Do pilots create appropriate spacing between aircraft by traveling a longer or shorter path? An interactive presents two airplanes that violate safety protocols. Pupils must determine how to change the path of one plane to create...

Build problem-solving skills with science! Step-by-step videos walk investigators through each stage of completing a science fair project. Scientists learn to formulate a testable question, design an experiment, collect data, draw...

What do you do when faced with a bully? Scholars answer this question when presented with a scenario regarding two learners and their spelling test grades. They take part in a grand conversation that leads to problem solving and...

What do you do to change arrival times of airplanes when a different route is not available? The fifth interactive in a series of six presents problems where pupils must find solutions to conflicts of safety rules. They must decide how...

Here is a fun project. Sammy observes a chipmunk and a squirrel to see how many holes each needs in order to stash the same number of acorns.  Scholars could find the answer algebraically or create a table to analyze the...

What if you had a design problem you wanted to solve, but were unable to draw because you were unable to see? Teach your learners with visual impairments that they can use Wikki Stix®, a braille ruler, Legos®, and Constructo Straws to...

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...

Oh, no! An asteroid is on a collision course with Earth!. Class members must rise to the challenge of designing a shelter that will protect people from the impact and permit them to live in this shelter for one year. In this first lesson...

You would probably do anything for your Nana, including fixing her mistakes! Nana provided the wrong ratio to mix red and white paint, and she didn't realize it until after she mixed the paint. Your class now needs to figure out how to...

Learners sometimes have difficulty making sense of a word problem. In a guided learning activity, pupils are asked to think about how to find an answer and explain their thinking, rather than finding the answer. It allows them to...

As an introduction to using a network to determine the fewest number of nodes that meet a given condition, small groups work together to determine the fewest number of ice cream vans, and their locations, to be able to serve the people...

Piece together American and Canadian culture by learning about peace parks! Scholars discuss differences between Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park as a group. The newly-informed pupils answers questions about this...

Brown rice contains vitamins B and E, while white rice lasts longer in storage. The availability of rice around the world makes it a great candidate for genetic engineering. Scholars apply their knowledge of genetic engineering to solve...

Can the force of falling water through a tube vary by altering the diameter of the tube or its height? That is what physical scientists aim to discover in this activity, the third in successively more revealing activities on the power of...

As an introduction to Steiner Trees, class members are challenged to find the shortest paths to connect multiple points. The teacher introduces the problem by showing how to connect three points. Groups then go outside and construct a...

Class members blend their knowledge of functions and problem-solving skills to provide business advice to the Turbo Blender manufacturers. Through a project-based approach, learners examine marginal cost data to produce a function....

Here is a great problem-solving activity for young mathematicians. Intended solely for instructional purposes, the activity is appropriate for learners to add four numbers together. Not only must they add four numbers together,...

A quick mimi-lesson models how to replace a fixed mindset with a growth mindset, a mindset that says improvement is possible with practice. Included is an activity that asks individuals to rewrite 10 fixed mindset statements with 10...

The object is to model fraction division by asking “How many are in one group?” It is a difficult concept to understand, but developing the model that shows one cup to a certain amount of container or one container to a certain amount of...

Division can be seen in two ways; as splitting a whole into a certain number of pieces, or splitting it into pieces of a certain size. Help your class reach this understanding with these two simple word problems. Encourage the use of...

What is the most efficient way to ensure everyone is connected? Individual pupils determine the least expensive route to pave roads in a fictional city. In doing so, they learn to find the minimal spanning tree for the situation. They...

You can't go wrong with Star Wars! A video set to the Star Wars theme song presents a problem solving situation. The task? Determine how many small Post-It notes will fit on a bulletin board. The problem requires individuals to compare...

Need some activities to go along with your unit? A collection of hands-on activities from PBS offers opportunities to add to your electricity, sound, and force units. The electricity activities revolve around building a...

If you use the resource, then pupils will understand conditional block instructions. In the first lab of a six-part unit, pupils learn how to use conditional statements (if/then) in block instructions for computer programming. They apply...