Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Weather Graph Data

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
Teaching young mathematicians about collecting and analyzing data allows for a variety of fun and engaging activities. Here, children observe the weather every day for a month, recording their observations in the form of a bar graph....
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Curated OER

Graphing Stories Ice Breaker

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Kick off the school year with some math fun! New classmates share information about themselves by using graphs and interpreting data. The goal is to use a general graph shape, such as linear or exponential, and create labels for the axes...
Activity
Fort Bend Independent School District

Data Analysis - AP Statistics

For Students 11th - Higher Ed Standards
What better way to study survey design than to design your own survey! Bring a versatile data analysis project to your AP Statistics class, and encourage them to apply the practices from their instructions to a real-world survey...
Activity
Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching

Ten Data Analysis Activities

For Students 9th - 12th
This thirteen page data analysis learning exercise contains a number of interesting problems regarding statistics. The activities cover the concepts of average measurements, standard deviation, box and whisker plots, quartiles, frequency...
Activity
PBL Pathways

Students and Teachers 2

For Students 10th - Higher Ed Standards
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...
Activity
Houston Area Calculus Teachers

Collecting Driving Data

For Students 11th - Higher Ed
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...
Activity
Consortium for Ocean Leadership

Nannofossils Reveal Seafloor Spreading Truth

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Spread the word about seafloor spreading! Junior geologists prove Albert Wegener right in an activity that combines data analysis and deep ocean exploration. Learners analyze and graph fossil sample data taken from sites along the...
Activity
PBL Pathways

Doctors and Nurses

For Students 11th - Higher Ed Standards
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...
Activity
Curated OER

A Research Project and Article For the Natural Inquirer

For Teachers 4th - 10th
Get your class to use the scientific process to solve a scientific problem. They utilize the Natural Inquirer magazine to identify a research question which they write an introduction to and collect data to answer. They use graphs,...
Activity
PBL Pathways

College Costs 2

For Students 10th - Higher Ed Standards
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...
Activity
Ms. Amber Nakamura's Mathematics Website

Algebra Project

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What would your dream house look like? A cottage? A medieval castle? High schoolers enrolled in Algebra design the perfect house while using slopes to write equations for various aspects of the project.
Activity
US Department of Agriculture

Sink or Float?

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd Standards
Will it sink or will it float? Learners predict the outcome as they drop random objects into a container of water. Then, they keep track of the results and record the data in a t-chart to draw a final conclusion.
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Teach Engineering

Matching the Motion

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
It is not always easy to walk the straight and narrow. In the sixth portion of a nine-part unit, groups actively recreate a graph depicting motion. Individuals walk toward or away from a motion detector while trying to match a given...
Activity
PBL Pathways

Cell Phones

For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed Standards
Calling all subscribers! Model revenue based on individual cell phone subscribers. The project-based learning activity presents a challenge to scholars from a cell phone company. Individuals model data provided to them from the company...
Activity
PBL Pathways

Students and Teachers

For Students 10th - Higher Ed Standards
Predict the future of education through a mathematical analysis. Using a project-based learning strategy, classes examine the pattern of student-to-teacher ratios over a period of years. Provided with the relevant data, learners create a...
Activity
PBL Pathways

College Costs

For Students 10th - Higher Ed Standards
Predict the year that college costs will double in your state using linear modeling. The first part of this two-part project based learning activity asks young mathematicians to use data from the College Board. They graph the data,...
Activity
PBL Pathways

Medical Insurance

For Students 10th - Higher Ed Standards
Design a plan for finding the best health insurance for your money. Learners compare two health plans by writing and graphing piecewise functions representing the plan rules. Using Excel software, they create a technical report...
Activity
PBL Pathways

Medical Insurance 3

For Students 11th - Higher Ed Standards
Create a technical report explaining the components of a medical plan through a function. The project-based learning activity gives a medical insurance scenario that young mathematicians model using piecewise functions. Their analyses...
Activity
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Teach Engineering

Linear Regression of BMD Scanners

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Objects may be more linear than they appear. Scholars investigate the relationship between the number of bone mineral density scanners in the US and time. Once they take the natural logarithm of the number of scanners, a linear...
Activity
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Curated OER

Mathemafish Population

For Teachers 8th - 11th Standards
It's shark week! In this problem, young mathematically minded marine biologists need to study the fish population by analyzing data over time. The emphasis is on understanding the average rate of change of the population and drawing...
Activity
Federal Reserve Bank

FRED in the Classroom: Debt and Deficit

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Here is a hands-on activity where your class members will discover different ways to measure the government's financial situation and work to add data and redraw graphs in order to calculate the ratio of gross federal debt held by...
Activity
Federal Reserve Bank

FRED in the Classroom: Measures of Inflation

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Don't just tell class members about how to measure inflation, have them experience it firsthand by asking them to work with real data and construct graphs!
Activity
Teach Engineering

Applying Statistics to Nano-Circuit Dimensions in Fabrication

For Students 11th - 12th Standards
Do flexible circuits change dimensions during fabrication? Groups use GeoGebra software to measure the length of pictures of flexible nano-circuits. To determine if the circuits change dimensions, future engineers use Microsoft...
Lesson Plan
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Baylor College

Heart and Lungs

For Teachers K - 6th
With a partner, youngsters measure their pulse and breathing rates, both at rest and after running in place for a minute. While this activity is not novel, the lesson plan includes a large-scale classroom graphing activity and other...