From the apple on your desk and the coffee cup in your hand, to the cabinets along the classroom wall, basic three-dimensional shapes are found everywhere in the world around us. Introduce young mathematicians to the these common figures...

Now you'll never have trouble cutting a cake evenly again. Here is a set of five problems all about partitioning shapes into a given number of pieces and identifying the fractional amount of each piece. As learners progress through the...

A learning task that involves creative ways of thinking permits children to use paper models as a way to visualize the fraction one-half. Learners can fold or cut their models in such a way that the unshaded regions, and shaded...

A basic set-up leads to a surprisingly complex analysis in this variation on the question of surrounding a central circle with a ring of touching circles. Useful for putting trigonometric functions in a physical context, as well as...

Intricate details of a modern technology that many of us take for granted in our phones, computers (and some cars) are laid bare in a short but deeply investigative activity. The math behind a seemingly simple GPS device...

Build a scale model of a home built out of shipping containers. A hands-on activity has scholars watch a video about a home built from shipping containers and then design their own home. They build scale models of their designed homes...

This is great go-to activity for those spring or fall days when the weather beckons your geometry class outside. Learners start with a small tree, devising strategies to accurately estimate the leaf count. They must then tackle the...

Boxing takes on a whole new meaning! The second installment of the three-part series has groups create lidless boxes from construction paper that can hold the most rice. After testing out their constructions, they build a new box....

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...

Geometric shapes make great visual models for introducing young mathematicians to the concept of fractions. Looking at a series of four circles, learners are asked to determine whether or not one half of each circle is shaded. To support...

"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...

Just about every public building that your students are familiar with has an access ramp which complies with ADA requirements. As it turns out, designing such a ramp is an excellent activity to incorporate slope, the Pythagorean Theorem,...

Unscramble a carnival mystery! Scholars observe a video of an overhead view of a carnival ride, The Scrambler. They then must determine mathematically where a specific car will stop after a certain amount of time.

A complex question looking for the total cost of a stained glass window by calculating area and circumference of a circle. With detailed components, this activity will challenge your designers to figure out if they have enough money to...

Geometric volume calculations are brought into the real world in a quick set of application problems. Learners are asked to help a patient figure out how to drink a prescribed amount of water both at work and at home. This activity...

Model geometric concepts through a hands-on approach. Learners apply similar triangle relationships to solve for an unknown side length. Before they find the solution, they describe the transformation to help identify corresponding sides.

Students will use their knowledge of plane figure attributes to create and view shapes by cutting and rotating shapes to stimulate discussions on names and attributes of various shapes they do not regularly encounter.

Test your logic, polygon properties, and pattern recognition skills working on this challenge. Solution included.

Based off of the hit television show NUMB3RS, this lesson has students calculate the probability that a spider web will catch a fly. The webs are modeled as standard geometric figures (circle, rectangle, triangle), and assumptions are...

Use the shapes provided and figure out how they fit together to make a 3 X 3 cube at this one page website. The solution is readily available right at the website.

If you can visualize a cube and turn it around in your mind, then this is the challenge for you. This one page website has the solution available to check your thinking.