More than just data, scatter plots are full of information that can be used to answer a variety of questions. This lesson uses a plot with information about bird egg sizes to answer questions about the relationship between length and...

Your learners create their own spinner using different colors and analyze the likelihood of landing on certain colors. The solutions are presented as fractions.

Go with the flow and use a helpful resource. A set of two activities has learners investigate flow rates. They first determine the flow rate of a faucet by measuring how long it takes to fill a bucket. Using the results, they make a...

Try your hand at scale models. Scholars create a scale model of an object using a scale factor of their choice. As part of the project, they give presentations on their processes and calculations. This is the last installment of the...

Students enjoy making 3-D figures while learning about rectangular prisms, pyramids, vertices, edges, and faces. After a lecture/demo, students use marshmallows, toothpicks and a worksheet imbedded in this instructional activity to...

Do not let the pressure get to you. The first instructional activity in a unit of 22 introduces the concept of air pressure. Using background knowledge, the resource gives teachers the information they need to discuss how people measure...

Whatever floats your boat. Young engineers learn about density by measuring the masses and volumes of boxes filled with different materials. Using their knowledge of densities, they hypothesize whether objects with given densities will...

Learners experiment with an Excel spreadsheet model that demonstrates the effects of interest on payments. They calculate actual costs, interest paid, and time necessary to pay off credit purchases and draw conclusions about the...

Students understand how they can incorporate dietary guidelines in their daily life.  In this investigative lesson students set dietary goals and incorporate an activity to learn how to create a new seed variety while studying...

An efficient and straightforward decimals learning exercise! Young learners round amounts of money and measurements to the nearest dollar or meter. Each section contains 20 problems, making it easy to divide up this asignment into...

How high can your pupils jump? Learners design an experiment to answer this question. After collecting the data, they create box plots and scatter plots to analyze the data. To finish the lesson, they use the data to draw conclusions.

Sew up pupil interest with an engaging, hands-on instructional activity. Learners first design a sports bag given constraints on the dimensions of fabric. They then evaluate provided sample responses to identify strengths and weaknesses...

Students construct a rocket from a balloon propelled along a guide string. They use this model to learn about Newton's three laws of motion, examining the effect of different forces on the motion of the rocket. They measure the distance...

Learners predict when an object will float or sink based on comparison of density of the object to the density of the substance in which it is placed. The access a website and sketch the object in the first column of their table and then...

Students find the area of three figure by the traditional formulaic methods. Then they count the number of grid squares to double check. They show an intuitive sense of Pick's Algorithm by counting every two boundary squares as one unit....

A bouncing ball serves as more than entertainment when learning to apply quadratic functions to real-world events. This is the second of a two-part lesson, which can also be accessed from the website. The instructions say to measure the...

Use coordinate grid paper to plot points and identify shapes that are already plotted on the paper by saying their coordinates. Pupils also measure the distance between points and play the game Battleship. There are several web links and...

Here is an exciting exploration of a fascinating topic for your emerging ecologists: bird migration! They begin by visiting the US Fish & Wildlife Service website to discover which Arctic birds come to their areas. They are assigned...

Teach your class how to use descriptive statistics through a hands-on data collection activity. Pupils collect their own data, calculate test statistics, and interpret the results in context. They compare male and female results, looking...

Investigate the meaning of a sample proportion using this hands-on activity. Scholars collect data and realize that the larger the sample size the more closely the data resembles a normal distribution. They compare the sample proportion...

The great red spot on Jupiter is 12,400 miles long and 7,500 miles wide. In this sixth part of a 22-part series, individuals model the rotation of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. To round out the activity, they discuss their findings as a...

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....

There are many different ways to show a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem.  Here is a nice hands-on paper cutting activity that shows a graphic representation. You can even challenge your young Pythagoreans to come up with their own...

Investigate the effect of false positives on probability calculation with an activity that asks scholars to collect simulated data generated by a calculator. To finish, participants analyze the probability of certain outcomes which lead...