast their surroundings to larger ones. They then...

Our final proposal for the cost of the bridge requested is ... In the last segment in a series of 10, pairs work together to develop a proposal for a city bridge design. The class completes a cost comparison between concrete and steel to...

How many cars would be involved in a traffic jam 12 miles long? A slightly ambiguous writing prompt gives learners the opportunity to practice making reasonable assumptions to tackle a real-life problem. Few details are given, so they...

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...

Few things can motivate children to learn like the promise of a sweet and tasty treat. Given a bag of M&M®s, Skittles®, or other colorful candy, students first predict the contents of the bag before counting the pieces,...

Hooray for chocolate chip cookies! Ask your mathematicians to triple a chocolate chip cookie recipe and then reduce the recipe by one-fourth. Your class may need two days to complete, tripling the recipe the first day and reducing the...

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...

It's just a sign of the times. Given a billboard with distances and travel times to two different interstate highway junctions, learners determine the speed limit. They must incorporate the concepts of distance, rate, and time with that...

Do you know how old you are in seconds, minutes, days, weeks, or months? This intriguing question is presented as a way for learners to estimate in units of time. They'll build a better sense of what each increment of time is as they...

Collaborative learners will see the geometric addition of functions by graphing the sum of two graphed curves on the same coordinate plane. This task then naturally flows into giving learners the algebraic representation of the curves...

An exercise in finding the approximate time that a name would be called at a graduation. Estimating time may be difficult for some of the class, so this resource would not be a good choice for learning this standard. It does end with a...

The humble soda can gets the geometric treatment in an activity that links math and science calculations. After a few basic assumptions are made and discussed, surface area calculations combine with density information to develop an...