Houston Area Calculus Teachers
Collecting Driving Data
Give AP Calculus classes the opportunity to check the accuracy of their calculations! A calculus activity involves the collection of data, the application of mathematics, and the analysis of the accuracy of results. Young mathematicians...
Radford University
Data Driven
Use the data for a good cause. Groups first analyze provided data and decide which function type would best model the situation. They then investigate a problem relevant to their lives by collecting data and analyzing the results using...
Radford University
Modeling Statistical Data
Can people predict the number of future divorces? Scholars research and analyze data on the number of divorces and teenage pregnancies in Virginia over time. They use the data to create graphs, determine the best-fit equations, and make...
Curated OER
Making Money and Spreading the Flu!
Paper folding, flu spreading in a school, bacteria growth, and continuously compounded interest all provide excellent models to study exponential functions. This is a comprehensive resource that looks at many different aspects of these...
Curated OER
Murder in the First Degree - The Death of Mr. Spud
Secondary learners investigate exponential functions in a real-world scenario. They collect data on the temperature of a cooling baked potato, enter the data into lists, and graph the data using a scatter plot before finding an...
Texas Instruments
Is It or Isn't It Proportional
How can you tell if number relationships are proportional? Mathematicians investigate proportional relationships. They compare and contrast functions and graphs to determine the characteristics of proportional relationships, as well as...
Curated OER
Application of Matrix Multiplication
The class explores a real-world application in which the data represents rental prices of beach condos. They problem solve by multiplying matrices to determine the cost of each property in each season. Several scenarios are presented in...
Curated OER
Ecosystems and Remote Sensing
Students obtain remote sensing data to compare and contrast global biomass data with global temperature data.
PBL Pathways
College Costs 2
What is the financial benefit for attending a community college for the first two years before transferring to a four-year college? The second part of the educational lesson asks young scholars to explore this question through data...
EngageNY
Tides, Sound Waves, and Stock Markets
Help pupils see the world through the eyes of a mathematician. As they examine tide patterns, sound waves, and stock market patterns using trigonometric functions, learners create scatter plots and write best-fit functions.
EngageNY
Choosing a Model
There's a function for that! Scholars examine real-world situations to determine which type of function would best model the data in the 23rd installment of a 35-part module. It involves considering the nature of the data in addition to...
PBL Pathways
Students and Teachers 2
Examine trends in student-to-teacher ratios over time. Building from the first task in the two-part series, classes now explore the pattern of student-to-teacher ratios using a non-linear function. After trying to connect the pattern to...
PBL Pathways
Doctors and Nurses
How many nurses does it take to support one doctor? A project-based activity asks learners to analyze state data to answer this question. Classes create polynomial functions from the data of doctors and nurses over a seven-year period....
EngageNY
Linear and Exponential Models—Comparing Growth Rates
Does a linear or exponential model fit the data better? Guide your class through an exploration to answer this question. Pupils create an exponential and linear model for a data set and draw conclusions, based on predictions and the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Foxes and Rabbits 3
Model periodic populations. Here, in the context of foxes and rabbits, pupils look at graphs of the populations of these animals in a national park over a span of 24 months. Groups analyze the graphs and determine trigonometric functions...
Concord Consortium
Heights and Weights
Height is dependent on weight—or is it the other way around? Given data from a physicians handbook, individuals compare the height and weight of males and females at different areas. They calculate differences and ratios to assist with...
Curated OER
Domain and Range
Relations, and functions, and line tests, oh my! An instructional slideshow demonstrates the definitions of a relation, a function, and the domain and range of a relation. Viewers then learn how to use mappings and vertical line tests to...
Curated OER
Sunrise, Sunset
What locations on Earth get the longest number of hours of daylight in the summer? Hint: It's not the equator! Use real-world sunrise and sunset data to develop trigonometric models that can be used to estimate the number of hours of...
CCSS Math Activities
Social Security Trust Fund
Will Social Security still be around when you retire? Given data on the predicted balance of the social security fund over time, scholars plot the points on a coordinate grid and determine if a quadratic regression fits the data. They...
Balanced Assessment
Monitor Pricing
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...
Illustrative Mathematics
Foxes and Rabbits 2
The fox population chases the rabbit population. Groups model the populations of foxes and rabbits with two trigonometric functions. Individuals graph both trigonometric models on the same graph, and then teams determine an explanation...
Concord Consortium
Betweenness II
Read between the curves ... quadratic curves! Young scholars analyze the graphs of two quadratic functions by writing their own function whose outputs are between the two given. They then consider intersecting quadratic functions and...
Kenan Fellows
Least Squares Linear Regression in R
The task? Determine the how effective hospitals are at reducing the rate of hospital-acquired infections. The method? Data analysis! Using an open source software program, individuals use provided data and create scatterplots to look for...
Teach Engineering
Can You Resist This?
Some things are hard to resist. Small collaborative groups build circuits and calculate the voltage using Ohm's Law. Budding engineers explore the connection between the voltage across different resistors and linear functions with...