Teach Engineering
Spring Away!
The last segment of the nine-part unit makes a connection between springs and linear equations. Groups hang weights from the spring and measure its length. Then, using the data collected, they calculate the slope to find the k-value of...
101 Questions
Electric Bill
A brilliant resource is at your disposal. Future consumers investigate and discuss an electric bill. Given only partial information, they estimate the monthly bill. They then consider how tiered pricing will affect the bill.
Curated OER
When Close Enough is Good Enough
Students describe the difference between an estimate and a guess. They create reasonable estimates based on observation and hands-on activities. They synthesize estimated based on interaction with online activities.
Education Development Center
Choosing Samples
What makes a good sample? Your classes collaborate to answer this question through a task involving areas of rectangles. Given a set of 100 rectangles, they sample a set of five rectangles to estimate the average area of the figures. The...
NASA
Foam Rocket
When going for distance, does it make a difference at what angle you launch the rocket? Teams of three launch foam rockets, varying the launch angle and determining how far they flew. After conducting the series of flights three times,...
Under the Dome
Sphero Draw and Drive
Determine how far the ball rolled. The class watches a video of a person controlling a sphere rolling on the floor. Pupils develop some questions about the video and make estimates to the solutions of the questions. The teacher provides...
Curated OER
Estimation and Measurement
Get second graders outside to estimate and measure how long 800 meters is on their school campus. They then measure the actual distance in yards to see how close their estimate was. An interesting teaching idea!
Curated OER
Estimating With Decimals
How can we estimate the answers when working with decimals? That's what the question is as the class reviews two-digit decimal addition. Have them estimate by rounding to a whole number either before or after they have completed their...
Curated OER
Skip it to multiply it
First graders make sensible estimates and check the reasonableness of answers.
They make up, tell and record number stories up to 9 about given objects. They skip count in twos, threes and fives.
Science Friday
Make a Model of a Home Made From Shipping Containers
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...
Noyce Foundation
Circular Reasoning
Examine the origin and application of pi in five different levels. The five lessons in the resource begin with an analysis of the relationship between the radius and circumference of a circle. The following lessons lead learners through...
Curated OER
Estimation
Students estimate quantity, length, and area. Students practice making comparison estimations of different items and estimate whether or not the amount is greater or less than a certain amount. Students practice making estimations.
Curated OER
Finding Your Stride Length
Students participate in an estimation activity to determine the length of a hallway or to estimate how many people can fit in the school stadium or gym.
Curated OER
A Fishy Problem
Students survey the problems involved in finding a solution to a practical problem using a mathematical process. Students make sensible estimates and check the reasonableness of their answers. Students report the results of their...
Curated OER
Estimate a Dinner Plate
Students work with a partner to solve the real-world problem of planning a favorite meal given a specific budget. They review and practice estimation strategies to determine the reasonableness of calculations in a given situation.
Curated OER
Predicting: Making a Hypothesis
Middle schoolers analyze information from various sources to create a hypothesis about the origin of a family artifact. Students create a hypothesis about the origin of the item and write a paragraph explaining why they believe the...
Curated OER
10 Huh?
Young scholars use powers of ten to make reasonable estimations for list of questions. They share their problem solving techniques with the class.
Illustrative Mathematics
Running on the Football Field
Make your class into Pythagorean theorem fanatics in no time. What a great resource to get your sports enthusiasts into the math game! Read the commentary so you can you can strategize how to apply the three math practices.
National Security Agency
Go One-on-One with Decimals
Shoot and score with three basketball-themed lessons about decimals. Young mathematicians compare game statistics, make trash can hoops, and play a data spinner game to practice identifying digits and values within decimal numbers.
Noyce Foundation
The Shape of Things
Investigate the attributes of polygons. A thorough set of lessons presents problem scenarios for elementary through high school classes. The first lessons focus on basic characteristics of polygons, including the line of symmetry. As the...
Noyce Foundation
Lyle's Triangles
Try five problems on triangles. Levels A and B focus on shapes that can be created from right triangles. Level C touches upon the relationship between the area of a six-pointed star and the area of each triangle of which it is composed....
University of Colorado
Looking Inside Planets
All of the gas giant's atmospheres consist of hydrogen and helium, the same gases that make up all stars. The third in a series of 22, the activity challenges pupils to make scale models of the interiors of planets in order to...
Curated OER
Inventions 2: The Impact
Tomorrow's engineers visit an intriguing website about inventions that have changed the way we live. Biographies of child inventors on the suggested website aren't easy to find, so make sure to find some stories to share in place of...
Balanced Assessment
Who's Left?
If you're not right-handed, are you wrong-handed? Young statisticians calculate the percentage of left-handed people using a given data set in the assessment task. They plot data on a scatter plot and consider how the line of best fit...